Morning, folks, had a pleasant surprise a few days ago.
For the last few years, I'd been getting those, "you have mild background diabetic retinopathy, no treatment required" letters after my yearly eye check.
I've never been that worried about them, as it's just an early advance warning system, and I reckoned after 31 yrs in the game, I've got to expect that sort of thing. But it was still always a reminder of how savage T1 can be.
Anyway, went for my check recently, and, surprise, surprise, when the letter popped through the door on Thursday it said, "you have no diabetic changes to your eyes."
Sure, I know the way the scans are checked depends on the operator and another guy might have marked it as BDR, but, hey, ho, this one didn't, so I was really chuffed about it - 31 yrs in and "no diabetic changes to your eyes."!!!
Shortly after being dx'd, I read an article in DUK's Balance by a woman in her 20s who'd played fast and loose with her bg and was being told that she'd be blind within a few years. She turned it around. That article scared the bejeeshahs out of me and I still think about it when I need motivation.
For any newly dx'd reading, sure, this can be a savage, seriously damaging condition if you don't take care of it. If you do pay a bit of attention, though, you can look forward to decades of a healthy life with no problems (erm, apart from the occasional mad bad hypo). Have a healthy respect for complications but don't over-sweat them.
Cheers, all!