Hey there! I’m a newly diagnosed type 1, it’s been around two weeks and for the last week or so. I’m having such problems with my eyes, I usually wear glasses for driving and reading and that usually helps me see, but the last week when I look at my phone or anything close up it’s just super blurry, even with my glasses on! It’s so awful and is really annoying.
Is this normal or has anyone else experienced this before? When does it go away?
I’m on NovoMix 30 twice a day.
Hi
@louisemariexo This is something I wrote about Hyperglycaemia in my experience over the years 1959 - 2013:
As in so many instances medically, this is a dyslexic’s nightmare derived from three Greek words, Hyper (above), Glycos (sweet, as in Glucose) and (H)aemia (blood), and is the bane of all diabetics. Egyptian papyrus indicates that they knew about sugar in urine even before the Greeks, who coined the word diabetes, which means “a flowing through.” Yes, I’m afraid “doctors” displayed weird fetishes even then. Who in their right mind would dream of tasting any urine, let alone a complete stranger’s? Toddlers perhaps? But I am eternally grateful they did. This meant that until 1978, the only way a diabetic would have any clue (however inaccurate) of their sugar level was by testing urine. So from my first year I was the owner of my own “chemistry set” made by Ames, of Stoke Poges (wonderful name) called Clinitest. There was a stand for several tubes (I would guess this version was designed for laboratory or hospital use), 2 tubes, 2 little droppers with remarkably thick rubber, and a prescribed bottle of Clinitest reagent tablets which would fizz engagingly at the bottom of the tube (which contained five drops of urine and ten of water), changing the urine either to deep blue (no glucose present), army green (trace) camel (1%) orange (2%) and brick red to brown any percentage above. That is when Ketostix would be dipped into the urine to see the result. I would always know when I was in ketosis, because my breathing became very laboured, all my muscles felt as though I had run ten miles and performed fifty press-ups, I had an overwhelming feeling of nausea, would drink vast amounts of water without slaking my thirst, would shun social contact, and my family would notice the all too familiar reek of nail polish remover or pear drops. In later years I realised that it would cloud my vision. Until 2010 I was the only member of the family not to need glasses or lenses, but when I was standing on Shoreham Station platform, aged 13, I was unable to read the nameplate on the opposite platform. Panic set in. Was I already going blind? Or was I suffering from cataracts? My mother took me to an optician that weekend, who could find little worth discussion. However they charged my mother for some placebo gold rimmed glasses. I later realised that it was blood sugar affecting my eyes. The glasses were to serve as props in School plays.
High blood sugar and disturbed digestion have already been referred to above, as has uncontrollable temper. Even with moderately high levels such as 10.5mmol/L, I lose my natural patience and become irritated by what are normally trifles. One of my employers commented that diabetics ought not to be crossed after lunchtime! Non-diabetic children are known to behave more excitedly after a “sugar fix”, as anybody with children in their charge will tell you. It is only in the last thirty-nine years that the carbohydrate content has been stated on food and drink. Yet the public don’t usually know how much sugar they are ingesting in a standard can of fizz. There is the equivalent of eight teaspoons of sugar or two thirds of my lunch starch allowance. Certain chocolate bars have thirteen spoons of sugar...To me and similar people, doughnuts, treacle tart and apple crumble are “Death on a plate!” I have also noticed that my nose runs when I am high. Is this because the brain is using this system to get rid of excess sugar, as it does colds?
Probably the most damaging effect of hyperglycaemia is lethargy. Often an overwhelming tiredness can put the patient to sleep extraordinarily quickly, and after maybe three hours sleep there is no sign of benefit.
I wish you luck in a healthy and diabetically controlled lifestyle.
