Laser Treatment. In-depth Question

C

ChezMorgan

Well-Known Member
Messages
122
Dislikes
Peppers , Spiders, War and people who think they are better than me, we are all equal !
I am pretty good at googling but i cant find the information i want and wondered if anyone here could help or do a better search somewhere.

I have had proliferative diabetic retinopathy for a number of years and had LOTS of laser treatment, with no significant side effects... other than gradual deteriorating vision, which i assumed to be part of the condition not the treatment, but i am now unsure.

The last lot of Laser was on my right eye and was supposed to be done under general anesthetic as the laser treatment is now too intense ( long, deep and painful for me to cope with). But unfortunately i had a chest infection and they wouldnt put me under so i managed with a local .
I noticed the vision in that eye after the treatment was quite a bit worse and i lost most poliferal and night vision which has not since returned . Then 5 weeks after treatment i suffered a massive hemorrhage in the same eye and lost all vision in it completely. When i visited the specialist he did not seam concerned and said the vision should go back to normal after a week or so. Its now been 10 days and i had a normal sight test at the opticians to see if i could still drive. The vision has returned but i have permanent scaring on the back of my eye and although i can see out of it everything is wonky, like one of those silly fairground mirrors. However and here is the interesting part ..... the sight in my other eye has improved and i could read 3 lines further down than i could 4 months ago. The optician said he had never seen such an improvement in any of his patients ...... now i am assuming this could be because i have been able to get better BM's the last few months ( for various reasons i will not go into now)

So what i need to know is, if though getting better BM's i can improve my eyesight , but through Laser treatment i nearly lose my sight, should i carring on having Laser treatment. ?????

Alls i managed to find on google is that Laser treatment stops the bleeding behind the eye and in 80% of patients reduces the chance of going blind BUT... can cause loss of poliferal and night vision and that you can have severe hemorrhages after ..........
My surgeon did not tell me this.

I am worried and confused !
 
H

hanadr

Expert
Messages
8,157
Dislikes
soaps on telly and people talking about the characters as if they were real.
My husband has similar problems. He's had loads of laser and had a bleed in one eye that took him to the emergency eye clinic. It took a couple of weeks to clear. You will not get back the parts of the retina which the laser has permanently removed, but good control should slow the process and you should need less treatment in the future.You might reduce the proliferation. You won't make the eyes worse.
Good control though means non-diabetic BGs, (in the 5s) Not the 7s the doctors are satisfied with. that isn't easy for a T1 on insulin. Try reading Bernstein. He shows how it can be done. Small numbers!! 8)
 
C

ChezMorgan

Well-Known Member
Messages
122
Dislikes
Peppers , Spiders, War and people who think they are better than me, we are all equal !
hanadr said:
My husband has similar problems. He's had loads of laser and had a bleed in one eye that took him to the emergency eye clinic. It took a couple of weeks to clear. You will not get back the parts of the retina which the laser has permanently removed, but good control should slow the process and you should need less treatment in the future.You might reduce the proliferation. You won't make the eyes worse.
Good control though means non-diabetic BGs, (in the 5s) Not the 7s the doctors are satisfied with. that isn't easy for a T1 on insulin. Try reading Bernstein. He shows how it can be done. Small numbers!! 8)
Click to expand...

Thanks, i do already understand about the diabetic control, thats not what i am asking here.......

What i want to know and am concerned about is the Laser treatment and its side effects. Is there any long term studies into this and could it be another one of those.... treatment/ regime/ medication that has just been automatically given to diabetics over the years?
 
S

sugarless sue

Master
Messages
10,098
Dislikes
Rude people! Not being able to do the things I want to do.
I prowl the net a lot Chez but can't always remember where I read something or all of what I have read Yes eyesight will improve with lower blood sugar levels that is true.However I did read somewhere that if you have laser correction that it will stop this improvement happening.Now,this you have to really find out about as I would feel guilty if you didn't have your ops just because I said so!!!
 
C

ChezMorgan

Well-Known Member
Messages
122
Dislikes
Peppers , Spiders, War and people who think they are better than me, we are all equal !
sugarless sue said:
I prowl the net a lot Chez but can't always remember where I read something or all of what I have read Yes eyesight will improve with lower blood sugar levels that is true.However I did read somewhere that if you have laser correction that it will stop this improvement happening.Now,this you have to really find out about as I would feel guilty if you didn't have your ops just because I said so!!!
Click to expand...

OK Sue , will dig a bit deeper on that one, thank you
 
T

Trinkwasser

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,468
This might help in reducing the level of damage such that you will need fewer treatments

http://www.macular-degeneration-vitamins.com/index.htm

with care you can increase the levels of suitable foods in your diet to achieve this, think of the New Zealanders who don't say "five a day" they say "five colours a day"

Increasing levels of bioflavinoids and antioxidants can significantly benefit many types of diabetic (and ageing) damage
 
Top Bottom