Don't understand

[ami]

I believe that the normal signs of diabetes are excess thirst / urination, problems with vision, pain / tingling in extremities because of neuropathy or whatever.

A friend's brother is diabetic, doesn't do anything for control, has high blood sugar but doesn't feel a thing. None of the above, no fatigue, nothing. Why would that be so ?

[RCG]

The "normal signs of diabetes" are/is elevated blood glucose.

Other symptoms vary with the individual, and can be masked by other conditions or medications.

Barring manifestations of severe complications, such a thing is possible, and obviously such things are not to be used to diagnose.

[walkerwally1]

It's one of the unfortunate things about Diabetes in that there is often no symptoms or signs at all until after a long time, sometimes years, symptoms show themselves.  I had absolutely no indication of Diabetes when I was diagnosed so it took me by surprise.  They call high blood pressure the silent killer but I believe that Diabetes can be included in that description.  Because you can be diabetic and show no symptoms it is much easier to deny that there is any problem and there is no urgency to do anything about it.  You don't feel bad so it can't be anything to worry about.  Unfortunately damage goes on even if you can't feel anything and by the time symptoms show up sometimes the damage can be significant. 

[Shanny]

I was asymptomatic myself . . . was diagnosed with fasting of 130 picked up in a regular checkup, but hadn't noticed any exceptional thirst or urinary urgency.

[bigskygal]

I was also asymptomatic at dx.  I had missed a couple of years of yearly exam blood work and when I finally got it done, my fbg was 243 and A1c 9.5%. What a shock!  I felt totally fine.  But I did jump on it right away and got numbers in line with normal in a very few months.