Kiki Bikes Across America

Tuesday, June 30th – Haswell, CO to Westcliffe, CO

Today was a bit different from any other day. I woke up just before 6am feeling sick to my stomach. I ate a couple poptarts and drank a little water, but not much because I was afraid of throwing up. We rolled out after packing up around 8am or so and started out biking towards Pueblo. When it came my turn to lead for 5 miles I felt really badly and was looking for a place with shade to stop and rest, and see if I’d feel better. I told the guys I needed to stop and see if I would feel better. I didn’t feel any better after maybe waiting for 45 minutes or so. I tried to make myself throw up but that didn’t seem to work at all, and then I walked to a house nearby (1 of about 3) and there was a man who just walked out of his house. I told him I wasn’t feeling well and asked if there was anyway he could give me a ride to a doctor. He said he or his aunt would give me a ride to Ordway (about 25 miles away).

A short bit later he came and picked me and my bike up and took me to Orway to a clinic – unfortunately, they didn’t have any of the equipment to do the proper testing that I’d need and it would take days to do with getting results back and so forth. So the lady su)ggested I get to a hospital in Pueblo, since the next nearest hospital didn’t have a surgeon on duty this week (just in case there was something that might require surgery). So the man (C.D. Anderson) was nice enough to give me a ride an additional 45 miles or so to Pueblo’s hospital. We got there around noon and I checked in and they did all the vitals and such and I was called maybe 30 minutes later. They immediately hooked me up to an IV and started putting saline into me – I think around 1.5 – 2 liters of saline total. I couldn’t drink at all during this time (until I was almost released) – something to do with the medicine they gave me (anti-nausea). So I fell asleep on and off a couple times, but not great sleep as it was pretty noisy in the ER. The nurses were great though and very friendly and nice. They piled on blankets as I was freezing cold and then I started having chills and hot spells back and forth all afternoon – and didn’t really have much of a fever, just a degree more here and there, but then cooler than normal as well. The doctor determined it to be a viral infection that I caught and said I was slightly dehydrated (b/c I didn’t drink much water at all that morning because I felt so horrible). So I was dehydrated a little from lack of water, but it seems the viral infection must have been with me for the past week or so when I was having stomach pains occassionally. I thought it was just an upset stomach from something I ate, but I guess not. I’d eaten thoses foods beore, so that was a bit unusual, but who knows?

Anyway, they released me around 6pm and my relatives from Westcliffe came and picked me up and drove me back to their house where I’ll spend a couple nights/days recouping and sleeping a lot to get over this and regain my strength. I had zero strength in the hospital – so little I could barely move or get off the bed and go to the bathroom.