My daughter has had high blood sugars for about 2 weeks (250-350 ish) Not constantly but defintiely a majority of the time. She complained last night of blurry vision. We did change her basal rate (OmniPod) just yesterday evening. Is the blurry vision from the highs and will it go away on it’s own once we get her back to where she should be? It’s been a rough couple of weeks with a poor nine year old who is more frustrated than ever with this, and a Mom (me) who feels like I am at my wits end but I know I can’t be. I need to pull it together. Any advice?
All I can help you with is that I was diagnosed in September '09 and a couple weeks prior I had really blurry vision. About 2 weeks after getting my levels down with insulin, my eyesight corrected itself.
Yes. Vision does improve with well controlled blood sugars. I’ve found this to be true. Especially true if the blood sugars are that high or swinging from high to low repeatedly.
It is always a greater concern if it our love one who is suffering… Yes, high bg level may cause blurry vision.And per experience improve when bg level stabilizes. I can understand your frustration. It will also help if you see a doctor…just to be sure its not the eyes that is the problem.
Blurry vision was the symptom that sent me to a doctor who diagnosed my diabetes. That was 26 years ago. My vision returned to normal after the introduction of insulin and more normal blood glucose numbers. I have not had that symptom since.
A month before I wAs diagnoses, I was prescribed contact lenses. After diagnosis my eyesight got real bad to the point I had to wear reading glasses for all of my seeing needs. About 2 weeks later I followed up with my opthomologist and he said I was 20/20. So yes out of control bg will affect how well you see. Two months since diagnosis and good contrl. No glasses needed 
I recently spoke with my ophthalmologist about this because I had been hearing contradictory explanations. Blurry vision accompanies blood sugar that is not in a stable range. So most of the time this means high blood sugar, but more specifically it means blood sugar that is all over the place and changing often. If your daughter is high most of the time, but is experiencing short periods of time when she in target BG range but then goes back up again, this will cause blurred vision.
My doctor explained it like this: Let’s say she coasted in the 200s for weeks, even months. After a while, her vision would stop being blurred because her eyes would adjust to that blood sugar level (the rest of her body wouldn’t, and in the long run there would be eye damage). The reason we associate blurred vision with high blood sugar is because we rarely ALLOW ourselves to stay high. We immediately try to correct and bring it down, sometime successfully, but sometimes it goes right back up again. It is actually the high to low, low to high, high to low (or anything in between, just as long as the numbers are moving) that is causing the blurry vision. This is why we notice blurred vision immediately after diagnosis–we are put on an insulin regimen, but it is not fine-tuned enough to keep us at a steady BG level.
The high blood sugars cause the lens of the eyes to change shape, causing the blurry vision. (When dianosed I had to wear two pairs of glasses to see well enough to work), once the Glucose levels are brought down it takes a couple of weeks for the blurry vision to clear up. If my Glucose levels stay high for any extended period I can feel it in my eyes. Hope this helps.
Hi,
I have blurry vision mostly when my BG is normal to low.
Recently diagnosed with type 1.5 at age 38