Hey people whats up my name is Matt. Anyway I am a type 1 was DX Dec of 06. Went to the eye DR. in August since I was having different vision problems. Night time driving and up close vision reading a computer screen. They checked my glasses RX it was fine and the Doc looked in my eyes and said yep you got Retinopathy in both eyes early stage. I said ok so they said they need to do an EEG or something like that where they take a closer look. Well we scheduled it for 2 weeks later and then they cancelled saying they were updating equipment and would have to wait for a month. Of course they never called me to reschedule and I got so busy I haven’t thought about it but now after reading some of yall’s posts I feel like I should get back in there ASAP. I mean I was DX a year ago but from thinking back to the first signs of symptoms I was probably going diabetic 6 years ago so thats like 5 untreated which finally gets to my question in 5 years could I have done some really serious damage to my eyes?
All we can do here is guess. With background retinopathy, you will definitely want to see the eye doctor on an annual basis, It won’t hurt to reschedule that appt. Often retinopathy won’t present symptoms to you.
Wikipeida says “All people with diabetes mellitus are at risk – those with Type I diabetes (juvenile onset) and those with Type II diabetes (adult onset). The longer a person has diabetes, the higher the risk of developing some ocular problem. Between 40 to 45 percent of Americans diagnosed with diabetes have some stage of diabetic retinopathy. [2] After 20 years of diabetes, nearly all patients with type 1 diabetes and >60% of patients with type 2 diabetes have some degree of retinopathy.[3]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetic_retinopathy
I remembered a few years back some of our 3D designers did some work on putting together a short video talking about diabetic retinopathy. Took me a bit to find it on CaringForDiabetes.com, and it sounds pretty scientific, but maybe it will help to visualize whats going on with this complication.
Yes, I would really bug them and get in there ASAP, because from what I understand these things can intensify quickly. Explain that you were put off a few months ago and that nobody got back to you to reschedule, so you need to urgently be seen. Diabetes affects everyone differently, and it might be that you’re good with everything else, but your eyes took a beating while you were undiagnosed. Good luck and let us know what comes of your tests.
My endo told me just last month that type 2’s get retinopathy only after a minimum of 10 years of uncontrolled blood sugar. That tells me that I’ve had diabetes since around 1992 or earlier. My optometrist was the one that suggested I get checked, because he saw damage in my eyes (retinopathy).
He told me this way back in 2002, but my doctor took the wrong tests and missed the diagnosis.
I didn’t find out that I’m diabetic until 2006.
I get my eyes checked annually, and he does a test to check the retinopathy every two years.
I also have neuropathy as well. Gee, thanks Doc! I TOLD you it runs in the family! Now she believes me after I have damage!