No Food For Vultures

Posted on October 3, 2004 in Hikes and Trails Medications

For the first time since my angiogram, I went out for a short hike to plant a geocache along the Santiago Trail to Vulture Crags. To be free and on the hoof again!

I watched my body very carefully. My doctor had explained the nature of the dizzy spells I had been experiencing these last few months. They appeared to be of two different orders. First, there is the kind I got when I rose too quickly from a sitting, kneeling, or prone position. This came about because a medication (Diovan) interferes with the natural reflex action that sends unneeded blood pooled in the lower half of my body into action again. (It’s a nuisance and the only thing I can do about this is to get up slowly.) Second, there was the dizziness that overcame me after exertion, when I reached the top of a hill, for example. This was due to the light clogging and narrowing of my coronary arteries.

I expected to feel some dizziness, therefore, due to the former. From time to time, I knew I would squat or bend over to look closely at an insect, a plant, or a rock. I would also be chugging steadily along over rolling hills. If I felt dizziness or my heart beating too strongly, this was a matter to discuss with my cardiologist.

We started by climbing the hill leading to the trailhead. After making the gateway, we continued to the cache location, going up and down hills, scrambling up one steep slope. Not once did my heart throb in my ears or the white blindness afflict me when I stopped to take a breath. Didn’t need to take a breath, in fact. The only time I felt dizzy was after secreting the cache near seven yuccas.

A few vultures soared overhead but they lost interest in me.

Trail reports will resume this week.