Today is National Ask a Stupid Question Day, where people can ask but not necessarily get an answer. Let’s play the diabetes edition.
What’s the stupidest question you’ve ever been asked about diabetes?
I’ll start with a classic:
Can you eat that?
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LOL I like this. Just a couple off the top of my head.
-Wait, you are diabetic? You aren’t overweight.
-Isn’t diabetes all automated now?
-Why do you carry two phones? (people would always ask this relating to my Dex receiver although I won’t be getting this anymore now that I have the g5!!)
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###No don’t touch me, I might get your diabetes.
###Gosh, I hope you get better
###You can’t eat this, it has fat in it and you have diabetes
###I told you not to eat that sugar
Won’t your daughter outgrow her diabetes in a few years?
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Why do you still have to poke your fingers now that you use a pump? Isn’t it all automatic, like “set it and forget it”?
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this is from a family member of mine, who happens to be a registered nurse:
“wait, why are you checking your blood sugar, doesn’t your insulin pump do that?”
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From good-hearted but terminally-confused former coworkers:
So if you pass out, we just need to give you some insulin, right?
So many people just don’t understand inverse relationships.
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That really IS a stupid question and I am sorry you ever get it!
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A mistaken impression repeatedly reinforced by two provisions of The Iron Rules of Hollywood, Subhead Diabetes, which provide that 1) “If there’s a diabetic in that movie, they’re gonna pass out” and 2) “If there’s a diabetic in that movie, they’re gonna need a shot!” Dunno if there are any documented cases in which this confusion led to the actual death of a T1 but it’s not for lack of trying.
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“That guy’s gonna need a shot!” passed through my head as I composed my comment. You’re so right!
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Mine is … “How does that work?” I’m a Type 1 that works at a frozen yogurt shop. Apparently that’s highly confusing. 
For my husband it would be “You mean there are different types?!?” He got that one from a newly diagnosed T2 co-worker.
Oh, you are on an insulin pump!? You do have the bad kind of diabetes.
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There’s a good kind??! 
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Possibly. What I keep trying to remember is that there are many, many, many more types of diabetes than just the one I am familiar with. It’s easy for me to forget mostly, I suppose, because I spend so much time with myself.
You have diabetes? Does that mean you take shots?
This is one kind of stupid when talking to a Type 1. And it’s another kind of stupid when talking to a Type 2.
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No kidding! I’ve had problems with low sodium, just a few weeks ago I discovered diabetes insipidus. (mind blown) And it would be my luck I’d get the other, other kind of diabetes.
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I think I had read at one time that the word “diabetes” actually refers to excessive urination. But I had to Google it again to remember that. 
My understanding of the terminology is that one cause of excessive urination which we are familiar with is high Blood Glucose. If you have excessive urination but normal BGs then I think that is referred to as Diabetes Insipidus.
Actually, given the number of T2s who use insulin (and the much larger number who should, but don’t), it’s a dumb question no matter what. But that’s an entirely separate soapbox. I’ll shut up now.
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Geez, it’s already such major pain-in-the-a** to manage. To have it be insipid on top of that would really suck.
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