Palfrey ordered to get rest

Doctors have ordered marathon swimmer Penny Palfrey to rest over the next few days to ensure she recovers well from her world record-making 67.25 mile swim from Little Cayman to Grand Cayman.

The 48-year-old swimmer still has difficulty speaking as her mouth is swollen and has ulcers from the salt water.

Asked how she was feeling, Ms Palfrey replied: “Getting there.”

She said she is still not feeling up to doing interviews.

Her husband Chris Palfrey said her lat muscles, down the side of her torso, were badly bruised and she is still very sore.

“She is not allowed out in the sun, no strenuous activity, lots and lots of rest, lots of water, no diving, no fun things basically. She’s been told don’t do anything that is fun or good for the next two days,” he said.

He added: “Her kidneys are also still processing everything out. You do something like that for such a long time, there is going to be consequences, you just don’t want them to be long term.”

Because she still requires rest and cannot be exposed to the sun, she will not be able to take part in Saturday’s Flowers Sea Swim, as she had hoped. Mr. Palfrey, who is also a marathon open water swimmer, said he planned to do the one-mile sea swim along Seven Mile Beach.

The longest Ms Palfrey, who is a mother of three and a grandmother of one, had previously spent in the water in a single swim was almost 18 hours during a swim in Los Angeles. Mr. Palfrey said recovery from such long swims was a gradual process.

Following her 18-hour swim, “she was really flat for three or four days after that, she gradually got better and a week later she was doing some light to moderate training and two or three weeks later she was back to full training. This one will take longer because there is some major body issues,” her husband said.

The swimmer’s husband, who was a member of her support crew during the epic swim, said enzyme levels in her body, that are normally about 100, were 4,000 when she entered hospital after being taken by ambulance from East End on Sunday night. By Tuesday, they had dropped to 1,000.

“She’s going to have more blood tests on Friday to see it’s all going OK,” he said.

Throughout her swim, during which she could not stop to sleep or rest, she kept up her energy levels with regular feeds of liquid food high in carbohydrates, amino acids and electrolytes. These drinks were usually fixed by Mr. Palfrey and Dan Boyle on the support boat, the Carib Princess. They combined the powdered mixture with water every few hours to ensure she always had plenty to consume.

She told her team that throughout the swim, she did not feel tired.

“She said she did not feel tired on the entire swim. She was obviously sore and hurting and hungry and thirsty but not tired. She always had her wits about her. She knew what was going on,” said Mr. Palfrey.

Some long distance swimmers experience hallucinations and confusion during the hours and hours they spend in open water doing repetitive strokes.

Mr. Boyle explained that as the swim entered its second half, Ms Palfrey was already experiencing some trouble feeding as her mouth and tongue swelled.

“The feeds got harder and harder in the second half… She did find it more difficult to feed during the end of the swim but we adjusted. We did a few hours when we did more frequent feeds [every 20 minutes]… to make sure she got the nutrition that she needed. More frequent mouthwash. At one point, she was asking for ice to try to reduce the swelling and we got her that,” he said.

She got a sugary boost in the late afternoon on the second day when a large tub of chocolate ice-cream was brought from shore on board a Red Sail boat.

Whether by adrenaline or a burst of final energy, the swimmer surprised her Bridging the Islands team when she pumped up her speed as she entered Fisherman’s Cut at East End and headed to the beach at Morritt’s Tortuga Resort on Sunday night where hundreds of people awaited her arrival.

“She put in a good sprint to get through that current at Fisherman’s Cut. Her stroke rate then was pretty much the same as it was at the start… about 80 strokes a minute,” said Mr. Palfrey.

Frank E. Flowers, the movie-maker son of the Bridging the Islands organiser Frank Flowers, filmed interviews with three of Ms Palfrey’s support team at her hotel on Tuesday night as Ms Palfrey’s watched quietly nearby. He said he hoped to interview several of the 25-strong crew who supported Ms Palfrey on the kayaks, inflatable power boats, the Carib Princess and Cayman Time.