Franconia Notch to LIttle Haystack Mountain to Speare Memorial Hospital

An early breakfast in Littleton, maybe shoulda gone to Polly's Pancake Parlor instead of the Coffee Pot, ah the wisdom of hindsight. I hadda order to fattiest, most greasy thing on the menu, in a place I think is known for fatty and greasy food-eggs, corned beef hash, bacon, etc. I figured it would be OK since we were gonna do a quite difficult AT section for the next cupla days and I'd burn off all the fat.

Nearly all the way through and a sudden abdominal pain, maybe all that fatty food just doesn't wanna go down, which has historically been a problem for me. I still remember as a child eating a big load of "crackle", the fatty skin from a pork roast that goes crispy while baking and tastes delicious, but made me feel quite ill afterwards.

We drive to the trail head at Franconia Notch and it seems to be getting worse, and hiking up doesn't help much either, it's not an easy trail and having a pain in the belly doesn't help.

It's only 2 and a half miles up to the first water stop at Liberty Springs Campsite, it's not immediately obvious and a couple that looked like they camped there were no help, ended up getting water just off the trail and then saw the real spring just up ahead.

Belly pain is getting worse and I start to get worried for the first time, doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon and the trail is not getting much easier, ups and downs and some thick brush that overgrows, plus the inevitable rocks that have to be navigated.

We get to Little Haystack and sit to rest, the pain is by now almost unbearable and we have to decide what to do, I know abdominal pain is a serious, perhaps even life threatening problem if some internal organ is under such duress, calling 911 might be a possibility but what would they do? There maybe no signal anyway, there's no where for a chopper to land, and getting up to the ridge top with gurney (and back down again) would seem to be next to impossible. I've seen hikers rescued by a gurny but the terrain was much easier than this.

I'm at least still mobile at this point, and the Falling Water trail heads back down the mountain, it looks perilously steep however. We'v done it before, about 2 years ago as part of the Presi traverse, but that was carrying only a very light pack and being fit and healthy. This looks like an entirely different animal indeed.

It seems to best option anyway, so we head down and for a while I do OK, slow but we actually pass a cupla other backpackers, 2 guys and one is rather overweight. I haven't eaten anything for a while now and I start feeling a bit weak, although not hungry. We come to a junction that I remember from 2 years ago and sit for a minute to rest and the 2 guys pass by but don't say anything.

More slow progress down, sit again to rest and I suddenly feel nauseous and throw up, that can't be a good thing, getting weaker all the time but still able to carry the pack. Again the guys pass us and one comments that I need to drink more water, how stupid can you get, can't he see there's something seriously wrong?

There's nothing to do but keep struggling on, getting more and more difficult. It's actually quite a pretty trail, lotsa waterfalls to look at, and the water running down huge sloping rockfaces that you walk across, but I can barely appreciate it.

Another stop to rest, and another chance to barf, we still manage to pass the two guys, and they still manage to pass us by without saying anything about my obviously distressed condition, and now others are coming up the trail and don't say anything either.

I'm getting more and more zombie like, soon I'm gonna bite someone and they'll turn into a zombie too. At some point we stop to rest and Matilda grabs my pack and takes off with both, one of the front and one on the back. By now I really feel like a zombie, barely able to walk and still no one stops to help, despite my zombie like appearance and Matilda carrying 2 packs, what is it about folks here?

It seems to take an eternity to get to the bottom, ultimately about 5 hours to do about two and a half miles, we're obviously close now and the plan was to call the local shuttle folks and have them take us back to the car and go to the nearest emergency room, but I'm too far gone for that, can barely walk, so Matilda calls 911.

We come to the end, there's a nice grassy spot so I just collapse into a ball and finally someone asks if I'm OK, not likely but the ambulance is on the way, thanks anyhow. Maybe I shoulda done this earlier?

First to arrive are the police, they're not much help and the cop opines that it's my appendix, not likely since they're already gone. I'm expecting it take a while for the ambulance to arrive, it's a rather isolated spot, it comes pretty quickly in fact and they ask if I can walk, that would be yes with a little help.

They take blood in the ambulance and the tech remarks that it looks like goo it so thick, yes I'm severely dehydrated because I couldn't keep any water down, also partly explains the zombie walk.

The pain is really bad now, rate it 8 outa 10, I lie on my side in the ambulance because it eases it a little, they don't know what it is so can't give me anything for it at the moment.

At the hospital and I suddenly realize Matilda isn't there, I know it's only gonna be a few minutes since the police took her to pick up the car, but still it's an overwhelming feeling of loss, hope it's quick.

First thing is an MRI to see what's going on, I gotta drink this stuff that actually doesn't taste bad, they figure I'll throw it back up at some point but ask if I can hold it in, I manage to do so until the procedure is over and out it comes, at least it relieves the pain a bit.

The doc comes in and asks if I'm still in pain, that'd be a yes for sure, so they give me some morphine derivative, it takes a few minutes but finally comes, an extremely pleasant sensation of painlessness and relaxation, oh heaven.

The doc has diagnosis, they can see that the stuff I drank has just gone so far into my small intestine and then stopped, it's completely blocked and scar tissue from a previous operation is the culprit, it's somehow wrapped around the intestine and blocked it off, ultimately a life threatening situation since the intestine can die from the blood supply being choked off, then it bursts and you're really in big trouble.

The treatment is to jam a tube down the nasal passage and try to drain everything out with some kinda pump and see if the intestine will unblock itself, it never seems as if much comes out and the pain doesn't subside much without pain killers, so by Sunday they decide that the only course is to operate to remove the blockage.