Eye Issue

kevwright

Member
Messages
5
Hi everyone, first post here so a little background.

48 years old male, non smoker (never), barely drinks (bottle of cider once or twice a week), probably a couple of stone overweight. No excercise at all (I know!) and taking

3 * 500 Metformin Daily, plus 2 Actos, and 40mg Simvastin at night. Recently added Rampril and Zandip for high BP, which is just starting to work, average results till a few days ago for last few months probably around 185/100 sometimes a little higher, but poss doctors surgery related rises as always a little lower on home Boots machine.

Have been Type 2 since 2005, and have had all the check ups every 6 months, last hAbc1 result from doctors is 7.5 so not terrible and not great either.

Until a few weeks ago, all results from Eye photos each year were clear, this year got the "background retinopathy" letter, no treatment required etc etc.

OK, so I have been using those cheapish reader glasses for a few years, they did the job and were cheap enough to throw away if damaged and have lots of sets laying around the place to save carrying them around. I went for eye test every year and prescription never changed, 0.5 in left eye, virtually nothing in right eye.

This year after the letter, I decided to ditch the cheap readers, and get proper glasses again, went to Asda, and precript is 1.25 left eye, and about 1.0 right eye, so I was right, I needed new specs.

This is still for close up and reading work, still pretty good distance, and prescipt for this was so slight he advised not worrying until next year for distance and/or bi or vari focals (which I think would annoy the hell out of me!)

At this eye exam, he did the basic shine bright lights and said it all looks clear, checked I had had the photos done each year and did not seem bothered by the background retinopathy thing.

At last, my question :)

Woke up last Wednesday, for some reason, closed my right eye and read computer screen with left only, and the text was not only very blurry, but straight lines were a bit wavy, and its like I can still read the text, but bits of it are faded, not always whole words sometimes just a letter or two.

So, off to the doctors, he basically panics and sends me to hospital acute eye clinc session same day. After changing my pants, I attend, and get a basic eye test, I feel my left eye has gone downhill badly even from eye exam at Asda a few weeks prior.

So, some drops in the eyes, and a bit of a wait, and a doctor runs an exam using the scope and the bright shiny light thing, nice lady, but French or spanish and not great English :-( (albeit better than my ability to either speak...or even identify hers :)

Ok, all looks OK she says, lets go do another test. This time, a posh machine with a nice green star to look at, does right eye, all OK she says, yep I sort of know that already....

Left eye, and I get the dreaded "ahha", sort of the noise a plumber makes when you know its bad.

She says I have "something wrong" with my left eye (huh, did she think I LIKE to spend my day off in hospital :), and to follow her.

She goes into a room with (something) Specialist on the door, leaving me in the hallway. She starts talking to the chap, who does not know I am outside the door, I get fed up with this and just walked in, I got the impression he was a bit upset with her for just leaving me their, and he asked me in, and decided to have a look himself with his scope and bright lights.

They decided that indeed something was showing, but were not sure what it was. I heard him say to her "its not a tear, or a hole".

Now in most walks of life I am pretty confident and say my piece, but stupidly here, I meekly accepted an appointment for a Fluorescein Angiography and that is set for 12th January, so not too long to wait.

Now a few days on, I am worrying myself sick, making myself feel really bad, so I called them today, and a nurse went and found my notes and spoke to a doctor, the outcome is basically that there is a "little bit of swelling" at the back of the eye, and they need the fancy photo thing using a dye to find out what is really wrong.

So, have I done the question yet? Oh, no.

Have any of you had anything similar, and if so what was the outcome?

Thanks for reading.

Kev
 

hanadr

Expert
Messages
8,157
Dislikes
soaps on telly and people talking about the characters as if they were real.
T1 husband had a scare like this, which has evolved into a long running problem. I hope yours doesn't
In the mean time try keeping TIGHT control of your BG. Around 5 at all times. This may be difficult, but should help the eye recover. and watch the Blood Pressure!
Then with a bit of luck, all will be better by January 12th.
Be grateful you got seen so quickly Lots of people just get sent away when they go to the GP wih something untowardor don't get past the receptionist.
Just read this board.
Good luck in January
Hana
 

IanS

Well-Known Member
Messages
130
What you need to remember is that for many people major problems with eyes do not get discovered until enough damage has been done that that already have vision problems or at worst are going blind.

One of the benefits of diabetic retinopathy screening is that any potential problems are picked up before they cause any real damage. It is also the reason that your eye test costs you nothing, because your optician can also pick up problems that need looking into.

As long as you keep your blood glucose well controlled any problems that do occur should not get worse. The good news is that many problems are quite repairable these days. Now that your eye problem is on the radar, it should be properly monitored and any remedial action will be taken when it needs to be.

I can offer one observation of comfort. I am well aware that in order to see clearly, only the image of one eye needs to be in focus. The brain fills in the rest. This is the principle behind people who wear monocles* for reading (as indeed do I). It was often (wrongly) assumed that they only had a problem in one eye.

I myself have been diagnosed with glaucoma (not apparently related to diabetes), and it is now being watched very carefully. It is currently on 4 monthly monitoring to check that the medication is working and the advancement halted (it will never reverse apparently).

If you followed any of my other threads, you may know that the diagnosis took me entirely by surprise as everything had been OK up to that point. It did concern me greatly to start with, but as you learn more, you start to realise that as long as these things have been discovered then something can be done and there is no real need to worry. I am a bit lucky in that my opthalmologist specialises in diabetic eye problems.

IanS

* Off topic but: I can recommend a monocle to anyone who needs glasses for reading. You just hang it around your neck and it is always there when you cant lay your hands on those glasses.
 

IanS

Well-Known Member
Messages
130
catherinecherub said:
If you have diabetes, your risk for glaucoma may be higher.

Please note, MAYBE :!:

My opthalmologist (try saying that on Christmas day after all the booze :lol: ) insists that it is not caused by the diabetes. I take your point about the risk, but my BG is under tight control and only marginally worse than a non diabetic person so this would appear unlikely.

Thank you for your interest though.

IanS
 

kevwright

Member
Messages
5
Thanks Ian, I have relaxed a lot about this all now I have had time to think. I do not think it must have been there for a while and something just made me notice it on that particular day.

I will report back here after I have had my test in January.

Kev