Type One diabetes – elisabeth pike

Writing about Type 1

I am a writer and I have written, pondered and grieved Type 1 a lot over the years. I write to process my emotions, I write around a subject when I don’t quite know what it is that I want to say. But the truth is that type 1 invaded our lives so thoroughly whenContinueContinue reading “Writing about Type 1”

Living with Type One – What it looks like

Note: I think there may be quite a bit of type 1 jargon in here. Apologies for that. Also a normal blood sugar (what we’re aiming for) is 4-8. I haven’t written that much about type 1 diabetes on here although I have intended to but two of the poems about Type One diabetes inContinueContinue reading “Living with Type One – What it looks like”

Type One

A poem about my daughter’s diagnosis with type one diabetes. This poem is in my book There You Are, a collection of 34 hand lettered and illustrated poems about motherhood. You can find it here.

For When We Don’t Know What is Coming: an unexpected diagnosis

We had just moved to the wilds of Shropshire, with a two-week old baby and two pre-schoolers, and everything was new. My husband was beginning to concentrate on his music full-time, and the two eldest children had just started in a new preschool. There was time for the dust to settle. But I still hadContinueContinue reading “For When We Don’t Know What is Coming: an unexpected diagnosis”

Trembling Heart

A poem about the night that my daughter was diagnosed with Type 1, back in 2013 when she was 2 and a half. I held you to me on the bed and smelt your hair, felt your lightness,as your father bustled in the darkness for your favourite things.We had been to the doctors thatContinueContinue reading “Trembling Heart”

#3

On a train to Lime Street The fields rush by all green and yellow. For the first time we are going to a city for the day, diabetic daughter and I. Who would have thought when this thing showed up, how much it would overtake us, how from that day on, there would be fearContinueContinue reading “#3”

#38

Sometimes we don’t even have time to say a word to each other, Don’t look at each other before we must attend to this or that, The fight or the nappy change or the insulin. And then after they sleep we each have our uphill journey to continue with. Music, writing, these dreams, we pullContinueContinue reading “#38”

#14

We keep worrying about our little girl who goes high and low like a roller coaster. She is only three, not old enough for any of this really. Still she is brave, much braver than me.