A Couple Crisis Days

Laura did no school work Monday or Tuesday. On Monday morning I got up only to find out that my oldest daughter had been ill all night long. My oldest, Kim, is a type 1 diabetic. She never woke me up. By the time I got to her her blood sugar was extremely high. Her insulin didn't want to bring it down, so off to the hospital we went. By the time she got there she was in full DKA. Basically, she was pretty sick. She was transported by ambulance to a larger hospital 45 minutes away. There, she was treated and stayed overnight for the DKA. Laura stayed with family.
We started back with some school work today, but it is a lighter load. Due to the short week, I cancelled spelling. Laura finished The Secret In The Maple Tree early. I decided to study different types of communities the rest of this week before moving on to farming and bees. We are now behind where I wanted to be, and we will have to make up the two days that were missed. However, Laura enjoyed the break and was ready to go at 8 am this morning. She had a good attitude and worked hard today.
Kim goes back to school tomorrow. She is being carefully monitored. When your diabetic daughter gets this sick, it really feels like you've failed. I even had the doctor telling me that I just didn't monitor her enough. Sadly, that may be true. It's easy to get busy, especially with younger children. It's also easy to assume that your seventeen year old daughter can manage her disease day to day. At seventeen, she isn't a baby anymore. She's been dealing with this disease for over four years. Education is not the problem. She knows what to do.
With Kim I honestly believe that it is an issue of denial. She honestly doesn't believe that the long term effects wll happen to her. In November we lost my Father-in-law to a heart attack. His heart problems stemmed from his diabetes. He was 57. Last month a lady from our church passed away from a heart attack. Her heart problems stemmed from diabetes complications. She was 45. Kim has seen this, but she is 17. Seventeen is that magical "I know everything" age that makes it very hard to get through to her.
So now, I get to be the 'enforcer' once again. I did this before a year or so ago with a previous incident. After a few months I let my guard down believing that new habits had been formed and she could be trusted to manage her disease. I was wrong.
I only have a few months, maybe a year, to make sure that my daughter matures to the point that she can take care of her disease properly. Consistency and Prayer are my best friends right now.