Diabetes Educators to the World

I try to be upbeat. I try to gently inform and educate people about my diabetes and diabetes in general. For the most part, I keep to myself my sharper, nastier comebacks to "can you eat that?".

Though I'm no CDE, I consider myself an advocate and an informer, someone willing to talk openly about diabetes in an effort to put good information out there. I trot out quick little explanations with a smile.

I suspect that you, you who live with diabetes and know more about it than most medical professionals... I suspect that you are the same way.

But I have to say, every once in a while, I just want to smack someone. Because, my friend, it turns out that there is such a thing as a stupid question.

"Are you going to pass out?", asked when my pump jammed at a meeting the other day.

"Are you a severe diabetic?", asked by a radio host interviewing me this morning.

"How can you have juvenile diabetes? I thought only kids got that?", during another radio interview.

Smile. Grit teeth. Begin pleasant two sentence diabetes education routine.

Sigh.

I understand that, if diabetes is not part of someone's everyday experience, there is no reason they should have a solid understanding of carb-to-insulin ratios, fast-acting vs long-act, or even the the differences between type 1 and type 2. I know little to nothing about other conditions and illnesses, and don't expect to encounter expertise about diabetes everywhere I go.

But I think that my experience as a person with a chronic illness has taught me to lead with a question (accepting that I don't know much about condition xyz) rather than put my foot in it.

And I'm grateful to those people who ask questions about diabetes and listen to the answer.