Planning and meticulous attention to detail are important to Betsy Immer – in her career as a special events coordinator, as a person managing diabetes and now, as a mom.
After being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes more than 14 years ago, Immer had learned to manage her disease, checking her blood sugar frequently, taking daily insulin injections and trying to live a healthy lifestyle. The irregular hours, frequent travel and hectic pace of her job sometimes made controlling her blood sugar difficult.
"With my job, I don''t always have regular meals," Immer says. "I was known as the ''food girl'' because I would always have something with me to eat."
Getting an insulin pump two years ago simplified her life.
"The pump has been wonderful," she said. "I don''t worry as much as I used to about my blood sugar levels."
Diabetes can cause complications for both mother and baby during pregnancy. So when Immer and her husband decided to start a family, she dedicated herself to having a healthy pregnancy. The pump was an integral part of the effort.
"I wanted to make sure I had good control of my sugar levels before I got pregnant," Immer said.
Both before and during her pregnancy, Immer consulted with her doctor, Garry Tobin, MD, and diabetes nurse educator Gaye Knutsen, RN, to be sure she was maintaining good control. In addition to her regular obstetrician appointments, she regularly saw Dr. Tobin and Knutsen, and called them with questions.
"I''d call and tell them that my blood sugar was really high in the morning," she said. "They''d reassure me that I had just hit another phase in my pregnancy."
Then Dr. Tobin and Gaye would help her recalculate and readjust her insulin dosage.
"I was really fortunate to have them available to me," she said.
All her planning, work and attention to detail paid off with the birth of a healthy son, Charlie.
To help ensure a healthy future for Charlie, Immer has enrolled Charlie in the TRIGR study at St. Louis Children''s Hospital, a study that looks at preventing diabetes in the children with a family history of type 1 diabetes.
Immer knows that there are no guarantees – there was no family history of type 1 diabetes before her diagnosis – but she hopes that with continued planning and attention to detail, along with help from the diabetes physicians and nurse educators at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, she can look forward to watching Charlie grow into a happy, healthy adult.