Did I have altitude sickness?

Factual Questions
1

I just got home from a road trip across the western United States.

I lived in North Dakota for many many years and really haven’t done a whole lot of travelling, so altitude was new to my body.

There was a stretch of road in Wyoming where the road went from 3,500’ to 10,200’ in about 20 minutes and then dropped down.

Now i have had a huge fear of heights since i was little, so i was nervous going up the mountain and being able to see hundreds of feet down, and miles and miles out in front of me. I have had panic attacks in the past, and i felt one coming on, but it never germinated into a full-blown episode.

Around 8000’ up, my fingers and face started to tingle, and as we worked our way up more i literally could not move my fingers or hands, and my tongue seemed to swell, because i had a very difficult time talking.

Around the peak i was gasping for air and was on the verge of passing out (i was also deathly pale)

Then we descended just as rapidly and the feeling slowly returned to my extremities.

My question is, was i experiencing severe altitude sickness? My symptoms aren’t really listed on WebMD or Wikipedia, and i had no naseau whatsoever.

Did my anxiety just exaggerate my mild symptoms? Did i just get over them upon descent because i saw we were descending and that relieved me?

2

Bonus Question: I was up on the mountain for 20-30 minutes driving. Could i have caused any long term damage?

3

I havn’t heard of Altitude sickness coming and leaving that quickly, particularly while driving.

Altitude sickness usually happens when someone not used to the altitude does something strenuous, like skiing or hiking, for hours. 20 minutes of driving at only 10k really doesn’t sound like it, unless you have otherwise restricted breathing.

4

I’m thinking that it’s more general anxiety than altitude sickness. I live at sea level and I’ve gotten a very mild case of altitude sickness at somewhere around 16,000 feet. My symptoms were headache and nausea. Granted, I’ve lived for extended amounts of time at 8000 feet in Yosemite.

There’s almost no chance of long term damage unless you have preexisting conditions.

5

It sounds more likely that you were hyperventilating. The symptoms include tingling fingers, face, faintness, etc.

6

It certainly sounds here like you were breathing inappropriately.

7

I have. A lady I know told me her story recently. They were having some big family celebration/party/get together in Colorado.

The place they were staying was at like 6 to 8 thousand feet. They had even stayed there a few days already, so there should have been some acclimation. When they went to drive up to the “top”, at about 10,000 feet, it hit her like it did the OP in as quick a time as it took to drive up there.

She is middle aged, in pretty good physical and medical shape, and I dont think it was in her head. The downside is she lives in Florida, so thin air certainly aint one of her strong points.

I also seem to recall that her returning to the 6-8 k level wasnt enough to fix her, so the local doc prescribed an 02 bottle. I also seem to recall that the doc didnt take this to be a particularly rare event either.

So, I can believe the OP as being possible. Of course big fear and borderline hyperventilating certainly wouldnt help any.