Yes, I followed a pretty typical diabetic retinopathy course, some background changes, then laser was needed and more laser, and lots of retinal bleeds, and eventually I had so much laser they literally had no more room to do it, and told me there was nothing else they could do. By then I had complete night blindness, otherwise I could see outlines of people, but no detail on faces etc. Retinal bleeds continued and these bleeds started filling up my vitreous humor, we called it eye goo, finally on just a routine check, the retinal surgeon offered me vitrectomies in both eyes, basically they suck out the clouded eye goo full of blood, and replace it with clear artificial goo. Danger being they might detach your retina completely, if things go well when they do your first eye, weeks later they do the second. Sadly because of the amount of laser I had, the results were not outstanding, but made things a little clearer. As a result I also developed surgically induced cataracts, and had them done, still legally blind, I have no depth perception either, no tolerance for harsh light and sun, get dry eyes. The reason I cannot get a pump is because I cannot see well enough to operate it- I don't have a mobile phone either cant see it, read my regular mail, obviously in case you were wondering a combination of non prescription magnifying glasses, and a web developer partner who gave me a 17inch laptop which he then adapted with zoom and a talking lady who reads to me if I have eye strain.
Sorry to write a miniseries, but I thought you deserved to know a typical path. We are all different tho. Keep in mind , I once asked my specialist why I had all the complications, and my dad also Type1 for over 70yrs had basically none, and he said the difference was the strain put on my body from 5 pregnancies. Not that I would change a single thing.