Can Retinopathy be caused by improved control?

I've been Type 1 for almost 25 years now. My control is very good and for the last 18 months my A1c's at 6 monthly intervals have been 5.1%, 5.4% and 5.0%. I am on the pump and use Apidra and generally I never see double figures unless I get my carb counting wrong. I very rarely get post meal spikes of >7.5 one and two hours after eating. I am quite active, my BP is normal, my BMI is correct as is my Cholesterol but I do take Thyroxine.

For the last 2 eye screenings in 2009 and 2010 the results came back saying that I had background Retinopathy in both eyes. I discussed this with my GP and Consultant and was told that this is to be expected given the amount of time I have had Diabetes and not to worry. Anyway my last result, taken in January this year, came back saying that I have Pre-Proliferative retionpathy in my right eye I have been called in to see the Eye specialist in March.

I am really worried and also a bit shocked as if anything I thought that my tight control would have improved my eyes and even possibly reduced or removed the signs of Background Retinopathy, not made them worse.

Now it's worth adding that about 2 years ago My A1c was 6.7% but I know that I also had post meal spikes and that my BG did swing high and low so realistically my BG was probably anywhere between 11 and 4 at any given time. Looking further back by control has always been ok with A1c's typically between 6 and 7. Typically now my A1c appears to be between 5 and 5.5 but I don't get the high and low swings and I do sit in the 'normal' BG region.

Now the question I have is could it be the improved control that has exasperated by Retinopathy and this is just a period of worsening before stabilisation or even improvement occurs? I have read and heard of cases where people suddenly tighten their control and as a result develop Retinopathy problems, pregnant women is one group as are people who have developed other Diabetic complications and dramatically improved their control another. Now my A1c has only come down by 1.5% or so but I know that my control overall is a lot better thanks to Apidra, the pump and some hard work. I also know that over the last 18 months my blood flow has got much better around my body in general.

Any experience or comments would be welcome. TIA.

Thanks for the replies, I'll have to wait and see I suppose.

The frustraiting bit is that my BG control was probably ok but not brilliant for the first 20 ish years. I certainly went trhough phases early on where I had no idea what my control was like because quite simply there weren't the tools to check it but I never had any problems at all, short or long term. Since tightening up my control I have had neuropathy problems that have come and now gone which my consultant has put down to Nerve regeneration, even though i never lost any sense of touch or had any neuropathy problems, and now I seem to be developing Retinopathy.

It's as though tightening up my control has caused problems to develop.

Gjimmy said:

Bad BG control causes retinopathy not good control , obviously.
Having good control from a period of very bad control does not suddenly cause retinopathy, it's the years of poor control that's done that . It's simply the body normalizing it's cells.
Trust me on this. The longer the bad control the worse the damage, it's as simple as that.
People who develop complications from diabetes who say they have good control, just think they have good control, they don't.
People who control their Blood sugar as close as possible to that of a non diabetic DO NOT develop complications. That's why non diabetic people don't develop complications.

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My Diabetes consultant would tell you otherwise, as he did me when I went to see him 18 months ago with Neuropathy symptoms, all of which have now gone given time.
The eye consultant that I saw last week stated that typically people with bad control will present eye problems between 10 and 15 years and those problems will progress rapidly and the progression may be uncontrollable. He also said that, as is my case, people who have been Diabetic over 20 years present some sort of Diabetic change at the back of the eye, 90% was the figure he gave. He said that this was not related to bad control and is managable if caught early enough, which it should be with yearly screening. Incidentally the problem I had in my right eye is no longer evident although I still do have Diabetic changes in both eyes.
Also if you read a book called 'Pumping Insulin' by John Walsh there is a section in there that warns against tightening your control suddenly because it can cause retionpathy. It advises you to tighten your control gradually and reduce your A1c gradually over a period of time which from memory can be as long as a year.

On what do evidence do you base your argument, your opinion?