Level 12 Diabetes

A woman came to the counter today with a gallon on GatorAde fruit punch. She wanted to know if it was good for her diabetic husband to drink GatorAde all day. I scanned the ingredients...water, high fructose corn syrup, sucrose syrup. I say no, that doesn't sound good for a diabetic. She challenged me, "since I am the pharmacist".

Suzy Q:"He has gone from a level 4 diabetic in June to a level 12 diabetic now so he needs to drink electrolytes. What exactly are electrolytes anyway?'

Oh my, so many many things wrong with these questions. I know this discussion will end badly.

Me:"Has your husband been sick? Did your physician recommend electrolytes?"

Suzy Q: "Everybody needs electrolytes".

Kudos to the great marketing team of GatorAde, they have earned their salaries.

I quickly skim over the basic science and again ask her if her husband has been sick with the flu, vomiting, diarrhea?

Suzy Q: "He has level 12 Diabetes"

Me: "I'm not familiar with that terminology. What were his last few blood sugar levels?"

Suzy Q; "Oh, you don't know anything about diabetes?"

Sigh. Maybe she is a friend of The Channeler. Remember him? He told me that aliens whispered the cure for diabetes to him in his dreams. He has a huge volume of information to share with the world. Nobody can read it because it's written in the alien language but he's working on a translation and will bring it in when he is finished. Maybe he gave Suzy Q a copy of the translation. So I guess that I don't know anything about diabetes after all. And I'm still waiting for my copy.