Help- DD has bad altitude sickness in Cusco, Peru

[NaturalBlondeYeahRight]

She's been there a few days and still feels dreadful. All her friends are fine. They are planning to do machu pichu tomorrow, but she doesn't know if she can do it? Will she feel better going there?

Isn't Machu Picchu lower altitude than Cusco? She'll feel better at lower altitude.

Hi, OP. She needs lots and lots of water, and she should try to eat small amounts. Is it just headache, or also nausea?

I haven't done the hike in there. If it's lower then she should feel better, but that will depend on how arduous the hike is.

How is she getting there? It’s a very long walk to do feeling ill. It’s a bit lower, but of course you don’t know whether it’s altitude sickness or not given she feels rough after a few days

I had terrible altitude sickness in Cusco. My friend was absolutely fine. It was horrendous. Ended up hallucinating that soldiers were raiding my hotel room, was sick, couldn’t walk more than a few steps without sitting down.

Really worried I wouldn’t be able to cope with Machu Pichu, but to my great relief the train descends from Cusco into Machu Pichu and I was absolutely fine whilst there.

Coca leaf tea (legal in Peru and doesn’t have any drug like effect) will help while she’s in Cusco.

Another tip is not to be so relieved after returning from Machu Pichu to Cusco that you drink at the world’s highest Irish bar the way you would at home thinking you’ll be able to handle. You can’t. Go home.

I felt it in Cusco but Machu Pichu was fine. The coca tea in all the lobbies is supposed to help as are the sweets you can suck.
Our hotel offered oxygen to one youngster who had trouble.
Can her accommodation help?

Yes she's been there 2 days but hasn't improved and yes, Machu is lower but she's worried that she hadn't got the strength to hike now as she feels so awful. Finding it hard to even walk to shop in Cusco and she's normally very fit!
Should she go? They are going by taxi apparently

Try asprin or ibruprofen & lots of water.

Machu Picchu is at 2,430m and cusco 3,399m so she will likely feel much better there. Are they walking there or getting the train?

Tell her not to bother hiking. She can hike anywhere. Get the train - it’s an Orient Express with beautiful table cloths and glasses and musicians playing. It’s an experience within itself watching the scenery unfold from the windows. It’s not worth hiking when you feel ill.

Unless you mean hiking at Machu Pichu itself, since you mentioned them getting the train?

There is no hiking when you’re there. It’s more like visiting a cathedral or castle, that style of walking.

Chewing Coca leaf should help.

She needs to descend so she should go to
M Picchu. Can she have the train as a back up option to hiking?

If you hike to Machu Picchu over the Inca trail, you go a lot higher than Cusco. If she's getting the train to ollentaytambo and then walking up to Machu Picchu from there, she'll be fine.

The best thing for altitude sickness is to go to a lower altitude as soon as possible. It is actually dangerous to just take drugs and try and push through it.

Same happened to me age 21. took a couple of days to acclimatise.
Drank coca tea regularly, gentle build up of activity, did sacsayhuaman I think as a build up hike and the usual hydration and nutrition.
I was still nauseated for the whole hike however. Struggled to eat, drank the tea, hiked and lost a lot of weight. Came back ridiculously fit and able to run and run and run. Good times 😉

Going safely to a lower altitude will help. She shouldn't go higher.

If she has a headache, she can take ibuprofen or paracetamol/acetaminophen.

If she had nausea, she can take promethazine (Phenergan/Sominex). This might be hard to come by in the mountains but I imagine she's not the only tourist to be stricken so you never know.

If she’s planning on doing the Inca trail / another multi day walk in the area, that might not be a good idea. If she’s just going straight to Machu Picchu and walking around there that should be ok.

My husband does high altitude climbing (lots) and we did Kilimanjaro pre kids (20+ years ago). One of our group was so incapacitated with altitude sickness he had to be stretchered down by sherpas. He couldn’t walk, talk and had chronic D&V. She should get to a lower altitude as soon as she possibly can. It’s dangerous and she could be putting her life at risk if she doesn’t. Taking pain relief is hiding life threatening symptoms.

Thank you all, she's heading lower to Machu today by taxi and has been advised not to do the hike unfortunately so she will be alone for a couple of days and then meeting the others there by train. I'm relieved to be honest, she was really stressed about it and feeling so poorly. Hopefully going lower will make her feel good again.
Altitude sickness is so random, she's young and very healthy. All the others are fine after a few hours.

Altitude sickness is utterly random. I've been at altitude many times and sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't. Good advice above and I'm glad she's not doing the hike. You should always listen to your body and not push it if you're feeling dreadful (unless you're in the Marines or something and that's literally your job description!).

I'm glad she's feeling better. Even if she misses the hike, she's still having the experience of a lifetime.