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Posted by Admin on 11. January 2012 02:36
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It's been an exciting week around here, with some new sponsors and new developments for both our big races (Untamed New England and North Country Endurance Challenge). But I think I'll discuss something that came up yesterday evening, instead.
The Untamed Adventure team usual suspects (Jason Reed, Sherry Correll, Joel Jimenez, and myself) are going to Ecuador next month to race the 4-day Huairasinchi Adventure race. It's going to be a race of high Andes peaks, Amazon jungle, and everything in between. We had a team phone call last night and you know it's sizing up to be a great race when my notes include the line reading "Discuss with doctor diamox, malaria pills, typhoid tablets, hepatitis A/B shots, cipro" -- I meet with my doctor later this week. Of course, I also have to add epinephrine to my list of pharmaceuticals in case I encounter a nest of nasty stinging wasps in the Amazon or something.
All these meds aren't strictly necessary; my Swiss doctor warned against buying into the American cult of pharmacology before the race in the Amazon last year . . . I didn't get altitude sickness when we ascended above 15,000 feet at that race, or any other sort of illness except for Giardia a couple weeks after I returned from the jungle. I'm not sure any of the meds out there can guard against Giardia. I still brought Epi-pens, though, of course! I didn't, however, use diamox or any altitude meds on the advice of my Swiss doctor. But I no longer live in Switzerland, and my 3 teammates are all going the diamox route. 2 of those teammates did get some pretty bad altitude sickness symptoms up high at the race last year, so it makes sense for them. I would hate for my team to suffer because I didn't come prepared for the altitude, though.
So, I will discuss the pros/cons with the American doctor and see what they suggest.
Cipro is a broad spectrum antibiotic and I think any team racing an expedition race should have some just in case they're stuck a long way from help and need to knockout an infection. As for the other stuff, I know I got Hepatitis vaccines years ago but let's see if I can find those medical records...