Surviving in the wilderness? Try surviving at a doctor's conference!

So far, the presentations have been quite interesting. In Wilderness Ophthalmology I learned that if you loose a lens from your sunglasses, tape duct tape over it and poke a bunch of holes. In HAPE (that would be high altitude pulmonary edema), I learned that ginkgo actually does work to prevent altitude sickness. In Travel Medicine, I have learned what antibiotics to pack with you for traveler’s diarrhea. In hanging around all these doctors, I have learned that MDs in groups are almost unbearable.

Example one: I'm at the continental breakfast, which includes (I'm not kidding) five different types of butter. I'm watching someone putting two tablespoons of butter (that would be about 200 empty calories FULL of saturated fat!) on her bagel. I am thinking "these people are doctors?" when another bagel-eater says to me, "Must be a cardiologist. They figure they can eat whatever they want, because when their arteries get clogged, they'll just fix it." I laugh. He says, "I'm a general surgeon, what about yourself?" "Well," I say, "I'm a layperson. I'm somewhat of an amateur nutritionist, though." I don't even get the sentence out, before he says, "Oh," gives a little nasal laugh, and walks away.

They all seem really fond of talking in doctor code when there are lay people around, just to make us feel dumb. Like at the opening reception. At our table, half were doctors and half spouses and other lay people. So one says to another, "This one time, my patient had extravasation of fluid from the pulmonary vasculature into the interstitium and alveoli, which OF COURSE was caused major pathophysiologic mechanisms ..." the other doctor answers in kind. Our eyes glaze over. Wouldn't it have been just as easy to say, "His lungs filled up with blood"???

I am having some serious fun, though. We are learning quite a bit about altitude. Did I mention that I got mild altitude sickness the day we got here? We arrived in Big Sky (7500 ft) at noon and skied (11,000 ft) for the afternoon. I felt a little funny all day, but by the end of the day I felt sick, dizzy and lightheaded. Fortunately, we had noticed an oxygen bar just at the bottom of the lifts. We had joked that we didn't think those were real! Well, what we thought was pure silliness ended up saving the day. After $5 and 10 minutes of oxygen, I felt fine. I haven't had any other problems since!