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laser eye surgey
- Thread starter KathrynB
- Start Date
Hi KathrynB.
Laser Eye Surgery for a Diabetic is something that you have to consider very carefully. It matters not if you are a T2 or a T1.
There are several things to consider before having work done on your eyes.
1. The first requirement is that the diabetic condition must well be under control before even considering Laser eye surgery. If the blood glucose levels are not evenly managed, then this can result in shifts in the vision of the diabetic. This leads to improper visual correction being performed by the Laser eye surgery.
2. The second requirement prior to consideration for Laser eye surgery is that there is no pre-existing diabetic ocular complication that can be affected by the surgical procedure. The conditions sought avoided here includes an unhealthy ocular surface, cataracts, any form of retinopathy, fragile retinal vasculature or neovascularization as a result from diabetes. Should any of these conditions be present, then the eye surgery should not be performed.
3. The third requirement is a thorough eye examination to be conducted prior to the Laser eye surgery procedure. The tests include a detailed retinal exam, close examination of the eye with a slit lamp, tear film and epithelial tests are but some of the tests that a diabetic undergoes prior to consideration for the Laser eye surgery. These tests drastically lower the rate of complications that are risked by diabetics who undergo Laser eye surgery.
Those are just extracts from information about the subject. Here is a link to the full article.
http://www.diabetesforum.com/blog/2009/ ... e-surgery/
Do not get any glasses or contact lenses etc if your Bg levels are not under control.
Laser Eye Surgery for a Diabetic is something that you have to consider very carefully. It matters not if you are a T2 or a T1.
There are several things to consider before having work done on your eyes.
1. The first requirement is that the diabetic condition must well be under control before even considering Laser eye surgery. If the blood glucose levels are not evenly managed, then this can result in shifts in the vision of the diabetic. This leads to improper visual correction being performed by the Laser eye surgery.
2. The second requirement prior to consideration for Laser eye surgery is that there is no pre-existing diabetic ocular complication that can be affected by the surgical procedure. The conditions sought avoided here includes an unhealthy ocular surface, cataracts, any form of retinopathy, fragile retinal vasculature or neovascularization as a result from diabetes. Should any of these conditions be present, then the eye surgery should not be performed.
3. The third requirement is a thorough eye examination to be conducted prior to the Laser eye surgery procedure. The tests include a detailed retinal exam, close examination of the eye with a slit lamp, tear film and epithelial tests are but some of the tests that a diabetic undergoes prior to consideration for the Laser eye surgery. These tests drastically lower the rate of complications that are risked by diabetics who undergo Laser eye surgery.
Those are just extracts from information about the subject. Here is a link to the full article.
http://www.diabetesforum.com/blog/2009/ ... e-surgery/
Do not get any glasses or contact lenses etc if your Bg levels are not under control.
Thanks for your quick reply. I am considering surgery but wasn't sure if it was ruled out for diabetics. I was aware of eyesight being affected by glucose levels, so expected there would be many checks before surgery went ahead.
I am hoping to hear from anyone who has had surgery, so I can get an idea of what is involved.
Thanks again
Kathryn
I am hoping to hear from anyone who has had surgery, so I can get an idea of what is involved.
Thanks again
Kathryn
I considered this surgery a couple of years ago. I have 2 friends who are very happy with the results of their laser eye surgery and I was giving this serious consideration. Neither of them are diabetic.
At the assessment I had I was told that I had "dry eyes" (I used to wear contact lenses and did have some issues with this, I also have Roseaca for which dry eyes are a symptom). The person doing the assessment minimised the chances of complications, even with my known risk factors. It was promoted to me as a virtually risk free procedure and none of my known medical problems would stop me having surgery, although healing with dry eyes might take longer :?
Now I'm a bit of a sceptic, and my basic understanding of medicine is that no surgical procedure or medication is risk free, and I always get concerned when risks are minimised. I asked about how night vision could be affected and did not get a satisfactory answer from this young woman, who was not qualified to carry out surgery, but she could tell me that surgery in my case, given my prescription, would be the best part of £4000, depending on which type of surgery I opted for.
I did a fair bit of online research at the time, and I think there has been a Which? report on laser eye surgery since then. I also remember listening to a Jeremy Vine (R2 lunch time phone in) on this surgery at around the same time and quite a few people for whom it had not gone well rang in.
I have opted not to have the surgery as I do not want to risk my night vision. After doing my research I decided that having dry eyes and being insulin resistant increased my risk of complications. And frankly, I didn't believe the hype from the assessment, it sounded simply too good to be true. No medical procedure, especially an invasive medical procedure, is risk free. The assessment was done by a company hoping to part me from quite a large sum of money, not the £395 touted on their promotional literature :roll:
Since then, I have seen my optician for new specs, and discussed this with her. She commented that there are people who have had laser surgery getting to the age where cataracts are forming. There have been some difficulties for some of them - the fact they have had surgery which removes corneal tissue at the front of the eye may mean that the outcome of cataract surgery is poor for them. From what my optician said, my understanding was that there was less corneal tissue to play with in the surgery that could save your vision :? :shock:
Personally, I'm going to continue with the specs, which give me good vision, and leave any eye surgery to surgery which may be necessary to save my sight in years to come. This was based on the things I knew about my health at that time, and this was before T2 diagnosis.
Obviously, you may come to a different conclusion to me, you will have different health issues and you may decide the risks are worth it. But unless your diabetes is very well controlled, don't do it. Fluctuating blood sugar affects your vision even if you are a humble spec wearer. You may spend a large sum of money on new specs, but at least you can change the lenses if the prescription is wrong/changes because of fluctuating blood glucose. You can't reattach the corneal tissue if it does not work for you.
At the assessment I had I was told that I had "dry eyes" (I used to wear contact lenses and did have some issues with this, I also have Roseaca for which dry eyes are a symptom). The person doing the assessment minimised the chances of complications, even with my known risk factors. It was promoted to me as a virtually risk free procedure and none of my known medical problems would stop me having surgery, although healing with dry eyes might take longer :?
Now I'm a bit of a sceptic, and my basic understanding of medicine is that no surgical procedure or medication is risk free, and I always get concerned when risks are minimised. I asked about how night vision could be affected and did not get a satisfactory answer from this young woman, who was not qualified to carry out surgery, but she could tell me that surgery in my case, given my prescription, would be the best part of £4000, depending on which type of surgery I opted for.
I did a fair bit of online research at the time, and I think there has been a Which? report on laser eye surgery since then. I also remember listening to a Jeremy Vine (R2 lunch time phone in) on this surgery at around the same time and quite a few people for whom it had not gone well rang in.
I have opted not to have the surgery as I do not want to risk my night vision. After doing my research I decided that having dry eyes and being insulin resistant increased my risk of complications. And frankly, I didn't believe the hype from the assessment, it sounded simply too good to be true. No medical procedure, especially an invasive medical procedure, is risk free. The assessment was done by a company hoping to part me from quite a large sum of money, not the £395 touted on their promotional literature :roll:
Since then, I have seen my optician for new specs, and discussed this with her. She commented that there are people who have had laser surgery getting to the age where cataracts are forming. There have been some difficulties for some of them - the fact they have had surgery which removes corneal tissue at the front of the eye may mean that the outcome of cataract surgery is poor for them. From what my optician said, my understanding was that there was less corneal tissue to play with in the surgery that could save your vision :? :shock:
Personally, I'm going to continue with the specs, which give me good vision, and leave any eye surgery to surgery which may be necessary to save my sight in years to come. This was based on the things I knew about my health at that time, and this was before T2 diagnosis.
Obviously, you may come to a different conclusion to me, you will have different health issues and you may decide the risks are worth it. But unless your diabetes is very well controlled, don't do it. Fluctuating blood sugar affects your vision even if you are a humble spec wearer. You may spend a large sum of money on new specs, but at least you can change the lenses if the prescription is wrong/changes because of fluctuating blood glucose. You can't reattach the corneal tissue if it does not work for you.
Thanks Spiral
From what you have experienced, I think I will just continue with my lenses and glasses. At least if my contact lens is bothering me I can just put another one in! I think the risks are probably too great for diabetics. The cataracts issue bothers me too, I have never heard of that complication before.
Once again, thanks for replying.
Kathryn
From what you have experienced, I think I will just continue with my lenses and glasses. At least if my contact lens is bothering me I can just put another one in! I think the risks are probably too great for diabetics. The cataracts issue bothers me too, I have never heard of that complication before.
Once again, thanks for replying.
Kathryn
sugarless sue
Master
If you have eye problems and are not a well controlled diabetic but then gain control you can often reverse the problem. However ,if you have laser treatment then gain control your eyes will not be able to return to normal naturally.
. I wear varifocal glasses . Dark ones when necessary.I have spent just under £500 on specs in the last 4 months :shock: :shock: :shock: I have my first (2) pairs of varifocals, some prescription single vision sunglasses and I got my last specs reglazed with a single vision lens.
My eyes had been stable for years, then at the last test there was some deterioration :cry:
I got the single vision lenses made up because when I was on holiday in Scotland when it rained, the water on the varifocal lense caused major amounts of distortion :shock: :shock: :shock:
Cataracts are very very common in non-diabetic people, they become more common as peole get older. They are not a diabetic complication as far as I know.
My eyes had been stable for years, then at the last test there was some deterioration :cry:
I got the single vision lenses made up because when I was on holiday in Scotland when it rained, the water on the varifocal lense caused major amounts of distortion :shock: :shock: :shock:
Cataracts are very very common in non-diabetic people, they become more common as peole get older. They are not a diabetic complication as far as I know.
I am very short-sighted and have astigmatism but wore hard conact lenses (gas permeable) for 20-odd years. Unfortunately I had to change to soft lenses and it took about a year for my prescription to stabilise as the hard lenses push the eyeball into the correct shape and takes ages to go back to their natural shape. It didn't affect my glasses prescription all that much but my contact lens prescription was changing every month! I am stable now and got my first pair of varifocals in january but I hate them. Just can't get used to them. I mostly wear my contact lenses and use reading glasses. I think I will carry on as I am and if i find a genie in a bottle, ask him for perfect eyesight.
BTW my glucose levels are always stable so have not been a factor in my eye problems.
Thanks everyone for your replies.
BTW my glucose levels are always stable so have not been a factor in my eye problems.
Thanks everyone for your replies.
Patch
Well-Known Member
I had laser surgery about 3 years ago. Had to be sure that my diabetes wouldn't effect the result, so I went for the most expensive surgery they offered (wave front/tissue sparing/iris recognition/mapping). All in it cost me just under £4k.
Best money I ever spent, hands down. I was sick of wearing glasses. My prescription wasn't that bad, though. I was short sighted at 0.5 in my left eye, and 0.75 in my right eye. BUT I had REALLY bad astigmatism - and the difference is spectacular.
It's all over so quickly. The actual "surgery" takes less than 1 minute to be completed (honestly!) The prep time (putting anesthetic drops in your eyes) takes about 10mins. They clamp your eyes open (think Clockwork Orange :wink: ), then lay you down on a pivoting table, laser one eye, flip you across to the other laser, and laser the other eye. Laser time is about 20secs on each eye. Bit spooky - because you can smell your eye burning... But definitely worth it.
If your diabetes is in control, and you can afford it, I'd say go for it.
PM me if you have any questions.
Best money I ever spent, hands down. I was sick of wearing glasses. My prescription wasn't that bad, though. I was short sighted at 0.5 in my left eye, and 0.75 in my right eye. BUT I had REALLY bad astigmatism - and the difference is spectacular.
It's all over so quickly. The actual "surgery" takes less than 1 minute to be completed (honestly!) The prep time (putting anesthetic drops in your eyes) takes about 10mins. They clamp your eyes open (think Clockwork Orange :wink: ), then lay you down on a pivoting table, laser one eye, flip you across to the other laser, and laser the other eye. Laser time is about 20secs on each eye. Bit spooky - because you can smell your eye burning... But definitely worth it.
If your diabetes is in control, and you can afford it, I'd say go for it.
PM me if you have any questions.
Re: laser eye surgery
It was a few years ago, just done some searching on t'internet and it looks like they now will perform it on insulin dependant diabetics as long as they are stable and had no changes to the eyes over a period of time, will investigate further.
KathrynB said:
It was a few years ago, just done some searching on t'internet and it looks like they now will perform it on insulin dependant diabetics as long as they are stable and had no changes to the eyes over a period of time, will investigate further.
sugarless sue
Master
cugila said:
Here you are Fuji.....save you looking!!! :twisted:
