• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

background Retinopathy

B

Brixtonboy

Newbie
Messages
2
Location
Brixton
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Chelsea and Man Utd. This list can go on and on!!
Hi All,

New to the forum.

I've been a type 2 for 10 years, initially controlled with diet and now on Metforim [1500mg]. My last DECS screening showed that I have background rentinopathy. I was really shocked and very frightended as my control has been good.

The notification letter said that they will send me an appointment for a years time. I thought that this will be too late if something is wrong

Having read the details of the problems caused by retinopathy, I'm throughly scared that I will lose my sight. I can't seem to think about much else at the moment. My GP said that there are many people who have background retinopathy for years that does not progress into something more serious.

Has anyone esle been diagonsed with this? What should I look out for going forward? If I do need treatment how bad will my sight get?

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.
 
Your doctor is correct. Many people have background retinopathy and it doesn't necessarily develop into anything more serious. If it does there are good treatments if applied early enough so the yearly screening is important.

The important things are to keep your glucose well controlled (though if it is high not to reduce it too quickly), to keep blood pressure and cholesterol levels normal, not to smoke and to eat a healthy diet.
there are details at the link below, though I think that the prognosis about development is a bit pessimistic. I think there are a lot of people on here, including me have had background retinopathy for many years and it hasn't changed. Some indeed say it has disappeared but I'm not positive that happens. I have a different type of screening to that done in the UK, mine isn't visible on the normal retinal photo but remains so when they use a dye ( they are really tiny 'dots' even when blown up on a large computer screen)
http://medweb.bham.ac.uk/easdec/back_di ... pathy.html
 
Back
Top