April is for summer holidays and sunny sorbets. April is also Poetry Month, a time to reflect and introspect on life and everything that comes with it. Talking of poetry, have you checked out Madhura's blog / poetry on diabetes yet?

Here are my favourite lines from Neruda's The Sea and the Bells. They are a great reminder to not be too overwhelmed by change but to calmly persevere and find the proverbial light. I have been struggling with my numbers lately with the heat and a gazillion other things, known and yet to be known. In the case of diabetes, as contradictory to most people's experience as it may sound, I find that nothing is really unknown and everything has a reason - it is either 'known' or something 'yet to be known', therefore my peculiar choice of words and aversion to putting everything down to the great unknown.

I find these lines so relevant in the case of diabetes management, do you?

This April, our social media campaign at Club 1 Diabetes was called #HypoHacks. We threw open the gates and asked you about your hypo hacks, all your tips and tricks that have held you in good stead to deal with hypoglycemia or low blood sugars. This cool campaign topic was Madhura's brain child. Check out how she launched the April campaign and what her hypo hacks are.

Uday from Bhavnagar in Gujarat shares a fool proof way to deal with hypos. He carries glucose powder around in his pocket so that it is always handy and accessible when he needs it the most in a hypo.

Charudatta from Pune shares his experience of being a type 1 diabetic for 30 years. He touches upon an important point which is that the best way of treating hypos is with a measured amount of glucose. While that might be a difficult thing to do every time, especially when you are hypo and want to eat the whole fridge, it pays off if you stick to it and helps you avoid the blood sugar rollercoaster.

Our friend Lakshminarayana from Hyderabad has shared the most interesting insights with regards to his hypos. Hypos often give him vivid dreams or nightmares and he finds that they affect his memory and concentration too. I know I get scatter brained and irritable while in hypo. What are your thoughts? Do you experience vivid dreams too if you have a hypo while you are asleep?

Lata from Pune shares her hypo symptoms of being confused and having shaky hands. That sounds all too relatable, isn't it? Listen on to see how she fixes it.

Chhavi from Delhi brings up an important issue of showing some restraint when you are hypo. Wait a minute, restraint and hypo, do these ever get along? How exactly does that work, you say? Check out Chhavi's hacks to know how she does it.

When your hypo is treated but you still want to munch on something, what do you do? Pooja shares her ideas of small and quick snacks that she likes to eat after a hypo. She also talks about hypoglycemia unawareness, which is when your body does not recognize that you are in a hypo, like it used to. It is very important to test your BG regularly. Pooja also talks about carrying an identification card that mentions that you are a type 1 diabetic and how to help you in case of a hypo where you can't help yourself? How many of us actually religiously carry an ID around on us? It is a great reminder to do it if you do not have one.

Here are my hypo hacks. As boring as it might sound, I cannot stress enough on correcting hypos with a measured amount of glucose - it is my most favourite hack, for sure. In my 24 years of living with T1 I have luckily never had a hypo that needed external intervention from anyone but I like to be cautious and let people around me know firstly what a hypo actually is and what it could look like and also how to help me if I am in a situation where I cannot help myself.

Apart from sharing our hypo hacks, we also met and bonded over our monthly 5k Type One Run in April at the beautiful MG Road on 14th April followed by a low carb and super breakfast with the carb count on display to help calculate your dose easily. Aren't we the best?

Here is a sneak peek into what goes into planning a run each month. Our fun #RecceRunners scout for locations and have a blast planning the runs for the months ahead as you can see from the pictures below. Do join us for a behind the scenes recce if you enjoy a stroll or jog and a lot of banter!

Our next run is in Pune on Sunday, 12th May which is just around the corner. You're most welcome to jump in and get your friends, family and neighbours along. Feel free to run, walk, crawl or simply volunteer, it is a LOT of fun, we guarantee you that! Click here to register for our upcoming run, registration is mandatory and free like all good things in life (except for insulin, but more on that later)!

For those of us who were not satisfied with just a 5k once a month, we also did the 20 km Oxfam trailwalker along the pretty Khadakwasla dam in Pune in the scorching April heat on 21st April. It was Chhavi and Soham's first 20 km walk and they completed it like a boss!

We had an interesting month at the Club 1 Diabetes Blog too. As always we want to bring to you content that is real and relatable. Tell us if you would like to read about a specific topic and we will try and cover that for you.

All in all, it has been a great month here at Club 1 Diabetes. We appreciate your participation always. Our campaign topic for May is #MyT1Motivation, courtesy Sagar. Wear your thinking hats and tell us what motivates you everyday to manage diabetes, it could be anything, a person, thing or an idea. Share your videos with us and we will share them with the world. Upload your content on www.club1diabetes.org/upload.

May you have a happy May!

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