Traveling to high elevation in Colorado

I was considering a trip to Colorado myself so I would be interested to hear what those with experience have to say!

I’m also very interested. I’d love to go to Machu Picchu next winter, but am conflicted due to remote location and elevation. I have mild bronchiectasis with great PFT’s and significant sinus issues.

I was in NJH in Denver over 5000 ft and the saturation goes down by 3-4 %. But I kept it around 92% so there was no need for the oxygen. We made a short trip to see the ski resort around 9000 ft and I was short of breath and walking was a challenge. So I would say consider all the elements such as your saturation level, shortness of breath but definitely your saturation level will go down.

At rest, I am 90% at 5000' and 98% at sea level. I live at 5000' but plan to move.

I have mild bronchiectasis and MAC, and I have been at high altitudes, up to about 10,00ft. I only experienced shortness of breath when walking up an incline or too fast. I usually make it fine if I slow down and focus on breathing. I also get short of breath at 500 ft when climbing stairs or hills so not much difference. I was thinking of a trip to Bhutan but that might be pushing it too far. Not sure I could make it to Tiger’s Nest Monastery.

How long does it take to adjust to higher elevation than one is used to? If it's a few days perhaps @sadair20 could travel a few days early.

I spent some time on the mountain in Angel Fire, NM. I did okay for several days. Yes, shortness of breath when walking distances or climbing stairs but nothing unmanageable. However, fireplaces were everywhere. The smoke and ash eventually got me into trouble. If you can stay away from that you should be okay to attend the wedding.

I did a “scholarly” search and found this very helpful article on travel with bronchiectasis.

The European Bronchiectasis Research group, EMBARC, recognized that patients often ask for advice on travel. There’s little research available. Therefore, they formed a patient advisory group to formulate a questionaire and sent it to 26 bronchiectasis experts and summarized the info in the article above. It’s good info. A Mayo doc is included in author list.

Wow, thank you! That is incredibly helpful! Thank you for posting.

THANK YOU! Cathy. This gets the award for the most helpful post of the week, since this is such a frequent question. I will be adding it to our "ABC's of MAC & Bronchiectasis" discussion for ease of locating later.
Sue