health issues and dealing with?

Para · Post by **Para** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 2:16 pm

ive recently stummbled across a lovely health issue dealing with my lungs and heart..... ive already divised ways around this like im gona have to wear a mask the sand v.s. my lungs not good i was wondering if anyone else has had any health issues thay may dealor battle with on a day to day basis and how they have coped with them?

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 6:00 pm

From the archive:

anyone allergic to dust?
boowhodog - 11:12am Jun 24, 2003 PST
hey everyone. just wondering if anyone had respiratory issues with dust on the playa. and if yes, how did you manage? this will be my first bm, and i keep hearing about the fine dust on the playa. anyone?

etc.

Dust n Asthma - a concern?
droidlock - 10:20pm Jul 31, 2002 PST
One my my pals who I am dragging with me this year has asthma and is worried that he is going to choke, sieze up and generally not be able to breath due to the playa dust. I have never heard of the dust bothering people in that way, but I figured there must be at least ONE other person who goes to burning man who has asthma! So I'm asking! Any reason for him to be worried?

etc.

Burners with lung problems?
Katrina Martin - 04:12pm Sep 11, 2001 PST
I had no problem this year with the dust. How did others fair? My husband has somewhat scarred lungs from childhood bronchitis and mild asthma. Dare I encourage him to come with me next year?

etc.

BlueBirdPoof · Post by **BlueBirdPoof** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 7:54 am

YOu might also try:
http://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic.php?t=578

Definately try and establish a partnership with your doctor now.

Consider if getting a medic alert bracelet or medallion is appropriate.

Try to have a plan for where you might wait out a dust storm for hours, or days.

BTW--desert is a little misleading in that it makes a lot of us think of sand. It's a fine alcalai dust--it must be rather silty during the winter lake phase.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 9:39 am

BlueBirdPoof wrote:....
BTW--desert is a little misleading in that it makes a lot of us think of sand. It's a fine alcalai dust--it must be rather silty during the winter lake phase.

?!?

BlueBirdPoof · Post by **BlueBirdPoof** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 10:38 am

okay bob.

When the Playa is a lake--winter and spring, it even has an ecology then!--the lake bottom is covered with the dust that we are so familier with. I'm assuming--based on the fineness of the dust--that it is texturally simelar to silt.

Mostly, I was trying to let Para know that "sand" is not the issue, there is no sand--just fine, infiltrating, caustic dust. With lungs as an issue, I believe she should be well informed of the exact nature of the stuff she will be dealing with.

lapeer20m · Post by **lapeer20m** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 12:14 pm

the playa is a lake during the spring and winter? I had no idea

BlueBirdPoof · Post by **BlueBirdPoof** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 12:28 pm

"playa
SYLLABICATION:
pla·ya
NOUN:
A nearly level area at the bottom of an undrained desert basin, sometimes temporarily covered with water.
ETYMOLOGY:
Spanish, from Late Latin plagia, hillside, shoreline, probably from Greek, sides, from neuter pl. of plagios, oblique, sideways. See plagio–."

From Bartleby's. I belive that "playa" is also Spanish for beach. Out here in the west a lot of landscape words are Spanish, arroyo, mesa, ect.

"playa - A term used primarily in the southwestern United States to describe a dry, vegetation-free, flat area at the lowest part of an undrained desert basin, underlain by stratified clay, silt, or sand, and commonly by soluble salts. They are occasionally covered by shallow lakes in the wettest parts of the year. "

"CAUTION NOTES ABOUT the BLACK ROCK DESERT

Beware of driving on the playa when the surface appears to be dry; it may be wet and impassable beneath the crust. The mud is so sticky that vehicles have had to be abandoned and dug out later in the dry season. Times to be wary are during the winter and spring when rain and runoff onto the playa is greatest. Some areas stay wet into summer, too. Check with business establishments in Gerlach for up-to-date conditions."

from
http://www.nv.blm.gov/Winnemucca/recrea ... _Rock.html
"blm website"
Okay, that's maybe not lake, but it's sure wet.

http://www.google.com/search?q=define:playa

(edited to remove a dead link)

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 3:48 pm

BlueBirdPoof wrote:okay bob.

When the Playa is a lake--winter and spring, it even has an ecology then!--the lake bottom is covered with the dust that we are so familier with.

Where does the "ecology" go in... er... the "summer" and "fall"?!? Tahoe? Disneyland? You in the Earth Guardians, by any chance?

BlueBirdPoof wrote:I'm assuming--based on the fineness of the dust--that it is texturally simelar to silt. Mostly, I was trying to let Para know that "sand" is not the issue, there is no sand--just fine, infiltrating, caustic dust. With lungs as an issue, I believe she should be well informed of the exact nature of the stuff she will be dealing with.

Well informed?!? Exact?!? Doctor!!!

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 4:18 pm

One of the most unique things about the playa is its almost total lack of an ecology. Sure, one could point to the periphery where the dunes are which support kit foxes and other small mammals but the lake itself comes as close as you'll find to being a parcel of land where no ecological, interactive dynamic exists other than the occasional scorpion, scorpion spider, salt fly and sub-surface bacteria/algae colonies.

Wasn't the case at the end of the Pleistocene 10,000 years ago when the area was probably very similar to the Tigris Euphrates valley in Iraq.

KellY · Post by **KellY** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 7:19 pm

Actually, there is a species of beetle which lives a few feet under the surface of the playa all year round. We've encountered them at the cafe when drilling the holes for those massive center posts.

But yeah, generally the lack of lifeforms is what makes the playa ideal for Burningman.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 11:45 pm

Badger wrote:One of the most unique things about the playa is its almost total lack of an ecology.....

Don't tell me you're in the League of Bad Science as well, Señor Tejön?

Para · Post by **Para** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 8:40 pm

thanks for the info and the geological lesson no fault lines right? just checking as if getting my truck stuck in mud and no trees to wench out on is bad enough

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 9:41 pm

as if getting my truck stuck in mud and no trees to wench out on is bad enough

For which I always carry a come-along, lengths of suitable rope, and a few 3 ft steel stakes. Slick mud can be found any time of year along the margins of the playa, esp. near the base of the larger canyons, and anywhere toward the far south end of the playa near Gerlach.

The area is not aseismic, either. Google on [Nevada seismicity].

Isotopia · Post by **Isotopia** » Fri Jan 02, 2004 4:56 pm

thanks for the info and the geological lesson no fault lines right?

The entire Basin and Range is provence is damn near a continuous sequence of faults.

The basin (graben) which formed Lake Lahanton (the playa) came about because it's what's known as an extensional block fault basin. Aslo known as block fault rifting where there's active spreading taking place. So much spreading has taken place that there are three areas that indicate sediments extending 7 kilometers below the surface. i was pretty astonished when I looked up some old geo maps at Stanford's Earth Science Library.

http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~schlisch/br05.gif NOTE: 'C' in the image probably best describes how the playa came about.

Very subtle but quakes do happen there with some regular frequency.

PurpleKoosh · Post by **PurpleKoosh** » Fri Jan 02, 2004 7:04 pm

Bob wrote:Where does the "ecology" go in... er... the "summer" and "fall"?!? Tahoe? Disneyland?

Argentina!

(So, does that make me a Purple Meanie?)

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Sat Jan 03, 2004 4:01 am

Isotopia wrote:The entire Basin and Range is provence is damn near a continuous sequence of faults....

Sequence being a chronological/stratigraphical term, are such faults only getting whorst?

Creek-passed interceptions before graben?

Echelon, long time, brudda.

Para · Post by **Para** » Sat Jan 03, 2004 7:49 pm

hey okay as long as we dont all dissapear into a hole in the ground im all happy

Clint Kaster · Post by **Clint Kaster** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 4:12 pm

Woke from a dream here in snowed-in PDX that Gene Wilder lived under the playa in a labyrinthine sushi bar and was rigging explosives underneath all the rave camps. There seemed to be a race of little people involved (perhaps Oompa Loompas) but no information about how this shit affects your lungs.

On topic -- a lot of folks that I know have experienced what we call "playa fever", a sinus-infection-type thing with high fever that hits following that first hot shower after two weeks on the playa. Short-lived but highly hallucinatory -- doesn't seem to be a problem if you're only there a week but longer periods and dusty weather seem to kick it in. Anyone else experience this?

A heavy-duty mask can be found at most safety supply stores and I highly recommend them -- since I wear glasses I got a full-face model that fits over my eyewear and was happy to find that I can bicycle through any low-intensity dust storm in it. High winds are another challenge....of course, if the weather is consistently bad you start forgetting that low-intensity dust is there. It's fun to spot the new arrivals -- they're the ones who aren't carrying water, illumination and dust mask at midafternoon when going out for a "short" visit somewhere!

BlueBirdPoof · Post by **BlueBirdPoof** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 4:29 pm

Bob wrote: Where does the "ecology" go in... er... the "summer" and "fall"?!? Tahoe? Disneyland? You in the Earth Guardians, by any chance?

For the last two years I was a member of the Emergency Services Department as a medic. (That's no longer a possiblity, as I'm only a First Responder and the qualifications are now an EMT with one year's 911 experience.) So, I've always been too tired to do the Earth Guardians thing. However, I'm secretly employed by the EPA, so I actually have a copy of the Final EIS of the Black Rock Desert Land Management Plan, as prepared by the BLM. Not that I've read it or anything. Nice maps and photos.

The ecology is sort of like brine shrimp, as I understand it. You know, you add water and--Playa Monkeys! They suddenly appear and start building little castles and burning little men, at least in the back of comic books. But I digress. Actually, that's the sort of thing that lives there. Spores when it's dry and breeding like crazy when it's wet. I suppose it's true of a lot of vernal pond type wetlands.

BlueBirdPoof · Post by **BlueBirdPoof** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 4:32 pm

Badger wrote: Wasn't the case at the end of the Pleistocene 10,000 years ago when the area was probably very similar to the Tigris Euphrates valley in Iraq.

Similar to the Tigris Euphates valley 10,000 years ago? Or to the T/E valley today/ Should we be looking for WMD in '04?

BlueBirdPoof · Post by **BlueBirdPoof** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 4:47 pm

I've been thinking that she might even have not been asking about dust.
If she wondered about managing illness on the Playa--whatever its (the illness's, not the Playa's) nature. Perhaps ljonharley (?) would have something to say. As he says on this thread
http://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic.php?t=2550
he has ms. He's the only person I know of who has admitted to a serious illness that needs maintenece, and maybe that's what Para is looking for. She might try pming him if that is.

BlueBirdPoof · Post by **BlueBirdPoof** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 8:47 am

Ephemeral lake beds and the playa of the Black Rock desert are likely to contain populations of invertabrate species, including phyllopod crustatea. No inventories have occured at other areas with similar conditions contain invertibrates whose eggs remain in the dry surface layers until sufficient water allows them to hatch, grow and complete their life cycle before the water evaporates.

From Chapter 3, page 39 of the FEIS of the Land Management plan. Tune in for more thrilling details--including #s of indegent burners who crashed on 339 and had to be hospitalized at county expence and the potential impacts on feral burros at:

http://www.blackrockhighrock.org/proposedPlan.asp

billvaxman · Post by **billvaxman** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 7:18 pm

I think the question was... does anyone else have an illness that needs special attention on the playa. Yes. I have Diabetes (Type 2)

. So I have to do a little planning ahead before I go. Camping in PolyParadise is great, but some of the communal food choices are out for me. Also, all those energy bars and things will blow my blood sugar through the roof.

I just plan ahead and bring food that I know will help me keep my blood sugar under control. So that late at night when I get completely drunk I'll know that "well, at least I did okay during the day"... whheeeeeee.

Seriously. I bring my tester along, and check myself out. I'm also REAL aware of what is going on with my feet as I have neuropathy (dead nerves) there already.

Everyday I do an exam and lotion thing, and I keep several pairs of clean socks.

End of dull boring story... back to our regularly scheduled lesson in ancient geography.

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 8:52 pm

I too have neuropahy in my feet and now starting in my hands. In the heat of the playa day I would soak my feet. This is also good to draw heat from the body core. Clean em up good and off you go unti bed time and again in the morning. I started to fall right after BM03. So now I'm learning to deal with that. Hate wearing those canes. It looks like I'm drunk without them. It's damn hard to keep an even speed in the old stick VW when you can't feel your feet.

I believe every one should eat a good diet. Metered and timed. If at times you do't feel well you may change what your eating instead of taking a pill. god knows I take enough of them already.

BlueBirdPoof · Post by **BlueBirdPoof** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 9:31 am

Billvaxman and unjonharley
For discussing your health issues openly here. And for confirming for me that both the playa and the e-playa have room for persons in less than perfect health. My concerns aren't physical, but my sweetie has some, and I hate to see this community walling off broad areas of human experience.

Haven't heard from Para in a while, so I odn't know if it's helpful to her, but you done right by me.
Ta.

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 4:52 pm

i think it is important to understand that the harshness of the environment can be mitigated to a great degree. If you are well prepared it aint gonna kill ya. Two years ago I went with a friend who has lupus. Sunlight was really the big issue for her, that and general fatigue, but she took care and lasted the week. On the other hand, I got out of control last year and after 10 days of sleep deprivation I melted down on Sunday with a playa fever.

health issues and dealing with?

health issues and dealing with?

Of course, maybe Para didn't WANT a natural history lesson.

Playa Ecology

Handling an illness that needs attention on the Playa

Thank you