For much of his life, Ben was coping with the combined effects of childhood and adult trauma and PTSD, autism spectrum disorder, manic depression, and suspected chronic Lyme. He may also have had autoimmune issues for some time. Ben was resilient enough to manage these problems to an extent, but in 2018, he went on a thousand-mile hiking expedition across Europe, the Middle East, and India, and it was on this trip that his health collapsed. So many things went wrong on this trip, and he developed so many chronic symptoms in so many parts of his body afterwards, that getting any universally agreed-upon diagnosis has been challenging. Here are just some of the things that happened before and after Ben’s hiking trip.
🔪 Shoulder surgery right before trip (healing while hiking)
🦠 Infected tattoo during hike
💉 Treating tattoo with oral and topical antibiotics while hiking
🚰 Drank from open streams in Alps, Corsica, and Jordan while hiking, got diarrhea
💉 Vaccinated while weak after hiking hundreds of miles; resumed hiking without sufficient recovery (yellow fever, malaria, typhus, hepatitis A, Japanese encephalitis, and rabies vaccines)
🩸 Likely tick exposure in many places, including the Alps and Sweden
🫲 Developed finger joint stiffness while hiking
🤕 Multiple head injuries while hiking
🦟 Bitten by clouds of mosquitoes while hiking in Sweden
🥾 Hiked 40+ miles through the desert of Jordan in one go with no sleep
💧 Life-threatening dehydration in Jordan desert
🌞 Possible sunstroke in Jordan
💢 Chased by strangers through desert of Jordan at night
🐐 Ate balls of goat's cheese offered to him by a Jordan nomad
👂 After arriving in India, flu-like symptoms and two ear infections
⛰️ Altitude sickness in India
💉 Shot of dexamethasone in India for altitude sickness