Last Friday afternoon, this was my Facebook status: "Salty Seniorita. Rum and Diet Coke. Love me a 2 p.m. Friday."

Fridays during the summer around here we get off at 2 p.m. It's a fantabulous job perk, especially when those "extra" two hours or so mean that you can sit at a bar with a friend and have a drink or two.

Several days later a friend posted this in response to my status: "Can diabetics drink?"

It's an innocent question that leads back to a myth that people with diabetes can't drink. At all. I'm not sure what the reasoning behind the myth is, but I suspect it's rooted in beer and fru-fru drinks like daquoris and margaritas and other drinks with sugary syrups and high and/or simple carbs.

Yes, people with diabetes need to more carefully consider their choices when drinking alcohol and need to closely monitor their blood sugar when drinking (because your blood sugar can either soar or plummet), but there is no absolute ban on drinking.

It's just like nearly anything mixed with diabetes: yes, I can have a piece of fruit, but I have to be careful to add a complex carb and/or protein; yes, I can have a piece of candy/cake/scoop of ice cream, but I have to watch my blood sugar closely and maybe use a designer bolus on my pump; yes, I can have a rum and Diet Coke, but need to be tuned in to my body's signals to watch for highs *and* lows.

We're not invincible, but neither are people who don't have diabetes. And there's nothing we absolutely positively can't do, including having an occasional alcoholic beverage.

Want to read more about diabetes and drinking alcohol? Click here. And here. And here. And here.