Hi, @laurakirkup , I think we've all had that letter fright at some point!
But it's important to keep it in perspective. Here's some numbers for you. I'm in Scotland, which has about 30,000 T1s. There's an annual survey done. The most recent from 2016, see link below, says on page 93 of the pdf that the number of T1s in Scotland who are blind because of T1 is......17. Out of 30,000. A fraction of a percent.
I suspect that they are either old school T1s who haven't had the benefits of modern technology, or peeps who have burned out and think it is ok to run around in the 15s and 20s.
I remember reading an article in Balance soon after I was dx'd 30 yrs ago by a 25 yr old who was getting told by her docs that she would be blind within a year. Because she thought that drinking unbolused high sugar cocktails and running at 25 for days on end was ok. She turned it around.
I learned a lot from that article. It scared the **** out of me, and I've spent the last 3 decades making sure, as best I can, that I'm in range, but I still get the 'letter" every now and then
There are no guarantees with this condition. The only thing we can do is try our best to stay in range.
There's a surprising number of non-T1s who also have background retinopathy. I don't view it as an indicator of an inevitable decline. The imaging technogy is so sophisticated that they are picking up on minor things which aren't actually a problem, but need to be noted.
Like I say, no guarantees in this business, but I've put aside any fears of going blind, because the numbers say no, and the monitoring systems these days are going to catch things before it gets too bad. There's reason for optimism here.
Chin up, hen!
http://www.diabetesinscotland.org.uk/Publications.aspx
But it's important to keep it in perspective. Here's some numbers for you. I'm in Scotland, which has about 30,000 T1s. There's an annual survey done. The most recent from 2016, see link below, says on page 93 of the pdf that the number of T1s in Scotland who are blind because of T1 is......17. Out of 30,000. A fraction of a percent.
I suspect that they are either old school T1s who haven't had the benefits of modern technology, or peeps who have burned out and think it is ok to run around in the 15s and 20s.
I remember reading an article in Balance soon after I was dx'd 30 yrs ago by a 25 yr old who was getting told by her docs that she would be blind within a year. Because she thought that drinking unbolused high sugar cocktails and running at 25 for days on end was ok. She turned it around.
I learned a lot from that article. It scared the **** out of me, and I've spent the last 3 decades making sure, as best I can, that I'm in range, but I still get the 'letter" every now and then
There are no guarantees with this condition. The only thing we can do is try our best to stay in range.
There's a surprising number of non-T1s who also have background retinopathy. I don't view it as an indicator of an inevitable decline. The imaging technogy is so sophisticated that they are picking up on minor things which aren't actually a problem, but need to be noted.
Like I say, no guarantees in this business, but I've put aside any fears of going blind, because the numbers say no, and the monitoring systems these days are going to catch things before it gets too bad. There's reason for optimism here.
Chin up, hen!
http://www.diabetesinscotland.org.uk/Publications.aspx
