I hope the photo loads properly as I am unfamiliar with posting.
I am a Type One going on three years.
64 age.
MDI
Low Carb
5.2 - 5.9
No big issues thus far.
Long post with intent of providing as much information that may be pertinent.
For about three weeks I have had little floaters in my eyes. I made an appointment with eye doc and that is this Wednesday.
Next, very brain fogged the past week. I tried Lipitor earlier and quit due to intense brain fog. I quit the new statin about 5 days ago…same issue brain fog.
I am a low carb eater and VERY gradually increasing my carbs as my overall cholesterol is in the 400. Trigs and HDL perfect LDL way up in the 300.
Seeing cardiologist in early October. Been waiting months to see this one. Highly rated.
So lousy sleeping last night as workers sprayed the new crosswalks they were active from 11:30 to about 4 pm. Was awake most of the night.
Lastly, I tried a cauliflower pizza last week and didn’t see the brown rice in the ingredients I rocketed up to 400! Took hours to carefully bring that number down.
So those are the details that might address why my eyes went wonky with image for under a minute and then stopped.
Super High blood sugar did damage?
Not sleeping last night?
Floaters manifesting differently?
When I wake up early morning or in bed I do get that condition from time to time and really enjoy watching it morph from one stage to the next. The only difference is that I additionally have a beautiful blue section as well. In order to make the event last longer and really enjoy all the stages I press with reasonable pressure on the center of my pupils. That makes the effect last longer and from time to time can even launch a second such event shortly after the first one has vanished.
Have no idea what it is and only lasts about 1 fully enjoyable minute and have had this weird effect for years. Only happens about once a month or less but sometimes more frequently during certain seasons of the year.
For me “Phosphenes” look exactly like this (rings of light) that evolves inward or outward often in psychedilic ways. For me, disruptions in sleep or the opposite, waking up from an exceptionally long deep, can cause them to spontaneously appear. I have had these both way before and way after being diagosed with diabetes and they seem to be normal.
I’ve had that “visual spectacular” my whole life (including 14 years prior to being diagnosed with diabetes). For the first time ever, I googled it, and see they are normal and are called “Phosphenes”: Phosphene - Wikipedia
I am so glad you asked too. Learn something new all the time is the only way to live. I have always wondered but never crossed my mind to look it up or ask on forum. Thank you all for sharing.
FYI, one incident of 400+ blood sugar is not going to itself cause damage, to your eyes or anything else. Hyperglycemia causes damage over time, not acutely, unless it is accompanied by DKA (which itself causes the damage, not the blood sugar directly) or so high (like toward 1000) that it can put you into a diabetic coma.
That said, people often do get temporary blurry vision with hyperglycemia. That is not reflective of lasting damage and reverts as blood sugar normalizes.
@NatureOrbs I get floaters when my blood pressure is high, and especially after a strong full body coughing fit. My eye guy says mine are just part of normal aging as my ocular pressure is on point for my age, diabetes, etc.
While I would agree floaters can be innocuous (and can be caused in anyone by things like coughing etc), ocular pressure isn’t how you test for retinopathy—my ocular pressure was fine the entire time I was developing retinopathy and continues to be fine (and I have ongoing proliferative diabetic retinopathy that is under control thanks to Avastin injections). You can only determine whether retinopathy may be an issue through a combination of looking at the back of the eye and with scans of the retina. Which if you’ve recently developed floaters as a diabetic they probably should do and can’t hurt—not bad to have a baseline scan anyway to be able to monitor changes if necessary.
After two vitrectomies with retna peals, Avastin shots, Eylea shots, and an insulin pump, my retinopathy is also now under control. According to my Retinologist, my retinopathy was caused by the swelling of my retina as a result of long term elevated blood sugar.
Intraocular pressure (IOP) also doesn’t tend to cause any visual symptoms until it either gets extremely high to the point it’s a medical emergency or until it’s been more mildly high for so long that it starts causing optic nerve damage. This is why it’s important to get it checked when you have an eye exam.
Thanks to all for sharing!
My eye Dr. said it was a something something migraine effect.
No history of migraines for me or family.
Personally I think that with being extra fatigued and stressed were the causal factors.
I can’t recall the name.
I wasn’t to concerned after I read responses here which I take to heart.
So no more signs appearing in my vision even the floaters have disappeared!
Ann
I was getting sudden dancing electrical lights With migraines when I was eating a very low carb diet. I had never had a migraine before. This went on occasionally for about two years until stopped eating only 30 carbs a day which I did for 11 yrs.
The past 3 yrs while eating more healthy carbs, my eyes and head have been fine. My glucose levels are still excellent.
I sometimes get the lights when sugar is low, in the 30s to mid 50s. Also have them at times from bright lights and of course by external pressure on eye.
