Hi
I'm an asthmatic - no not on the wrong forum. At Christmas, suffering from a bad chest infection, I was given steroids by a locum.... 1 week later I could not see more than five feet in any direction! I went to my optician who said I had gone about 10 years along the short sight progression in as many days! They warned me I might never recover, but reassured me that everything else in my eyes was fine. Mother dragged me to our own doc (I'm 47 and she is 74, but some things never change). He took blood tests, then rang me up and asked me to come back to the surgery NOW! He then told me I had a blood sugar level of 34.8 and that this was a problem.....
I asked what it should be - and he said "3.5 to 6.5. You're diabetic - the steroids have mucked up your sugar levels." I could not understand why nurses were peering anxiously at me and asking if I felt alright. I said "a bit tired and I am seeing double - why - how should I be feeling?........."
I now know why 34.8 bothered them all so much! I suppose it should have been scarey and I can smypathise with all of you who have found it so, but the thing that had really scared me was the eye thing. My optician wants to use me as a student case now - a week after treatment on metaformin began I swung out to long sightedness and could pass the RAF distant sight test - but needed chap magnifiers to read - then it swung back to the middle, but apparently about three years back. Maybe I am three years younger now? Sugar levels are settling. Many past symptoms are making sense - some becoming obvious only by their reduction. I guess that locum did me a favour, proving there was a problem before the damage began. One big difference I have found to many who post: - I could not be getting better treatment from my doctors, my diabetic clinic staff or my pharmacist (I am in Bangor N Ireland). They have cossetted and informed, supported and supplied. They have tested everything and reassured me about my health in terms of affects and reactions. Long may it continue! Karin
I'm an asthmatic - no not on the wrong forum. At Christmas, suffering from a bad chest infection, I was given steroids by a locum.... 1 week later I could not see more than five feet in any direction! I went to my optician who said I had gone about 10 years along the short sight progression in as many days! They warned me I might never recover, but reassured me that everything else in my eyes was fine. Mother dragged me to our own doc (I'm 47 and she is 74, but some things never change). He took blood tests, then rang me up and asked me to come back to the surgery NOW! He then told me I had a blood sugar level of 34.8 and that this was a problem.....
I asked what it should be - and he said "3.5 to 6.5. You're diabetic - the steroids have mucked up your sugar levels." I could not understand why nurses were peering anxiously at me and asking if I felt alright. I said "a bit tired and I am seeing double - why - how should I be feeling?........."
I now know why 34.8 bothered them all so much! I suppose it should have been scarey and I can smypathise with all of you who have found it so, but the thing that had really scared me was the eye thing. My optician wants to use me as a student case now - a week after treatment on metaformin began I swung out to long sightedness and could pass the RAF distant sight test - but needed chap magnifiers to read - then it swung back to the middle, but apparently about three years back. Maybe I am three years younger now? Sugar levels are settling. Many past symptoms are making sense - some becoming obvious only by their reduction. I guess that locum did me a favour, proving there was a problem before the damage began. One big difference I have found to many who post: - I could not be getting better treatment from my doctors, my diabetic clinic staff or my pharmacist (I am in Bangor N Ireland). They have cossetted and informed, supported and supplied. They have tested everything and reassured me about my health in terms of affects and reactions. Long may it continue! Karin
