Hi All,
I've just had my third laser eye surgery for my diabetes retinopathy. I really hate having it done (not that's it's painful - just uncomofortable) and don't sleep for about a week beforehand. I am petrified that when they scan my eyes they will find even more wrong with them.
I was diagnosed in Jan 2023 with a 110 reading. My last reading was 38 about 3 months ago, and using a Libre that estimates I am now 31 (I know it is only a very rough estimate).
Unfortunately, nobody mentioned to me that it was unwise to drop the 110 so quickly as that can affect my eyes (I first found out about that from this very informative forum). The first two appointments said I didn't need anything and just to get the figure down and keep it steady but on the next appointment it was suddenly decided that it had seriously degraded and I needed laser - I was a bit devastated with this.
In the last few appointments I was told I would defintely need it on my right eye as well as that had the same troublesome extra blood vessels so things were looking a bit bleak. The surgery today seemed to go fine, it is now 4 hours afterwards and my eye has nearly returned to normal. The good news is that the doctor said the right eye seems to be more stable and laser isn't required at the moment - she said there are eraduites but these may disappear if I keep the BG down. She kept saying how important it was to keep the score down - and when I said that it was really down and had been for about 5 months she was quite positive - though annoyingly she then mentioned about it dropping too quickly that may have caused the issue (this is the first HCP who has actually said this to me).
I do feel a little bit positive now and feel like I will actually be able to sleep again - I'm exhausted, haha.
Just wanted to tell someone about it - my family don't really understand how serious it is and though I do tell my lovely daughter all about it, I never tell her how serious it is as I don't want her to worry. I always tell her when I am having laser as i don't keep anything from her, but I don't tell her just how scared it makes me feel and that I don't sleep all week beforehand. In some ways I now feel I have a 6-8 weeks break from it as that is when the review is - but I'll be the same again then and not sleep. Ah well, I'm on holiday from mid November in Turkey and haven't really looked forward to that (I always look at the worse case scenario and had visions of not being able to see and not wanting to go on holiday).
I hate diabetes, I really do, but I am very grateful for this forum and the so helpful members on it. I now just don't eat hardly any carbs at all and have found foods I really like. I'm actually enjoying food more than I ever had as I now make everything myself and make my own low-carb garlic yoghurt sauce which I now have on everything - and the one treat I have every month is a doner kebab from a shop I know that doesn't bulk it up with flour etc. (and this was confirmed with my Libre monitor) No pitta bread though.
Anyway, sorry for rattling on, but it's nice to say these things that I won't say in real life to people so thanks for listening.
I've just had my third laser eye surgery for my diabetes retinopathy. I really hate having it done (not that's it's painful - just uncomofortable) and don't sleep for about a week beforehand. I am petrified that when they scan my eyes they will find even more wrong with them.
I was diagnosed in Jan 2023 with a 110 reading. My last reading was 38 about 3 months ago, and using a Libre that estimates I am now 31 (I know it is only a very rough estimate).
Unfortunately, nobody mentioned to me that it was unwise to drop the 110 so quickly as that can affect my eyes (I first found out about that from this very informative forum). The first two appointments said I didn't need anything and just to get the figure down and keep it steady but on the next appointment it was suddenly decided that it had seriously degraded and I needed laser - I was a bit devastated with this.
In the last few appointments I was told I would defintely need it on my right eye as well as that had the same troublesome extra blood vessels so things were looking a bit bleak. The surgery today seemed to go fine, it is now 4 hours afterwards and my eye has nearly returned to normal. The good news is that the doctor said the right eye seems to be more stable and laser isn't required at the moment - she said there are eraduites but these may disappear if I keep the BG down. She kept saying how important it was to keep the score down - and when I said that it was really down and had been for about 5 months she was quite positive - though annoyingly she then mentioned about it dropping too quickly that may have caused the issue (this is the first HCP who has actually said this to me).
I do feel a little bit positive now and feel like I will actually be able to sleep again - I'm exhausted, haha.
Just wanted to tell someone about it - my family don't really understand how serious it is and though I do tell my lovely daughter all about it, I never tell her how serious it is as I don't want her to worry. I always tell her when I am having laser as i don't keep anything from her, but I don't tell her just how scared it makes me feel and that I don't sleep all week beforehand. In some ways I now feel I have a 6-8 weeks break from it as that is when the review is - but I'll be the same again then and not sleep. Ah well, I'm on holiday from mid November in Turkey and haven't really looked forward to that (I always look at the worse case scenario and had visions of not being able to see and not wanting to go on holiday).
I hate diabetes, I really do, but I am very grateful for this forum and the so helpful members on it. I now just don't eat hardly any carbs at all and have found foods I really like. I'm actually enjoying food more than I ever had as I now make everything myself and make my own low-carb garlic yoghurt sauce which I now have on everything - and the one treat I have every month is a doner kebab from a shop I know that doesn't bulk it up with flour etc. (and this was confirmed with my Libre monitor) No pitta bread though.
Anyway, sorry for rattling on, but it's nice to say these things that I won't say in real life to people so thanks for listening.
