My name is Liana. I am from Europe -> Latvia, Riga.
I am 31 years old and have diabetes for 19 years.
When I was younger, I thought “I will live forever” but now I started to understand, that my diabetes control was not good.
About a year ago my eye doctor said that she see first rethynopathy signs. Now I am checking eyes each 6 months and I dont know… its is maybe partly psychological but I feel that eyes feeling worse.
I am so worried 24/7, trying to google and usually finding information like “you will lose vision”.
And how happy I feel know, when found this forum! So good suggestions and stories about treatment and eyes. I dont feel lonely with my worries now.
I’m glad you found TuDiabetes as well! The internet can be a scary place when generally searching for things like “vision loss.” I’m confident you will get more targeted, reasonable and encouraging information here. Welcome!
“Live forever”? Hate to break the news but, there’s no way out of this, alive! But, if you religiously keep your BG within the ranges specified by a good endocrinologist, you’ll most probably enjoy an average expected life span.
Ask around, to make sure you do have a really good opthamologist and have your eyes checked as frequently as they specify. That will go a long way to relieving your anxiety. If you notice something not quite right, with your vision, be persistent when talking to your doctor’s office. Oftentimes, they aren’t paying close attention so don’t be afraid to get a little pushy. (once, I wasn’t and I paid for it by having to get retina laser surgery.
Good luck, be sensible and you’ll do just fine.
Oh, Liana, I am so sorry that you are so worried. When I was 30 and had already had type 1 diabetes for 22 yrs, I too found out that I had the beginnings of retinopathy. I was devastated.
I started getting a better handle on controlling my diabetes, and the retinopathy disappeared. Now ophthalmologists can’t tell that I have diabetes and haven’t seen anything unusual in my eyes for many years. I am now 68 and plan on living a very long life.
If you control your diabetes well, you will be fine and will live a normal lifespan.
I was DX’d in 1966 at 10 mos old. My first retinopathy treatment was in the mid 90’s, then again in about 2004, then a few treatments between 2015-2017. Ive also had the combo injection in both eyes, as well as a vitrectomy in one eye.
Im lucky to have one of the best retinal specialists in the country, and she flat out told me the one thing that affects progression by far is high blood sugar. Glucose in the bloodstream is kind of shaped like a sputnik, and as it flows through the smallest of capillaries (which are in the eye) they continuously are scraping the walls.
Now, I dont say all this to scare you, as I can also tell you Im corrected to 20/20 vision, with very little peripheral vision loss. As long as you keep on top of things and dont let things get out of hand, it is very manageable. Dont miss your appointments, and dont miss treatments
#1 thing you can do is manage your blood sugar and maintain good control over time. Make sure you are eating well, taking your medication, and testing blood sugar regularly.
#2 thing is regular eye exams. Have your eye doctor dilate your eyes for a retinal exam and test the pressure of your eyes.
First of all - thank you for so good words. it is so important to know that I am not alone
About 2 months ago I visited my eye-doctor. Aaaaaand… everything is good! Everything dissapeared.
I have been extremely good with sugars and it helped.
I hope I will be able to keep my results for whole life.
Congratulations! And this will also help your entire body! The small blood vessels of kidneys, eyes and extremities (hands and feet) are the first to show signs of damage. Glad you got things under good control!
I have eye issues not related to diabetes. I have an exam next week and was going to cancel but not after I read your post. I too worry about retinopathy and cornea scarring. The best thing you can do is good nutrition and manage blood sugar. I take multivitamins with lutein to help with eye heath
and eat carrots( I heard)
That was my number one fear after diagnosis. My eyes. They were already messed up from dka. But they recovered.
I quit “Dr Google” and those lame web pages.
Every single page on every subject diabetes first paragraph had to start with a list of long term effects.
1 . Search q = Can a diabetic eat bananas ?
Web page
The long term effects of diabetes are … and … and … NO ! I want to know how many carbs are in a banana. Get to the point. Me and every single diabetic online has already read the list of long term effects 1000 times ! Who writes those articles ?
How many carbs in a banana. How big is the banana, my friend? And how many black spots has this banana, as bananas age and get more black spots on the skin (no it is not plague) they contain more sugar- arghhh! Maybe it is plague.
Hi, I am a typical medical author writing about diabetes on a mainstream website that makes first page results for any search related to diabetes…
Before I can possibly answer your question I need to start with few paragraphs about the long term effects of diabetes and some stupid clip-art of a blood drop on a finger or something.
In the 47 years that I’ve been a T1D, I’ve learned that everyone is different. However, let me share my experience with T1D and my own eyes.
I developed T1D when I was 22-23 well before any good form of blood glucose monitoring. Because the technology was not so good and my self-discipline was even worse, I developed a certain amount of retinopathy in one eye after about 15 years. While I don’t know what current practice is, in that era my ophthomalogist “carpet bombed” the perimeter of the affected retina. I have no idea what the formal term for that procedure is but it is a ring that consisted of about 3600 individual little laser blasts. So, my peripheral vision isn’t great and my night vision isn’t great … but it stabilized the situation and I can still see out of that eye and the other one is still pretty good. That was over 30 years ago and I believe that I’ve had no vision degradation over that period. Of course, I now have better technology: first BG meters followed by CGM and now a pump … and, even today, I can’t brag about my A1C numbers the way that many can.
So, while everyone is different, I think that three things are true:
Not all diabetics develop retinopathy.
Not all retinopathy results in complete vision loss.
Better control increases your chances of avoiding long term complications like retinopathy.
While diabetic Retinopathy cannot be reversed, but can be prevented. I would
regular eye examination and by controlling your blood sugar level, with this yo may be able to avoid or slow the disease altogether. There are various treatment available but prevention is advised.
Recent study shows Asthma Medication Montelukast Can Inhibit Diabetic Retinopathy
When I was 30 I developed a tiny bit of retinopathy after years of urine testing. A bit later I started testing my blood and my eyes completely cleared. Now at 68 my eyes are still completely clear of retinopathy. In my case retinopathy was reversed.
Hello Dan, I have had Type 1 diabetes for 60+ years. Two years ago I was diagnosed with Diabetic Retinopathy and in June I had my first laser eye procedure. The retinal specialist said it would not improve my vision but would stop capillaries from growing, breaking and causing more vision loss. I wonder if he waited too long before doing this as the long black line covering the right side of my pupil is still there, looks like an eyelash in my eye and it seems like more black lines are growing beneath the pupil. Reading is difficult. My A1C’s are 6.0 to 6.3. I know tight control is a big part of keeping this at bay but unless I have a lot of hypoglacimic events I can’t seem to get lower than 6.0. You mentioned you have had combo injections and a vitrectomy. Can you tell me about these? Do they take the floaters away?
Jane, I too had the black line in my vision which has now gone after a few months. The problem with retinopathy is that initially tighter control WORSENS retinopathy. My hba1c was in the 7 - 13 % range for quite some time. I bought it under control somewhat and it is now 5.6%. I can confirm for myself that initially the more I focused on lowering my a1c the worse my eyes seem to get, but one morning I woke up and realized my vision had corrected itself. Another thing, I couldnt get my a1c below 7% on the pump so I put it in the draw and found it much easier to knock the extra 2% off.
