Take Five with the Wild Med

The Boy in The Wilderness: Pre-existing Medical Conditions

Have You Met This Boy In The Wilderness?

Kirima Gutirí Jaba – in my mother-tongue it means that no matter your prowess out in the wilderness when you get hit, you get hit.

We care for you that’s why we ask you to fill those Client Information Forms especially before embarking on an extreme activity like High Altitude Mountains. Clients think it’s so that we can eliminate them so they lie and hope for the best. The tour operators who ask their clients to fill them out are shunned by potential clients for being too bossy and intrusive, but that is not the only thing, they are considered ‘expensive’. Expensive because everyone loves to save an extra coin not knowing that the qualified medic accompanying the team goes the extra mile to take care of you including not sleeping the nights just to watch over everyone (story of another day), their pay package, the medical supplies, and other logistical costs like that ambulance porter. Some of the pre-qualifications before a professional tour operator takes you up includes evidence of workout activities you have been engaged in and if you are a local at least take part in prep-activities/hikes so that we help build your endurance and skills level. Those moments also help us work with your potentials and challenges.

Here is an extract for the love of you about “The boy who got sick skiing” extract from Readers Digest,2013.

“I was working the overnight shift in a remote hospital in the Rocky Mountains. Late in the evening, a young black teenager was brought into the ER. He lived at sea level and had never been in the mountains. After skiing all day, he felt really ill. Everyone assumed it was altitude sickness.

Given our health systems, our Search and Rescue (SAR) status for wilderness, the percentage of professional and skilled tour operators in this part of the world what do you think the outcome would have been?

Dear Outdoor Enthusiast,

Know your health status: the annual checkups are for your well-being
Keep fit
Be truthful in your client information forms
Take care of your existing medical conditions and get your doctor’s counsel before embarking on extreme activities
Get your medical cover & evacuation covers upto date

Dear TO, Guide, Safari Driver,

Take the time to get skills in Client Relations and a Wilderness First Aid training at minimum
Client information is confidential and use it for the well-being of the client
Take the C-19 break to redesign your systems which includes client information forms with medical data

“If you don’t sacrifice for what you want, what you want will become the sacrifice”
Unknown author

Covid-19 Through the Lens of a Biker, Medic, Instructor & Guide

” To bear in mind constantly that all of this has happened before, And will happen again-the same plot from beginning to end, the identical staging.” – Meditations of Marcus Aurelius in a Plague.

10 DAYS=12 Counties on Two-wheels

Stayed in deserted places in the bundus which included camping out in a friend’s farms instead of his family house, in little known guest houses with compounds to camp and little known eco-tourism campsite. At Bogoria & Maji Moto the community runs away literally when they see foreigners ‘wazungu’ for fear of infection despite tourism being a backbone in the community. Reminds me, in Kisii we stopped for photos & one lady on spotting the bikes as she walked towards us, sprinted back in the direction she had come from almost skidding in the mud, she removed her shoes without stopping & kept running. We were to go to Mfangano island but the thought of using the ferry & social contamination wasn’t worth the experience for which we could do at a later date. We had meals in deserted restaurants where we were the only guests, where it was impossible take-away meals beside the road, in the tent, or just simply postponed the meal for later. We took our immunity supplements everyday faithfully and this included natural tamarind ‘ukwaju’ juice blend which we made, Vitamin C tablets boosters, a concoction of natural herbal ‘spices’ which had been pan fried prior to the trip for preservation. Every day with my faithful flask which was compromised at our last camp out by being over-cleaned I would steep the spices overnight in hot water & dates then consume the next morning first thing on an empty stomach together with medications. We had also carried lemons & honey. We washed & sanitized everywhere we went, no skipping baths even for my water ‘allergic’ partner. When we got to spots which had spray sanitizers we capitalized by cleaning our gloves, phones, keys etc to push our sanitizer stash longer. I learnt to fly past towns on the roads when we got to shopping centres even when boda-boda guys crowded our paths at some places just to try compete with our bikes or in awe of what they saw. Polite community sensitization on keeping distance when engaging with them. Sun drying our clothes, helmets & stuff everyday to kill the virus which delayed our departures most mornings or by having layover days when the weather was grim. Washing our balaclava & scarfs daily.

On day 10, our day towards home. It was a bit of a challenge when we were stopped at a police road block. The police checked our road insurance which are on the ignition key then proceeded to ask for our license. This is where the rubber hits the tarmac I politely declined by stating that everything else was in our cargo. Dear serikal, “Civilians would like a share of the Covid-19 vaccine that the government is giving its defense forces.” These ones stay on the road all day contaminating themselves and others with no masks, gloves or hand hygiene. They collect cash money bribes, they speak into people’s faces, they cross contaminate others by touching this & that cargo & cars in the name of inspection. I get home & I won’t use my bike cover till Darius is all cleaned. Closer to home I ask for directions & a group of drunks emerge, they talk animatedly with sputum spewing all over thank heavens for visor & balaclava then on the realization am a lady they proceed to touch me, luckily I still have my raingear on despite having passed the rainy patches on the road. Here my partner went abrasive on them as I slowly rode off trying to shake off the feeling of being violated. Further ahead, I encounter a traffic grid lock on Nakuru-Nairobi A1 highway closer to Kiambaa due to ongoing road construction. Cars stuck in traffic and inhaling into each other & those in public vehicles staying longer in close contact with each other. This is where I am grateful for being on my motorbike.

Back at home, everything straight to the bathroom isolated for laundry, what can’t be washed with soap & water disinfected & sun-dried. I wouldn’t dare sleep on my bed as were so personal hygiene included thoroughly washing & treating my dreadlocks.

The C-19 unpacked in a ‘middle income’ African Travelog Country:

Fisher ladies preparing Nile perch ‘Mbuta’ at Beach Kete

1. Hand to mouth day-to-day living of the hard workers come rain come sunshine

2. The children have no sense of Corona they see you they run towards you even when you chase them away, they huddle together in play wondering why not yet we existed. #myfirsthumanpillion

3. Then there are those that have remembered their long lost spirituality in an effort to explain the phenomenon.

4. Like the hammerkop that has to retire in his big cluttered mansion now that its work-from-home or curfew times

5. Those that it means it’s to be pampered time, be fed & sexed like the Levaillant’s Cuckoo. Going further, like these birds they are brood parasites, they are using other people’s houses.

6. The one who knows that am to keep to social distance but still doesn’t grasp the concept so a little of me time, then with their special one, then hang around their boys at a ‘distance’ like these Fisher’s lovebirds

7. Licences insured since its home affairs: A. Eat, eat & lay around like the cordon-bleu bird B. To be naturally shaggy throughout like the babbler.

All said & done remember to Be Safe & Healthy: Exercise, Nourish yourself, Commune with Nature, keep the social networks to be mentally wholesome and use the free time to learn that new skill you have been postponing like online language, a new app, home decluttering, family bonding etc.

WOMEN & HIGH ALTITUDE

I recently found myself wailing out my frustrations to my male counterparts as I was the only lady in the team when I had to go for a bathroom break in a blizzard. More skin exposed to the slicing icy wind and the struggle of wearing back on a tight thermal pant then another outer pant is real when your hands are gloved as you say no more inch to the cold torture. What only we understand as the gentlemen offers came on helping out was there is something only I can take care of…

Menses

Menses can temporarily stop, be longer, shorter or irregular
A proportion of women have resorted to use contraception not for contraceptive purpose but to regulate and control their periods.
Risk factors of oral contraceptive is thrombosis (when one has increased risk of forming blood clots), dehydration, cold and polycythemia (blood disorder which causes overproduction of red blood cells) which increases at high altitude.
Leave No Trace Principles. Decided to deal with it head on, carry a waste bag/zip-top bag with you to pack out the used tampons and or pads used. Or prepare to make cat-holes to empty the menstrual cups content where you are assured of clean boiled water to sanitize your cup for next use.
Hygiene items must have: wet wipes/toilet paper, hand sanitizer, biodegradable soap to wash up at camp. Lastly include some ground coffee in your waste bag for odor control.

My First Blog Post Understanding the Content

Wilderness, Wellness begins with me

Wilderness holds the answers to questions we have not yet learnt to ask
— Nancy Wynne Newhall.

This is the first post on my new blog. It’s called Take Five in Wild Med as all important information shall be shared in five easy to understand points. Stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
What topics do you think you’ll write about?
Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.