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On recent travels the DiAthlete ventured to the French Capital of Paris. And there, whilst tasting the suspicious delights of snails during mealtime and calculating the amount of carbohydrates to go with that, I also went to face my one phobia in life… heights.
It was many years back where the fear first began for me. I had never been keen on being around heights to tell the truth, but flying had never been an issue, just going near edges. Then, as a very young school boy on a trip to the Isle of Wight, I went up for a 30ft abseil. I went too early, fortunately my harness was attached but the rep at the bottom with the ropes hadn’t given the order to go. All I recall was slipping instantly and then dangling from the 30 ft edge in my harness, too petrified to pull myself together as I gazed downwards. I was up there, hanging on, for some time.
Despite the phobia, I’ve always been the adventurous type. If I don’t succeed, I’ll keep trying. I recall going straight back up the stairs to give the abseil another go after that experience and I must have been no-older than 7 years of age. At 8 I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
I had the experience of Paris once before, where I was probably around 9 years old. This entailed the Eiffel Tower and my phobia very much getting the better of me.
So, to be back in Paris, I decided to take it on once again. To begin with the queue for the North side was ridiculous and much more expensive. So it made sense to take the smaller queue on the South side and pay less… then, once making the top tiers, walking around and seeing the North side any way.
We did just that. Before climbing the thousands of stairs it was also common sense with diabetes to take a blood glucose test. It registered at 3.9 mmol/ls. Hypo!
Lorea wanted me to treat the hypo there and then, but I knew what was coming. This would be a very unorthodox way of treating a hypoglycaemia and highly inadvisable, but I’ve always been the type to enjoy experimenting my body as a form of self-research. My view was that when climbing the extreme heights of the Eiffel Tower, I was very much facing my fears. In doing just that, blood glucose levels would increase. The reason I believed this was because of the ‘Adrenaline Effect’ where in sport, for example, a change of pace from a jog to a few sprints can cause the liver to release natural glucose into the blood system. This causes spikes in blood glucose levels for people with diabetes. My view was that the fear-factor would trigger the same effect, regardless of the exercise in climbing the stairs.
Up and up we went… and the further we got, the more my phobia kicked into place. That twinge feeling, the hairs standing up on the neck, almost feeling sickly from inside the stomach. I was wearing my Dexcom CGM which proved to be a useful tool in this ‘experiment’ as it reflected with the arrows how my blood glucose levels started to rise.
One of the parts I hated the most was reaching the first tier. As beautiful as the views might have been, there was this one part toward the centre where you can look down and see the people like ants queuing up below you. Maybe this added a mmol/l or so on to my levels…
And then, going up again, my phobia increased all the more. By the first tier my blood glucose levels had risen from 3.9 to 5.6. As I continued upwards, I really got the shakes and it was nothing to do with hypoglycaemia, as reflected by my CGM. The main part that got to me was the holes in the floor and the cage-like views, it was a long way down. When it comes to aeroplanes I am absolutely fine. And also, recently in Slovenia, I was climbing and walking along a castle wall, the fear element was there but not the way it was when up the Eiffel Tower. The level of height is what caused my phobia. Regardless of that… I kept on walking forward, perhaps cursing once or twice (speaking the native French there) and made it to the top of the stairs.
When up there my blood glucose registered 7.0 mmol/ls.
And then it was the climb downwards. I done this part quite well, moving fast. But I think that part freaks me out the most, as you’re always looking down. Once at the bottom my CGM indicated that I was 7.9mmol/ls and increasing…
I guess the points made here are that firstly, fear can trigger off the adrenaline effect! And secondly, living with diabetes cannot prevent you from doing anything. By this I mean to say that despite my levels increasing during, I was still able to get to the top and that was despite my fears also. Don’t let diabetes ever stop you from getting to the top!
What happens to the blood sugars hours later? Similar to a game of football really… I crashed toward a hypo!
In a football match I used to find my blood glucose levels would spike quite high, something frustrating as this can affect mentality and performance. It was caused by this effect, through the constant changes of pace during a game. Yet, hours after the match, when my blood levels may have registered a high level, I would then CRASH to a hypo.
My way of counteracting this effect in football was by upping my basal insulin to prevent the extreme highs during a game and then would instantly dig into the sandwiches after the match.
When climbing the Eiffel Tower, it wasn’t a game of football and I didn’t go hyper. It rose to around the 9.0mmol/l mark before calming, but I still had done a lot of exercise – climbing nearly 4000 steps to go up and down. I did crash. Also being in Paris, we were making the most of it and seeing all the places to see, so there was plenty of walking. Eventually we found this cushty little restaurant close to the Arc de Triumphe called Le Hide. Excellent food, one must say.. and that was where the snails were tasted.
The key advice here would be to keep on top of things. Know your levels and keep tabs on them as much as possible, especially when you’ve been active in the day.
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