Yes, Timothy, I agree. I was told (in 1966!) that diabetes would be “cured” in my lifetime. I was 12 years old in 1966. I am 71 years old today. Still waiting…
I had bleeding in both eyes 20-something years after being diagnosed. Had a metric buttload of laser just so the surgeon could take a look. This is when I learned about managing my health care as I spent the next year hearing you need surgery/laser/injections at one appointment, I’d opt to wait to see if there was any change and at the next appointment they’d find I no longer needed whatever, next time recommend something else, repeat for a year or two. So another data point saying your doc’s platitude was incorrect.
On the positive side, I was listening to a great BBC Radio 4 show In Touch about living with vision loss and the episode had a rep from a company that was working on a 2nd gen system that would allow limited imaging of the retina at home. They said a US company had FDA approval for a 1st gen device. I looked it up, Notal Vision created a device for at home monitoring for Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD). AMD sounds a lot like retinopathy. Last eye appt. when the doc came in I said if we have time I’d like to ask a question for fun, appt. was super boring for him because I’m fine, I asked if Notal Vision’s device or something similar would be useful for him and his patients with diabetes if it was approved for use in the future. He said absolutely and we had a fun conversation. So maybe in 5-20 years we’ll need to spend less time going to appts to confirm that we’re fine.