hanks for your faith in me Mary ,always happy to help but I think its all been said by others. I can so empathise with you leb.
I was terrified at first and no one undersood. I was told I was lucky to be geting "free " laser when others had to pay thoudsands.
They thought i was being treated for short sight.
I am not sure which is the more frightening , the bleeds ou see or the bleeds you don't. Those where you think you are doing fine and you have revered to square one.
Firs of all I can ell you I have advanced retinopathy in both eyes ,. Also maculopathy and macular oedema in both eyes. I have had it for 5 years. I am posting here {albeit with typos } and can read wih he help of lamps and magnifers.
Sudden blindness is very unusual yourhaziness is probably due to the remnans of the "splodges. jus as others can't see what you can see , you can't see what the drs see. Obviously they want to stop further leakage of fluid.
As you mention your kidneys too I would guess you have been running high levels or have high bp or booth. You can best help yourself and may reverse both hese problems by reducing and sabilising these levels. but do't expect immediate results with your eyes, It may talke a while and further treatnment Many people here have had successful treatment which has not had to be repeated. I have an underlying problem which means that treatment only works for a short ime but , although I am not particularly brave I am no longer terrified,
he worst par of anything is he fear of the unknown. The doctors will no majke predictions because hey don't know. As this is a complicaion of diabetes much depends on the diabetes and your control so they can't give you a prognosis especially at an early stage.
The best way to deal with it all I found was to find someone i could trust and try to find to see or be treated by the same person.
Nurses will often help you to do this. i you explain your fears.
if injections in the eye are suggested , please realise that this is a very good thing. The retinal bleeding needs to be dried up before
laser can be really effective.
You are certainly in the righ place but have to learn to trust your doctors. Tis can be the hardest part. You may be fortunate as many others here have been and need very few sessions of laser. If not, it is not the end of the world. Just try to do your part and improving your levels if necessary and try not to stress oo much. It will only raise your levels.
You will soon ge used to it all and realise hat you are unlikely to go blind . Treatments are inmproving all the time. every time I visit the hospital now i hear more and more people being discharged. I am just an anomaly! My sight has been much worse at times because of bleeding and because of caaracts wnich are a hazard of the seroid injections I have . as also is glaucoma.
Many paients now are given injections of other substances which are very effective.
i know its all overwhelming and scary but it really isnt as bad as you hink. The lack of undersanding from others is a difffficul thing to
overcome but none of the reatment is horrendous or extremely painful. A little uncomfortable and disorientating mostly.
Please try not to worry too much. tI am a worrier and probably have more cause o worry about my sight han you do at the moment but i can honestly say my diabetes is a bigger worry for me.
I rus my consultant /surgeon and his team . , keep my levels low and stable as best i can and hope !
This aiude didn' come easily and I had to do a lot of research and ask a lot of quesions and occasionally be uncharacteristically asseribve but got ther in the end.
Pleaese let me know how you get on. I really do understand how you feel. Lonely isnt it?
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