I Did Not Die at Girls Camp

 Did I think I was having a heart attack last Friday? Yes.

As you know, I went to Girls Camp last week. It was at a Church-owned high adventure camp perched on the side of a mountain at 7500 feet above sea level, which is about 1.5 miles straight up (2.3 km). At the camp, there were three different ropes courses, hatchet throwing, zip lines, and various other sports available. I don't know what good any of those activities are when you are gasping for air every time you exert yourself even a little, but we were lucky to get reservations and the girls were all very excited. I suppose we went in somewhat acclimated because, for us, it was only another 3000 feet higher from where we normally live. 

Adult leaders were encouraged to participate in all the activities, so I did. On our first day, we were scheduled for the high ropes course, the hardest of all the courses, with two levels of torture layered one on top of the other. You could either be really high up and scared or really, really high up and absolutely petrified.

One of the young women on the lower course moves her C-clamp around to get herself to the next challenge. 

Yes, I harnessed myself up and completed enough of the lower course exercises (three) to get myself around to the zip line that would take me back to solid ground. I may be old and fat, but I'm still ready for an adventure even when I have moments of "I've just made a serious mistake." I'm sure I looked like a beached whale that has been driven up a mountain and prodded up a ladder to flail--flukes a-flappin'--across ridiculously precarious cables and ropes. While it wasn't exactly fun, per se, it was very gratifying to have finished. 

A brave girl on the top ropes course.

That night, after having finally fallen asleep in my tent for a couple hours, I awoke in utter agony. I had sharp pains centered around my heart with shooting pain down both arms. There was no position in which I could get comfortable--even sitting up--and while I didn't cry, I did feel very sorry for myself for a good three hours. I reasoned that we were so far from any medical help that I might as well let everyone else get a good night's sleep before having to deal with my dead body in the morning. To make matters worse, my cell phone battery was dead, so I couldn't even use my phone to distract myself from the pain (I was one of the only ones who still had cell coverage at the camp). I just tossed and turned and listened to the pitter-patter of raindrops on my tent's fly cover and the small animals passing by my tent.

Around 5am, when the sky started lightening and the first bird woke up, it finally dawned on me (dawned, haha!) that this was not, in fact, a heart attack but deep muscle trauma from the ropes course. I had been holding almost my entire weight by my arms and shoulders for about 45 minutes the evening before, and that is not something I usually do at any altitude. Mentally comforted but still in physical agony, I decided it was late enough in the morning and light enough outside to go and rummage around for the First Aid box and swallow 800 mg of ibuprofen. Within an hour, I was feeling like I was going to live. I also felt pretty stupid, which isn't something ibuprofen can fix (alas). I should have packed ibuprofen in my bag.

Fortunately, everyone had a great time at camp--though not during any of the times we had to hike up any inclines, and all of the trails were either steeply downhill or steeply uphill. (I did not know my lungs could hurt that badly trying to gasp in enough oxygen.) Pranks were played, fears were overcome, and testimonies were strengthened. Hopefully, next year's camp will be easier on me because I'm losing weight, but I'm pretty sure I would have been in agony no matter what weight I carried after doing that ropes course. The fact that the couple missionaries who run the camp are older than I am and were still shimmying around that &$*(# ropes course like it was nothing is just embarrassing, but it's a good incentive to keep going.

The two junior camp leaders having a cooling swim in a lake before we headed up into the higher altitudes.