Background Retinopathy

[evj95]

Just had my first diabetic eye screening about a week ago and have had a letter back saying that I have 'Some background Retinopathy'. Which has worried me a lot as I wasn't expecting it!
Could this be linked to the aftershocks of my diagnosis? Had a bg of 28 mmol/l at the time.
Or does this mean that I'm not doing something right?

Also have been told on the letter that I am still only going to get a test once a year which is concerning me as a year is a long time for something to progress into something worse.

 

[Guzzler]

I am T2 so forgive if I overstep the mark a bit. At my first scan a couple of months ago I was given the same results. After looking around the forum at posts on this, I was releived to find that small scale damage can be halted and sometimes reversed with better bg control. I, too, was told to return in one year. Hope this helps and I'm sure some T1s will correct me if I am in error. Best wishes.

 

[evj95]

The thing is, is at the moment I feel as though I can't have any better control as I am on set dosages of 7 units of Novorapid at meals and 15 units of Lantus a day currently. I haven't been given anything that would aide me in carb counting apart from being told 'You're going to be referred for the course and you should receive a letter soon about it' or about giving any corrective dosages when I'm higher than what I like, which means that I've been hovering around 10 mmol/l some days which I am wary of as I am starting to feel like **** at that point, which makes me an absolute bummer with friends as all I want to do is sleep.

Have decided to give my DSN a ring tomorrow morning and push for this information as I don't want this to get any worse.

 

[Guzzler]

I can't advise you on medication as I am not an insulin user but I think you are right to push for more information. I think it a disgrace that T1s have medication thrown at them and then have to wait for good information as to getting the best use of it. It should be forthcoming on diagnosis.
Fingers crossed that you get a good response from your dn in the morning.

 

[Mike d]

Just had my first diabetic eye screening about a week ago and have had a letter back saying that I have 'Some background Retinopathy'. Which has worried me a lot as I wasn't expecting it!
Could this be linked to the aftershocks of my diagnosis? Had a bg of 28 mmol/l at the time.
Or does this mean that I'm not doing something right?

Also have been told on the letter that I am still only going to get a test once a year which is concerning me as a year is a long time for something to progress into something worse.

Be amazed if it was associated with the shock of diagnosis. How long were you running figures that high?

 

[Deleted Account]

I haven't been given anything that would aide me in carb counting apart from being told 'You're going to be referred for the course and you should receive a letter soon about it'

There are some online courses which you could do to teach yourself about carb counting without waiting for the course.
I forget the url but I am sure someone will pop up and remind you.

Those of us with diabetes have to take control. Our healthcare teams can give us some pointers (and some teams should be better) but I would strongly encourage you to read up on carb counting before the course and try it out.

Taking a fixed amount of Novarapid with every meal means you have to eat to your insulin so the diabetes is in charge. Once you learn to carb count, you can take the insulin according to what you eat - you are in charge.

I also find, if I start to do something about a problem, I stress less about it. So, if you have the capacity to learn more about diabetes, take the initiative.

Regarding your background retinopathy, as others have said, try not to worry. As you are type 1, it is unlikely that your BG was running very high for a long period of time so unlikely to be the cause of the retinopathy. If your letter was anything like mine, it said there is no need for any treatment at this stage. It is reversible.

Don't take it as an indication of you doing something wrong - as long as you are doing what you have been instructed, you are doing as much as you can at this stage. ...Until you take the next step towards carb counting.

Good luck.

 

[Dark Horse]

Just had my first diabetic eye screening about a week ago and have had a letter back saying that I have 'Some background Retinopathy'. Which has worried me a lot as I wasn't expecting it!
Could this be linked to the aftershocks of my diagnosis? Had a bg of 28 mmol/l at the time.
Or does this mean that I'm not doing something right?

Also have been told on the letter that I am still only going to get a test once a year which is concerning me as a year is a long time for something to progress into something worse.

The eye screening test is very good at identifying sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy, it is not so good at identifying the difference between background retinopathy (which does not affect your sight) and no retinopathy, particularly on the first screening. What appears to be background retinopathy on a first screening can, when seen with a different camera flash/angle turn out to be a harmless pigment spot.

Because type 1 diabetes has a very sudden onset, blood sugars will have been high for only a very short time. Sight-threatening retinopathy takes years of exposure to high blood sugars to develop so annual screening is fine.