In reply to ben b:
Cheers for the reply. I've been down 2 weeks, and although feeling much better, still got a small headache, and a certain amount of dizziness. I've been to see my GP and had a referral to a neurologist - actually Charlie Clarke, who obviously has climbed a lot of big mountains and has suffered from HACE himself. I've yet to see him but he has been very good in giving an e-mail consultation.
I've definitely noticed my brain working slower which is worrying (has it stopped !!) but that also seems to be getting better as time goes on. Drinking has been a definite no no ....
I was about 6,000m when I got ill .... same old story, too high, too fast and the atmospheric pressure fell dramatically as well. Didn't descend very far for a while ... trying to stay on expedition, stupidly. But a real lesson as to how blind you, and your partners, can be to a potentially lethal situation.
Very interesting you should mention ginko biloba - I was taking this on this trip. I think it helps in a small way when acclimatising properly, but if you get into the area where you can potentially get HACE or HAPE, then it doesn't make much difference. Diamox didn't seem to do the job either.
Certainly an episode of HACE makes you wary of high altitude - I've cancelled some plans to go higher. But in terms of Alpine stuff, I just know to be careful about how high, how quickly I go.
Anyway, who wants to go plodding up snowy slopes at high altitude ? Instead of dreaming of food on this expedition, we were dreaming of a sunny day at Tremadog, fantastic water ice at Celliac and a glorious bivvy on the Frendo ...
now that's what I call climbing.