Astronaut Scott Kelly held the record for the most consecutive days spent aboard the International Space Station, but it was an achievement that came with a high cost.
He now suffers numerous health problems after his 340-day mission. Kelly’s health problems will plague him for the rest of his life. He even shares his problems in his book titled Endurance.
Here are all the things that happened to the astronaut.
A Burning Rash All Over His Skin
Kelly discovered a strange rash:
‘My skin is burning, too,’ I tell her. Amiko frantically examines me. I have a strange rash all over my back, the backs of my legs, the back of my head and neck – everywhere I was in contact with the bed.
I can feel her cool hands moving over my inflamed skin. ‘It looks like an allergic rash,’ she says. ‘Like hives.’
An Extremely High Risk Of Cancer
Kelly’s risk of getting cancer was significantly increased with the time he spent in space. According to The Globe and Mail:
“During his months in space, Kelly had more than 30 times the exposure to radiation of a person on Earth – equivalent to about 10 chest X-rays a day.”
Relentless High Fever
On page six of Endurance, Kelly shares that he feels unwell:
‘Amiko,'” I finally manage to say. She is alarmed by the sound of my voice.
‘What is it?’ Her hand is on my arm, then on my forehead.
Her skin feels chilled, but it’s just that I’m so hot. ‘I don’t feel good,’ I say.
A Rush Of Blood To The Legs
Kelly also details the start of the leg episode with his challenges trying to move around:
“I struggle to get up. Find the edge of the bed. Feet down. Sit up. Stand up. At every stage I feel like I’m fighting through quicksand. When I’m finally vertical, the pain in my legs is awful, and on top of that pain I feel a sensation that’s even more alarming: it feels as though all the blood in my body is rushing to my legs, like the sensation of the blood rushing to your head when you do a handstand, but in reverse.”
Waves Of Nausea
Kelly’s fear is palpable on page six of his book:
“I’m seriously nauseated now, feverish, and my pain has gotten worse. This isn’t like how I felt after my last mission. This is much, much worse.”
Muscles And Joints Feeling Prematurely Aged
Kelly wrote about this experience in the Sydney Morning Herald as well:
“It’s March 2016, and I’ve been back on Earth, after a year in space, for precisely 48 hours. I push back from the table and struggle to stand up, feeling like a very old man getting out of a recliner.”
An Overwhelming Nausea From Gravity
Kelly had to deal with overwhelming nausea, which he discussed on page six:
“I’m also nauseated, though I haven’t thrown up. I strip off my clothes and get into bed, relishing the feeling of sheets, the light pressure of the blanket over me, the fluff of the pillow under my head.”
Problems With Vision
Even during his earlier, shorter missions, Kelly experienced a taste of what he would later experience more extensively after a longer trip in space.
He spent an entire year in space, causing the previous health problems to magnify:
“On my previous flight to the space station, a mission of 159 days, I lost bone mass, my muscles atrophied, and my blood redistributed itself in my body, which strained and shrank the walls of my heart. More troubling, I experienced problems with my vision, as many other astronauts had.”
A Disconnect With Walking
Page six of Endurance has Kelly talking about his disconnect with walking:
“I start the journey to my bedroom: about 20 steps from the chair to the bed. On the third step, the floor seems to lurch under me, and I stumble into a planter. Of course, it isn’t the floor – it’s my vestibular system trying to read just to Earth’s gravity. I’m getting used to walking again.”
Legs Like “Alien Stumps” And Ankles Swollen To A Bursting Point
On page seven of Endurance, the astronaut says:
“I can feel the tissue in my legs swelling. I shuffle my way to the bathroom, moving my weight from one foot to the other with deliberate effort. Left. Right. Left. Right. I make it to the bathroom, flip on the light, and look down at my legs. They are swollen and alien stumps, not legs at all. ‘Oh sh*t,’ I say. ‘Amiko, come look at this.’ She kneels down and squeezes one ankle, and it squishes like a water balloon. She looks up at me with worried eyes. ‘I can’t even feel your ankle bones,’ she says.”
An Altered Sense Of Gravity
On page 79, Kelly talks about having a skewed sense of gravity:
“I’m often still disoriented about how my body is positioned. I’ll wake up convinced that I’m upside down, because in the dark and without gravity, my inner ear just takes a random guess on the position of my body in the small space.”
“When I turn on a light, I have a sort of visual illusion that the room is rotating rapidly as it reorients itself around me, though I know it’s actually my brain readjusting in response to new sensory input.”
Pain All Over The Body
Kelly discusses the pain on page six saying:
“Every part of my body hurts. All my joints and all of my muscles are protesting the crushing pressure of gravity.”
An Inability To Regain Full Consciousness
Kelly goes on to talk about his deep sleep on page six:
“I’ve only been asleep for a couple of hours but I feel delirious. It’s a struggle to come to consciousness enough to move, to tell her [Amiko] how awful I feel.”
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