Correct use of Diamox

CaraBethP

I have read all of the posts about altitude sickness, plan to heed your advice, and spoke with my doctor yesterday. He prescribed Diamox, telling me to take 1 every 12 hours. He said that you should begin taking them a day or so prior to rise in altitude and take them a day or 2 after leaving the higher altitudes. BUT, he did not know, because he didn't know where we were going or the altitudes, when that would be on this trip. Could any of you advise which day a person should start taking Diamox, and what day we leave the upper elevation? This is somewhat of a worry for me because I have migraines and I plan to be vigilant in combating altitude sickness. Thanks for your help.

murphypeg

Did you receive an reply to how you were to take the meds and for which days? We go in Sept and don't know how many pills to have on hand.

[Deleted User]

You could get some idea for the altitudes by looking at the day-by-day itinerary and Googling the placenames. When I tried Lima, I got a useful page with altitudes for the major sites in Peru at this url: http://www.machupicchu-inca.com/peru-altitude.html
Now all you need is Bolivia.

Merlin321

We were in Peru in May and I was also concerned about the altitude. Many years ago I got a pretty bad headache when we took the train up Pikes Peak (I was smoking then, not now) so I wanted to do whatever I could to avoid the altitude sickness in Peru. My Dr. gave me a prescription for Diamox and he said, and what I saw on the internet, was to start taking it a day or two before you got to any significant altitude. We followed just about an identical itinerary of your trip, so I started taking the Diamox two days before arriving in Cusco (11,000 ft.) which would be the first day of the tour, the day you arrive in Lima. You're in Cusco a short time, but then you descend, as we did, into the valley (about 9,000 ft.) for two days. This helps you acclimate to the altitude before you ascend again. We stayed in a different hotel then you're scheduled for in the Sacred Valley and Ollantaytambo. Our hotel had bottled oxygen which we requested and they brought to our room (no charge). I wasn't having any symptoms, I was feeling fine, but I asked for the oxygen. They recommend that you put the mask on and breathe for 5 mins. I did this twice about 2 hrs. apart just in case. Machu Picchu is actually about 1,000 ft. lower than the Sacred Valley, and by then you should have acclimated. I see you then go up to about 12,000 to Lake Titicaca and then to La Paz which gets as high as about 13,000 ft. I've seen different recommendations that you continue to take the Diamox until you descend, and others say you can stop taking it when you reach your highest altitude, which for you would be day 9. I didn't have any side effects from the Diamox so I just kept taking it. My wife couldn't take it because she's allergic to Sulfa drugs and Diamox is a Sulfa drug. She didn't have any ill effects from the altitude. There was one other person in our group of about 20 who had a headache and needed the oxygen. Some others used it like me, just in case. The only other issue was I got a little out of breath walking up and down the hills, but nothing serious. Good luck and enjoy the trip.