As if having diabetes wasn’t enough of a kick in the teeth, I now have to contend with my eyesight being different from one day to the next..It’s not unusual for diabetics to have blurred vision, but I wasn’t prepared for the complete 360 my sight has done.
I’ve been short sighted since I was eleven years old, I’ve never minded. I love my glasses, they’re a part of who I am. When my vision started to deteriorate a couple of months ago I was concerned, but not overly so. I just made my appointment for an eye test, and bought the new distance and reading glasses. I wasn’t diagnosed at this point, you can probably guess where this is going…
After I started on metformin, my BG level started to drop. When I picked up my glasses I couldn’t see through them. At. All. I had no idea why at the time, and thought they must have got the prescription wrong. However, about a week ago I put my old specs on to go out and nearly fell over, they were also too strong. It seems that my BG was having a massive effect on my vision, which is still in flux even now, after it has fallen. My near vision has deteriorated to the point where I cannot see anything within an arms length of my face to read, it’s just fuzz. Whereas before, I could read quite well with no glasses at all.
Last Saturday, I bought some 2.0 ready readers. Today I had to buy 1.5 ready readers for distance (to drive) and 3.0 for anything at arms length or closer. I simply cannot convey how much this scares and depresses me.
Over the last couple of years I’ve had to watch a close family member lose their eyesight to the point of being registered blind. If I can’t get the diabetes under control I stand a good chance of developing retinopathy.
Why “eighteen” ?
I now possess eight pairs of glasses as follows:
3 x ready readers (hopefully temporary)
2 x new prescription glasses
3 x old prescription glasses (1 distance, 1 reading, 1 varifocals)
+ my own eyes. Such as they are, which right now.. isn’t much.
My optician is requesting a referral for a retina scan, my eyes look healthy but he wants to be sure. This all feels so familiar. I spent far more time than I care to think about at Southampton eye unit with a loved one, and now I have to do it for myself.
On the plus side, my BG has dropped to within normal parameters. So that’s something!
