Over the weekend, I jumped out a plane. I didn’t mean to – it was completely unplanned. I had intended to go cherry picking while my husband went sky diving, returning just in time to see and photograph him landing safely. But as he was checking-in for his adventure, the lovely woman passing him some paperwork said to me ‘Do you want to jump?’ and inexplicably, I heard myself saying ‘Yes. Yes I do.’
Wait? What? I was meant to be picking cherries!
Instead, I found myself at 12,000 feet above the ground in a tiny Cessna, strapped to and sitting on the lap of a young man I’d met only half an hour earlier. We traded in clichés: ‘How long have you been doing this for?’ I asked him. ‘Today is my first day,’ he joked (I think…I hope…). ‘Shouldn’t you have bought me dinner first?’ I said as he strapped himself very tightly to me, pressing his body hard up against mine. Oh, how we laughed! Considering he was about to push himself out of a plane with me strapped to his front, we were very relaxed and chilled!
Let me tell you what jumping out of a plane does to ones blood glucose levels.
Just before I got out of the car – where the highest I planned to get for the day was up a ladder in a cherry orchard – my BGL was sitting nicely around 7.0mmol/l. Quite good, I thought, considering I’d eaten a lime brulee doughnut a mere 50 minutes earlier.
Just before I climbed into the plane to fly into the sky and then hurtle to the ground, my BGL had crept up to 12mmol/l. I gave myself a correction bolus before disconnecting my pump and leaving it on the ground.
I have no idea how high my BGL got, but I suspect that if I had checked the moment I was sitting half out of the plane, with my legs hanging somewhat lifelessly over the edge of the step, about to tumble into the sky, free-falling to the ground at around 200 kilometres an hour, it would have been stratospheric and my meter would have expoded!
When I got to the ground and finished screaming with absolute, unabashed joy, and jumping up and down, and high-fiving anyone near me, I checked again to see a nice 17.9mmol/l.
I was running on pure adrenaline. I could feel the blood pulsing through my veins, the bright blue sky was vivid, people’s voices were crystal clear. It was as though my senses had all been heightened and I was feeling everything with an increased, crisp intensity. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before.
Apart from being interested in my BGLs, diabetes was completely insignificant in this little adventure. I filled in a few forms, one of them asking the requisite medical questions. I told the woman behind the counter that I have type 1 diabetes and use a pump. ‘Disconnect it and leave it with me,’ she said. ‘Same with your meter. Just check your sugars before you jump.’ I must have looked surprised. ‘A friend has diabetes. She’s jumped heaps of times. But never with her pump – she leaves it with me. They are worth a bit, aren’t they?’
I have never had a burning desire to sky dive; it’s not been on my bucket list – actually, I don’t even really have a bucket list. So perhaps because I hadn’t been thinking about it for years, I didn’t really have any expectations. I know deciding to do it was simply a spur of the moment decision – I wasn’t doing it to prove anything or to feel like a daredevil. It was just something to do because I was there at that moment.
I wasn’t nervous, I wasn’t scared. I just was. I hear all the time that people do things like this to shake up their lives or when they feel they are in some sort of rut. Was that why I did it?
As I was floating back to the ground, I thought about what I had just done and I realised that perhaps I hadn’t jumped to escape any feelings of boredom. I was not doing it to distance myself from feeling I was in a rut. I was jumping, and now floating, towards something. Towards my life. A life where, if I decided to, I would – and could – jump out of a plane. A life where nothing stopped me from doing things out of the ordinary; not even diabetes could stop me!
We headed to a cherry farm later the day. But picking our own fruit sounded like too much work, so we just walked up to the packing shed and bought a couple of kilos to take home with us. ‘I was going to pick my own,’ I said to the woman at the farm. ‘But instead I jumped out of a plane.’
I heard how strange that sounded and laughed, popping a cherry into my mouth. I had just jumped out of a plane. I had just jumped out of a plane.
If you are looking for somewhere to go cherry picking around the Yarra Valley, I suggest you head to Lanidale Orchard in Wandin. Awesome cherries and friendly staff.
13 comments
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December 3, 2014 at 10:17 am
Andrea
So exciting! And I love that it was totally normal to have a pump and take it off to jump. I’ve jumped once but pre-dabetes – this post makes me want to do it again!
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December 3, 2014 at 10:29 am
RenzaS
You should!!! It was so much fun, Andrea.
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December 3, 2014 at 11:18 am
Stephanie
You’re so crazy-awesome Renza! I find your comment of how aware the staff were about diabetes so refreshing!!
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December 3, 2014 at 2:46 pm
RenzaS
I was so impressed with the staff, Stef. It made the whole thing just so easy! Thanks for reading.
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December 3, 2014 at 12:49 pm
Kerri.
I love all of this beyond measure.
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December 3, 2014 at 2:47 pm
RenzaS
Thank you, lovely! Next time you are here, let’s jump together…..
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December 3, 2014 at 1:20 pm
Scott E
This sounds like so much fun. So much fun that I would never do it myself.
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December 3, 2014 at 2:48 pm
RenzaS
Never say never, Scott! I hadn’t planned on doing it until just before I went up in the plane!
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December 3, 2014 at 2:48 pm
denise graham
All I can say is WOW!!! To jump out of a plane with no pre planning is just so brave and scary. Good on you Renza it was so great to read your story.
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December 3, 2014 at 2:50 pm
RenzaS
Thank you Denise. Actually, your comment has me thinking. I wonder if I would ever have done it if I HAD planned it. I didn’t have any time to talk myself out of jumping. Thanks for reading!
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December 3, 2014 at 3:28 pm
Jeann
Wow!!
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December 4, 2014 at 1:34 am
StephenS
Thank you for redefining the phrase “I can do anything with diabetes”. I am so jealous right now. In a good way.
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January 10, 2015 at 1:08 am
Diabetes Forces Us To Try New Things When It Comes To Managing Our Diabetes – And That’s A Good Thing~ | InsulinPrices.com
[…] Look, I still have issues with change – especially big changes, like figuring out where I want to move and “going for it.” But I’m really working on making those become a reality instead of just talking about it. I LOVE to try new things, except for foods made with liver and skydiving because the thought of jumping out of a plane FREAKS ME OUT. But HUGE kudos to our amazing Aussie DOC friend, Renza over at Diabetogenic for jumping out of a plane last weekend! […]
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