107 – Staying Alive, Part 7: 29 November 2024
I have already recounted the increasingly strong sneeze
attacks I began experiencing as 2019 wore on.
Although I felt most vulnerable when the sneeze attacks occurred while I
was walking at Morialta, they occurred everywhere and not just when I was at
Morialta.
Increasingly as 2019 wore on, the sneeze attacks began
undermining my stitch line from the open heart surgery. The constant sneezing began to tear one side of
the stich line away from the other side.
I assumed that the sneezing was caused by the stress of
what I had been through and that the sneezing would settle down as time went
by,
By 2019, I usually walked my Morialta perimeter circuit on
my own. Ill health among my friends meant
that they were no longer able to engage in a walk that was as strenuous as the
one I was doing. As well as walking the circuit on my own, it was usually dark for the first 30 minutes or so that I
walked. For most of the perimeter circuit,
there is no phone coverage and few other walkers have the stamina or interest
to walk the trails that I prefer to walk on as I thread my way through
Morialta.
****
The initial part of the walk is very steep indeed. It takes you to Old Norton Summit Road. Then you walk along Old Norton Summit Road for
about ten minutes and re-enter the Park on a track which takes you across the
top of Third Falls. The track in this
part of the park is called Third Falls Track and it goes steeply uphill.
I took this photo of Third Falls Track on a very foggy Sunday on 17 July 2022 as I struggled my way up the steep slope of Third Falls Track.
****
I no longer remember the exact spot where the sneeze attack
started. Nor do I now remember the exact
date when this particular sneeze attack occurred, but the location for the
start of the attack was close to the location shown in this photo.
I was walking alone and I had left Third Falls behind
me. The date was after Ann Ryan returned
to Ireland on 17 May 2019 and it was before Margaret and I flew to Ireland to join
Ann on Friday 7 September 2019. My guess is that this particular sneeze attack occurred on a bitter cold Sunday
morning in June 2019.
Although I had left Third Falls behind me, at least another
45 minutes of very hard uphill walking lay in front of me. Once I finished this final, extremely hard
uphill stretch, the walking would all be relatively easy – either walking on
the flat or walking downhill.
The sneeze attack that started after I had left Third Falls
behind me very nearly stopped me from ever getting up that final, ever so hard
uphill stretch. It nearly left me dead.
****
The attack started in the usual way – 15 sneezes followed by
a lull in the sneezing when I started to blow my nose to clear out the grunge
conjured up in my nasal system by the sneezing.
I barely finished blowing my nose before another series of
15 sneezes began trying to disintegrate my stitch line. Then there was another … and another … and
another … and the sneezing simply refused to ever stop.
I staggered my way as best I could up the hill, sneezing
violently as I lurched.
I threw away my sodden handkerchief. It rapidly became useless. I desperately needed to keep clearing my nose
but it was useless trying to use a handkerchief to do so. I simply blew the endless mucus straight onto
the ground.
I had no respite. I
sneezed non stop and I blew my nose onto the ground non stop. After about thirty minutes - or was it
perhaps forty five minutes – I knew I was in big trouble. I was literally miles away from anyone else. There was no help anywhere near me. It was such a miserable winter day that no one
except me had even dreamed of walking in the park. If I stopped and rested on the ground, U
would die either from the cold or from a chest torn apart by the sneezing. If I wanted to get out of the Park alive, I
would have to walk out.
Behind me, the track went mostly downhill, but there had
been no maintenance on the track for at least 20 years and the track was
studded with dangerous rocks that poked out of the ground. If I stumbled on a rock, I would fall and
probably hit my head on another rock. The
walking would be relatively easy if I went downhill, but death would also be
very easy if I went downhill.
If I went uphill, the walking would be harder, but it would
be safer. If I had the strength to get
up the hill, I had a much better chance of living than if I turned back
downhill.
I very slowly stumbled my way up the Third Falls track,
frightening all of the park wildlife as I went, my continuous, violent sneezing
echoing its way across the Park.
I think it took me an hour and a half to stagger my way up
to the top of Third Falls Track.
I also took this photo of Third Falls Track on Sunday 17 July 2022.
When I finally got to the top of Third Fals Track, I
grabbed a gate post for support, not daring to let go.
I now knew I would be able to get back to my friends for coffee. The journey from here to the bottom of the Park was
extremely long and hard, but it was easy compared to what I had just endured.
I arrived at the bottom of the Park one hour late for coffee
with my friends, A walk which normally took me three hours forty five minutes
had taken me five hours. I knew I had
survived only because I had refused to give in.
By the time I sat down for coffee, the sneeze attack finally stopped.
****
The continuation of my life that Sunday had hung very precariously in the balance for the three long hours after the start of the sneeze attack.
Luckily, I got out alive.
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