Trying, Hoping, Smiling.

Image courtesy of Daisy.

This is the third time I’ve made her get up tonight,

Another trip to the bathroom, she knows she's not alright,

With no energy she struggles back to bed,

A million thoughts running through her head.

At seventeen and exams to take,

There was no time to take a break,

So she tried to ignore me for as long as she could,

She didn't know what that meant, she misunderstood.

But things quickly got worse, how ill she became,

So thin and so pale, she no longer looked the same.

Consumed by sleep and unable to function,

She typed her symptoms into Google and made an assumption.

Despite knowing what was wrong, she powered through,

Not ready to face the truth, that much she knew.

But one day she knew she couldn’t go on anymore,

It was time to see what the future had in store.

“Diabetes” they told her, but she already knew,

“There’s nothing you could have done, I promise you."

Tears in her eyes, but a smile still somewhat present,

She began processing this rather big life-event.

To the hospital she goes to be admitted,

Scared and unsure and a little defeated,

She’s given a drip of both glucose and insulin,

And she realises this is the life that she will be living.

At seventeen, she thought she had it all figured out,

A Levels and university, she had no doubts.

But then everything seemed so unsure,

And it’s not like she could just ask for a cure.

Learning and adapting was the name of the game,

From insulin doses to blood glucose aims,

She knew the next few months would be challenging,

But there were worse things in life she could be tackling.

They thought it would change her, and it did, that’s true,

She grew up real quick and learnt what to do,

On the good days and bad she keeps on going,

She keeps trying, she keeps hoping, she keeps smiling.