Insulin-To The Wild: Red Screes and Middle Dodd
By: Phil Mcallister
Tags: Exercise, Diabetes, Type 1 Diabetes, Lake District, Walking

About Me

I am a recently diagnosed type 1 diabetic. I ignored my symptoms for weeks before landing in hospital with Diabetic Ketoacidosis. My ketone levels were 6.9 and they can be life threatening if left untreated. This blog describes a walk in the Lake District — Red Screes and Middle Dodd — and is not a ‘how to’ blog. It is simply an account of what happened and what I did, and will hopefully inspire any other diabetic to go out walking or learn from my actions. If you’re bagging Wainwrights it may also be for you.

At the time of this walk I have been a diabetic for a little under two months and I have been fortunate enough to already have been given the Free Style Libre. The Free Style Libre is a sensor that sits on the back of my arm with adhesive. By using an app on my phone I can scan the sensor and it gives me a blood sugar reading.

This has been a major help in monitoring blood sugars. I can scan quickly and easily, no longer having to prick my finger to draw blood, and I only need my phone rather than a bulky testing kit. The sensor also gives me information on what is happening. When I scan there is an arrow next to the reading. Either up, diagonally up, horizontal, diagonally down, or down. If the reading was 5.0 with a down arrow it means I am currently 5.0 but my levels are still falling. The sensor has been a huge help, particularly when doing exercise and I encourage any Type 1 diabetic to get one.

Red Screes + Middle Dodd

Red Screes and Middle Dodd are two Wainwright’s that sit just off the Kirkstone pass. It is possible to make a direct ascent from Kirkstone pass but the walk is very steep with lots of scree. For a more pleasant walk, the walk I did, it is best to approach using Scandale Pass which can be accessed from Ambleside and returning via the southerly ridge. The walk is 8.8miles long and took us about 4.5 hours with a couple of stops.

Starting from the main carpark in Ambleside, head past the toilets and over the foot bridge and take the road directly opposite. Pass the Golden Rule pub and take a left onto Sweden Bridge Lane. This leads to a gate and a rough track through a lovely little woodland with Scandale Beck cascading down below. There had been plenty of rainfall in the previous days and the beck was making plenty of noise.

The Beginning of a Constant Battle

At the start of the walk my blood sugars levels were 7.5mmol. The ideal level is between 4–7 but as I was beginning exercise I was happy with 7.5 as I knew my levels were going to continually drop, but I was thinking that it would be a slow drop and that I would just have to keep myself topped up with food to manage everything. I was wrong. After half an hour of steady walking I decided to scan my sensor. Just out of curiosity rather than feeling any effects of a hypo or anything. A hypo being when blood sugars falls below 4.0mmol and I begin to get disorientated/dizzy/lethargic/slurred speech. My reading was 4.9 with a diagonally downward arrow. At this point I had a kiwi and kept walking. Seven minutes later I was 4.2 and sliding.

I was starting to worry and was searching my bag for my dextroglucose tablets — a fast acting sugar which will raise my levels quickly — when it dawned on me I had left them in the car. As an alternative I had half a banana. Ten minutes later I was 3.9 and sliding. What the f*** was going on? The walk through the woodland and beginning of Scandale Pass is a very gentle one. It is roughly 60–90 minutes of walking up a valley with minimal gradient. I wasn’t walking up the nose of Kirkfell — the steepest path in the lakes — so I couldn’t understand the rapid drop in my levels. At 3.9 I finished the rest of my banana and that’s when I actually started panicking because I thought I’d had too many carbs! The nurses tell me I don’t need any insulin if I’m having 10g or less of carbohydrates. I had had a banana and a kiwi and was thinking ‘oh here we go. You panicked and now you’re levels are going to soar. It takes time for food to digest so why weren’t you patient?’ The panic was completely unfounded because my levels rose to 4.6 and never got higher than 5.7 all walk.