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Originally Posted by capt_noonie  At the point when I had the fluid in my lungs was when I was totally out of it. Good thing I don't remember the worst of it. I am surprised myself at all that can happen with pancreatitis. Well I had a very sever case of it though. Most people have it for a few days, a week at most.
I didn't know that going to a high altitude quickly would cause fluid in the lungs and swelling in your hands. That's scary. I'm usually afraid of heights so I doubt I would be going somewhere too high up anytime soon. I really want to go to Machu Picchu someday but I hear it's a pretty high elevation too. |
Altitude won't cause it in most people, unless you're talking about going really high, like 18000 feet and up. It's not well understood at all why it happens, and it really caught me off guard since I have done multiday trips at the kind of altitudes before where it happened (11500 sleep, 13000 hiking). When it happens it almost always does the second or third night you're at altitude (it was third for me). It's called high altitude pulmonary edema, and it's extremely rare for anything under about 8500 feet. If you do Macchu Picchu you'll probably spend a night or two in Cuzco first to acclimatize, but that's really high (about 11000 feet). You guys would probably be ok since it's pretty rare, but it's not something I can do without spending a couple of nights around 8000 feet or so first. It has nothing to do with fitness level either, back when I had it happen I was walking 5 miles up a steep incline on my treadmill every single day with 60 pounds on my back and I weighed about 170 lbs, so I was in really strong hiking shape.