Success Stories: Kimberly Baillieul
GIS Analyst
Division of Traffic Management
At age 12 I was diagnosed with
type 1 diabetes, having a blood sugar of 836. Throughout the years, my control
has varied from okay to excellent. I have managed to do half marathons, travel
and live abroad, and complete graduate school all while also managing my
diabetes.
Over a decade ago, I met my
now-husband. Though he was familiar with T1D, he didn’t realize the extensive
care that went into it on a daily basis - at the time, I took 10-12 insulin
injections daily. Instead of proposing with a ring, he gave me an insulin pump.
I said yes J
My two biggest diabetic
achievements are having my two sons. Throughout both pregnancies, I worked hard
to maintain near-perfect blood sugars so my A1C was around 5.1 for both. It
wasn’t easy, but keeping my sons healthy was more than enough motivation.
As my elder son became older, I
realized that every resource out there involved kids who HAVE diabetes, but
that didn’t fully apply to our family. How could I explain that I wasn’t a
‘mean mama’ for not sharing my juice box during a low blood sugar? This is how
my book, Mommy Beeps, came to be. I worked with an illustrator in CA, and
because I just wanted it out there for the T1D community – I self-published
through Amazon KDP.
I do my best with my T1D and am
grateful I have had no complications. Just bear with me should I start beeping
during a meeting!
To order Kimberly's book, please visit the link here. Diabetes Daily also featured Kimberly in an online article here.