Bush walking without hypo food

[alacrityvirtue]

I've done it twice in 2 weeks, and have never done it before. The first time I was taking the dogs out bush for a run and ended up walking with them for a few k's. I first felt the hypo and tried to convince myself it was just all the fresh air getting to me! Then I decided it couldn't be a hypo because I had a coffee earlier and it has lots of milk! Then I started thinking who would I call? My hubby, 000? I had no idea how to explain where I was, I had 2 dogs and one lead. I then started thinking which dog would I put on the lead if I couldn't walk anymore, then thought would I lie down or prop myself against a tree. I eventualyy made it back, with lots of stumbling, to my car and ate a bag full of lollies! The next time wasn't quite so bad, I had jelly beans but not enough.
Anyone else done similar?

[kaito]

Plenty of times!

I keep some lollies in a ziplock bag, and carry that with my phone, meter, house keys... almost need a suitcase to go for a walk :) but yes, nothing worse than getting caught out though. Even thinking of adding a little individual biscuit pack, to give me a bit more strength to get home, personally I find that lollies just don't have the staying power when I exercise then hypo.

It takes a bit of trial and error for me, but it's certainly doable. The most important thing for me is to remember to always take my stash, especially as I walk a lot and often end up needing to walk more than I originally intended!

[Jen (nli)]

Yes. Recently actually (although I was 'okay'... and I did have food, just probably not the quickest acting food).

The example that comes to my mind though - a few years ago I went for an evening walk. I was fine when I set off and I knew it was a relatively short walk of about 4kms (two uphill and then two kms downhill). I'd had my main meal, and although the details are sketchy now, I think I honestly thought I'd be fine - and knowing me I probably based that decision on years of diabetes experience... it wouldn't have been something I took lightly. Usually I take a backpack with meter, money, phone, food - or at the very least put a bag of lollies in my pocket and a phone ... this time, for some weird reason, I took just myself and my house keys. I almost never do this so I'm not sure why I did it on that occasion.

So I get up the hill (which is actually on a pretty major road...), and begin to feel hypo. Although it was light when I started walking, it was now dark. But the return trip is down hill so I think "Well, I'll just get a move on and I'll be down the bottom before I know it".

Hmmmm. I get about half way and realise how incredibly vulnerable I am... walking with no phone, no food, no money, no id... and then I begin to get the stumbles... you know when your legs don't want to support your weight. So I fall over - a few times. That's when the panic just completely overtook me and maybe that was a good thing because after a while I was actually able to stand up again and keep walking (albeit on wobbly legs). It was the longest km I've ever walked! I had to lean on lots of fences along the way. Anyway, I made it. Reaching my house and seeing my husband through the window is still one of my all time most comforting sights.

Glad you were okay alacrityvirtue. It certainly is scary. I'm usually very careful about taking phone, keys, ID, some sort of food and money with me, particularly since then ... I think (given enough time) a lot of us end up getting caught out at some stage.

[straygaijin]

I'm probably living a bit risky as when I go for a run shorter than about 1 hour I don't normally take any food with me. I'll take keys, some money and water but that is about it. I do remember to test just before I go but we all know BG's can drop rapidly - sometimes without an obvious reason. For the longer runs I am always better prepared with some gels, normally a snack bar etc.

I've never had a problem in a training run when I have gone low, on the other hand I have dropped as low as 2.3 in City to Surf and 1.9 in London Marathon and still got to the next feed station to fuel up. I find if I drop slowly, I am coherent at a much lower BG than if it drops quickly.

I was thinking about this today actually. I did a 5 hour run in the Blue Mountains and although I had plenty of food and clothing if I got into trouble, my phone had gone flat and I had no way of calling for assistance and since it was mid-week, it was quite unlikely that I would have been found until the weekend. Not a good place to be if I had passed out. I was wearing a CGMS so had a pretty good idea what my number was but I don't always have that.

I've only been diabetic since Nov 2004 and sometimes I forget that I can't just live life as I used to.