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Type 2 How Long Before Your Eyesight Returns To Normal?

XxTinkerxx

Well-Known Member
Messages
159
Location
London, UK
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Rude & condescending people. I will call you out on it.
Hi,

The last week or so my eyesight has been absolutely shocking. Everything is blurred.
This coincided with me starting to take Insulin.

When can I expect thus blurriness to go?
 
As you start to take insulin, your blood sugars will drop, possibly quite quickly. This changes the sugars in the fluids in your eyes and, at first, vision is blurry until everything readjusts. My husband had a rapid drop in blood sugars (due to starting low carb, not insulin). It's five years ago now, but I think I remember around two to three weeks before he felt things had normalised. It's important not to get a new prescription for glasses while these changes are taking place!
Sally
 
I think there will be variations between different people, depending on how long their blood glucose levels have been high, and how long they take to drop. Also how much variation (up and down) happens during this time. But things should stabilise once your blood glucose stabilises.

How is it going? Are you finding the insulin manageable? There are a good few very knowledgeable insulin users on the forum who may be able to give you a few tips and tricks that will help settle things down.
 
Thanks for the responses everyone.

Still struggling a little bit with the injections. I have an alarm set to inject at 9:00pm at night. Every time the alarm goes off my heart sinks.

My eyesight being so blurry is extremely annoying and frustrating. I feel like an invalid, not being able to read stuff properly.
I may have to resort to giving the contacts a rest and rely on glasses until this settles down.

I only take 10 units of Insulin. A small amount compared to some of the numbers I have seen on here. Morning sugars are ok, but trying to keep daytime sugars balanced is very hard, Today for e.g had a morning reading of 5.7. Got to work and had a cup of tea with (Splenda sweetner) and it shot up to 11.7.. I mean ***? It put me in a bad mood which I have been in for most of today.

Feeling so angry and tearful right now. Angry with everything and at everyone. My tolerance level is zero, and I am just right on the edge of exploding.
 
I think the tearful anger and upset is all part of the blood glucose rising and falling, as well as the huge adjustment to a new way of living. The blurry eyes is then frustrated icing on the top!

Have a hug.

I will tag in some experienced insulin users who may be able to give you their words of wisdom.

@Juicyj @Jaylee @urbanracer @helensaramay @Mel dCP @Scott-C

You may also find this link a useful read. It probably won't make any difference at all to the way you are feeling, but it gives a bit of an explanation as to WHY you are feeling that way
https://www.medtronicdiabetes.com/loop-blog/5-stages-of-diabetes-acceptance/
 


Hi Tinker, it took my eyes around 4 months to get back to normal so hang on in there! Also, try having breakfast when you get up before you set off for work, I found that this stopped that 'get to work and test morning rise'. I know you are a type 2 on insulin but I find that small 10 carb snacks (without insulin) every 3 to 4 hours keeps my glucose levels nice and steady. I find (and this may relate purely to those on insulin) that if I fast or leave long periods of time with nothing to eat, my levels rise. Please try not to stress (easier said than done), give yourself a break as well. You CANNOT control it 100%, nobody can so come on love, go easy on yourself. xx
 
When this happened to me (my route was walking and static cycling) to drop blood sugars, I bought cheap reading glasses (should be less than a fiver) from Boots - this really helped. I do wish HCP's would warn about the blurriness this is really scary when you don't know, anyway it will settle.
 
Thanks again everyone.

I've just got home from work. Left at 4pm as I was just feeling so tearful.

I don't know why I am feeling this way and it's so frustrating. One minute I am ok and the next I'm not.

I just wished I didn't feel this way and I hope it doesn't take 4 months for my eyesight to return to normal. The way I feel right now if it took that long I don't know what I'll do.
 
Thanks for the tag - I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve not had long lasting problems like this, so can’t really offer much by way of advice. However, when my sugars are high (into double figures) my eyeballs feel like they are wrapped in cling film! It goes within a few hours of getting back into range, and is one of the main reasons I work incredibly hard to keep them low enough.
 
Hi Tinker,

Ooooh, tricky one. Varies from person to person...

I notice from your earlier post you wear corrective vision? What was your A1c & general control like when you got your last lense prescription??

Ideally one should have BGs within normal parameters when going for an eyesight test.. Easier said than done..
 
Last one was 92. Before that it was 91 and before that 103.

Hence the insulin which is now working.
 
XxTinkerxx said:
Last one was 92. Before that it was 91 and before that 103.

Hence the insulin which is now working.
Click to expand...

This is just a mad guess. Your lense scrypt may also be wrong due to getting used to high sugars.? The brain slowly adopts to the change in vision that is interpreted by the eye..

If you BGs are now coming down? The lenses could also be redundant..?
 
I ordered small amounts of contact lenses in different prescriptions for a couple of months. My glasses were useless. Took 3 months before I could wear them again, but my prescription did change.
 
Wed will be 2 weeks since I started the injections. I'll give it a couple more weeks before I go splashing out on eyewear.
 
XxTinkerxx said:
Wed will be 2 weeks since I started the injections. I'll give it a couple more weeks before I go splashing out on eyewear.
Click to expand...

Tinker, as others have said just buy a pair from Tescos etc, less than a fiver, no need for prescription glasses at this stage.
 
I concur with all those that said go buy a pair of cheap specs off the stand. It was the best thing I did. Blurry vision is frustrating and tiring. With time my eyes settled down and I was back to my usual specs.
 
I will continue to do what I do now which is wear my glasses and take them off for reading, and anything else that requires close up vision.

I can mange with with it. It is reading and close up that I am struggling with. Once settled down I will go back my contact lenses.
 
What are the strengths of your contacts?
 
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