Rapid change in control

[david.bligh]

Please help. I'm really worried about my eyes. I have had bad control for 3.5yrs [HbA1C 12+] and now that I'm on a pump my control has been amazing. Along side this change, I'm told I have background retinoperphy and I'm now worried that getting good control so quickly could impact my sight and develop the retinoperphy.

Has this happened to anyone?

I have another post that goes in to more detail. Please have a read? No-one had replied to it yet...
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=25398

Thanks,
David.

 

[AMBrennan]

Now that would be an excellent question to ask the expert on Thursday; I can remember having read something like that (rapid change in pressure and so on) but I wasn't told off by my consultant for getting a HbA1c of 5.8% four months after being diagnosed. However, if the rapid improvement has caused the condition to worsen then the damage will have been done aby now so there is not much point in worrying about it now.

 

[david.bligh]

Thanks. I'm starting to feel demotivated about diabetes care. It seems even with maximum effort that I can't win.

 

[wsmum]

Hi David
Well done on the reduction of HbA1C. I'm sorry about the retinopathy but really hope you get some more detail soon and that it reassures you. I understand that it's not necessary to treat background retinopathy actively (ie. you won't need laser treatment or anything like that). You need to keep you sugars under control (and blood pressure & cholesterol) to prevent it progressing, and you will be doing that with your new excellent control. I hope this is some comfort! You'll be avoiding all sorts of other problems too with good control.
I'm also curious about short term reduction of blood sugar - ie correcting a one-off hyper with insulin. I wonder if it's a bad idea to bring down a hyper (say 16) to normal levels in just an hour or so? Would it be more sensible to take half a day over it? I can't find any information about this ...

 

[david.bligh]

I've always just corrected it in a dose of QA insulin. It does make you feel tired and a bit lazy, but it's needed. If you ate a high QA carb meal, your bloods could easily reach 16+ and come down within two hours with your bolus so nothing wrong in doing it..?