This is not the thread I wanted to make, but here we are. My hopes in sharing my story is that anyone reading this learns from my mistakes and failures, especially as everyone is getting ready to head out this year.
Our story begins three weeks ago as I'm scouting for mule deer. As I'm hiking back down to the truck and feel a sharp pain in my ribcage around the first set of abdominal muscles. Pain lasts for about a minute, goes away, and the comes back five minutes later. I drink a bunch of water and focus on standing upright. I don't have another episode of pain on the way back. Make it to the truck and per advice of the wife, go to the ER and get checked out. Everything at the ER checks out.
I follow up with my primary care doc and she recommends a CT scan. I get blasted with radiation and everything checks out as normal. I have some small bits of pain here/there in that area when I'm picking up the kids, but nothing like the pain I experienced on the mountain. Time passes, and I'm feeling better, exercising and shooting my bow. I forget about the issue, except that my doc did suggest a follow up with a surgeon because there's a chance I have a small hernia (not detected on CT) that needs to get repaired and she would like said surgeon's opinion. That appointment is coming up in a week or so.
Yesterday I feel like I should check a trail camera I set up three weeks ago and I am feeling better by now. No major pain since three weeks ago. Everything was going good until my decent to get back to the trailhead. The first episode of pain was nothing too major and just reminded me that I still have an issue. This lasted about 45 seconds. I then had three more episodes spaced out five minutes apart with each one getting worse. By the fourth one I am in a world of pain, I would rate it a 12 out of 10. Pain is localized in my upper abs, right where the two muscles come together and feels like the worst cramp I have ever experienced. It feels like the movie Alien where the monster is trying to come out of the dude's chest, but instead on me it's a little lower. As the pain isn't getting any better and I'm still miles from the truck (and solo), I push the SOS button on my InReach. At this point I am not sure I can make it back to the trailhead, let alone what's going on with me.
Help came very quickly. From the time I talked to dispatch to the time I had someone at my position was about a little over an hour. I don't know what kind of shape these guys are in, but I need their contact info in case I ever get an elk down in a nasty canyon. We're talking a couple miles back and 1500 ft. elevation that was covered very quickly. The lead guy wasn't even sweating or breathing hard. I was able to walk out with their help (very gingerly) and eventually the pain subsided. Hydrating and standing upright seemed to help. Got checked out by EMS and ended up in the ER again. Luckily, between the CT scan earlier and two sets of ER labs most of the nasty stuff has been ruled out, but I have follow up appointments in the next few weeks with a myriad of specialists to figure out what exactly is wrong with me.
To the Rokslide docs, my symptoms are somewhat repeatable in that the severe pain only happens when I'm hiking downhill (hunched over) with a heavy pack and am exerting myself. Afterwards, I feel sore in the area, but don't ever experience the severe pain. The pain comes in waves, where a wave can last up to a minute or so, then fades, then comes back. If you have any theories, I'm all ears. So far the leading theory is hernia from a previous gallbladder removal surgery (surgery weakened my abdominal wall and now I have issues).
Lessons Learned:
1. Be honest with yourself. I should have tested myself with a weighted ruck near my house before going out to the mountains. That said, I've been feeling fine and have had no recurrence of the sharp pain I experienced three weeks earlier. I thought I was fine, but I could have just tested myself to be sure.
2. 911 should be your primary option if you have service. I originally hit SOS and the InReach dispatch ended up having me just call 911 since I had a sliver of service. Calling 911 from your phone will automatically forward your position to 911 dispatch.
3. InReach positioning is pretty terrible. I was in dark timber when I pushed SOS and the best it could do was a six kilometer radius. My phone had an exact position of where I was. I'm not sure if this is something that can be addressed via a software update by Garmin, but I'm wondering why the app on my phone can't talk to the device and let it know that it has a better position and then relay that better position to dispatch. Edited: After playing the day back in my head, this was due to user error and not turning on the device until I had to hit SOS. I remember forgetting to turn the device on before starting off.
4. Purpose/drive/hope is your #1 friend in these situations. Everytime the pain got so bad that I felt like keeling over, I thought about my boys and kept pushing myself to cut the distance between me and rescue (while updating dispatch on my position). When the pain got really, really bad, I remember telling 911 that I had been short with my oldest before leaving and I wasn't going to let that be his last memory of me.
I owe a huge thanks to everyone involved in my rescue. The 911 dispatcher talked me out of a panic, and the rescue team themselves were some of the most skilled mountaineers I have ever ran into.
I still have a long road to figure out where the pain is coming from and won't be in the mountains until I get answers. I hope that my story helps you plan for emergencies in the backcountry accordingly and I hope you never feel the need to push that red button yourself.
