Eyes!

Have you been offered a retinopathy eye test by your doctor? You should have been.

If you have just been diagnosed, it is possible this is a temporary thing.
High BG causes your body to try to get rid of sugar through every possible means: urine, sweat, tears, tears....
Sugary tears have a different refractive index to salty tears which your eyes may struggle to see through.
If this is the case, as your BG comes down (maybe you have a higher BG in the morning), the blurring reduces.

Reducing your average blood glucose does affect your vision, although I haven't heard of the tears theory. Be careful of getting any expensive new glasses before your vision has stabilized.

Kentoldlady1 said:

Should I ask for the eye test?

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Definitely! and a foot check as well, should be done on diagnosis (or as soon as possible afterwards) and then every 12 months if no problems.

Kentoldlady1 said:

Thankyou all.
Have not been offered anything by gp. In fact have never seen the gp although I did see the practice dn. Should I ask for the eye test? There was not a hint of being offered anything except the vague promise of a desmond course.

My morning bgs are higher than in the day, which I have put down to dawn thingy. And I have not tested to see if its lower when my vision improves, but I will do that.

Is it a common thing to have vision problems as your levels get better? Much of what I have read only gives dire warnings about it getting much worse!!!

And mr pot, do you know in which direction it will normally stabilize ? Better or worse? One of my huge motivations for doing this is precious eyesight. I would hate to think I am making it worse.
Thank you all.

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It's very common for people who are newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes to have a change in prescription when they improve their diabetic control. You may have had raised blood glucose for some time and this diffuses into the lens of the eye and changes its refractive index. As control improves and blood glucose levels come down, so do the glucose levels in the lens. This causes the refractive index of the lens to change and the person finds that their glasses are no longer the right prescription and objects can appear blurred. Eventually the glucose levels in the lens reach equilibrium (it can take a few weeks) and provided that there are no major changes in blood glucose, the eyesight stabilises. At this point, there may be a need for new prescription glasses but there's no point in pursuing this until the eyesight has definitely stopped changing. Some people buy a selection of ready-readers, e.g. from the pound shop, to tide them over until this happens. This phenomenon is temporary, there is no permanent damage and is nothing to worry about.

A separate problem that can occur in people with diabetes is damage to the retina due to prolonged high blood sugars. This damage is termed diabetic retinopathy. When people are diagnosed with diabetes, they should have a diabetic eye screening test within 3 months of diagnosis - the GP should make the referral to the local diabetic eye screening service as soon as there is a diabetes diagnosis. If the results are OK, re-screening occurs annually after that. If there are any worries, the patient may be referred to the ophthalmology department for further tests.

You can find an information leaflet about diabetic eye screening here:-
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/diabetic-eye-screening-description-in-brief

Kentoldlady1 said:

And mr pot, do you know in which direction it will normally stabilize ? Better or worse?

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@Dark Horse has given an excellent explanation but on this specific point, I believe that usually distance vision improves and reading gets worse. Not drastically so nothing to worry about but if you spend £300 on some new varifocals that are then not quite the right prescription it is very annoying. I speak from experience. The advice to get some temporary cheap glasses is good.