"Background Retinopathy"

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joner847

joner847

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
So I had my 1st Diabetic Eye Screening Test last month and I've now had my results. For those that haven't yet done this, having been rather nervous, it was nothing to worry about, it did sting a little but it was no more discomforting than accidentally poking yourself in the eye!! And as the test was on a dull November morning there wasn't too much issue with glare!!

It stated that the result showed "some background retinopathy", as someone who values (really values) their eye sight this has freaked the b'jesus out of me!!

Having done some research this appears that I am on Stage 1 (of 4) on the road to losing my sight. Would just like some advice; How bad is this? Can this be maintained so that I remain at Stage 1? I have read that Blood pressure can be an issue....how much of an issue is this as my blood pressure diastolic pressure (at rest) refuses to go below 80 the systolic pressure floats between 120 and 130. Thanks!!
 
Over more than 15 years of diabetes, I have seen background retinopathy come and go a... and come again and go.
In other words, it is reversible which is better than just maintaining it.

With type 2, you are likely to have had undiagnosed high blood sugars for some time which would have greatly increased the risk of complications such as retinopathy. Now you are aware of it, you are able to manage it. If you bring your levels down, you can reverse that background retinopathy. I just see it as another motivation to manage my levels as best as I can.
 
Likewise I had a result of background retinopathy then next time nothing so normal. The best advise is to get your blood glucose levels as normal as possible to minimise and hopefully reverse any effect.
Where are you at with your diabetes, how long have you been diagnosed and what is your HbA1C as that will determine how much you need to do to bring levels down.
 
Thanks for @helli and @Leadinglights that I really didn't know that it can be reversed!! If by managing my levels I can get kick this into the long grass then I'm more than happy too do that!!

So I was diagnosed back in June 2021 my initial HbA1C was 110 mol (I measured 29.6mmol/l on a finger-prick test!!). So fast forward to November 2021, I had my 1st "MOT" at the GP's and my HbA1C came down to 35 mol. My finger prick tests averaging around the 5.8mmol/l for the past 30 days. So I've been religiously keeping levels to between 5 and 7mmol/l for since the summer of 2021. I'm also attempting to get some weight off, I have lost around 1½ stone but could do with getting some more off to get to a healthy weight as I've read that can have really positive effects too!
 
Those really are fantastic results with regards to your BGs. Big drops like that often cause issues with your eyes and many report these rectify with continued normalised BGs. There is the possibility im talking out my backside, and not sure if this relates to background retinopathy or just blurry vision, but I think you have every reason to be hopeful that even if this does not rectify itself you obviously have what it takes to stop it getting any worse.
 
Background retinopathy can actually be caused by dropping your hba1c very quickly as you did. It’s obviously been important to reduce your a1c but the best thing to do now would be to try and maintain that to keep stable good blood sugars. It could be that the retinopathy goes away, if it was caused by the fast drop, once you’ve maintained that improved level for a while.
 
EmmaL76 said:
Those really are fantastic results with regards to your BGs. Big drops like that often cause issues with your eyes and many report these rectify with continued normalised BGs. There is the possibility im talking out my backside, and not sure if this relates to background retinopathy or just blurry vision, but I think you have every reason to be hopeful that even if this does not rectify itself you obviously have what it takes to stop it getting any worse.
Click to expand...
You’re definitely saying the right thing. Some medications even come with a warning that they can cause retinopathy, because they can improve blood sugars quickly. The consultant told me the long term benefits of improving your blood sugars are worth it though.
 
I’ve had the “some background retinopathy” result for the past 5 years. This year I had none! I get similar checks at my optician, where the equipment is far more sophisticated (which is why it costs £40) but they’ve never found anything of concern.
Don’t panic - just keep working towards improving your levels
 
Sorry to hear you’ve had ‘that letter’. Unfortunately they can be written in pretty doom-laden and frightening terms :(

I seem to remember getting the impression that some ‘background changes’ can be detected which weren’t quite significant enough to be counted as ‘Stage 1’, though that’s not the way it is phrased on this NHS page, which only identifies 3 stages.

www.nhs.uk

Diabetic retinopathy - Stages

Read about the main stages of diabetic retinopathy, and what your diabetic screening result means.
www.nhs.uk www.nhs.uk

I’m another who has had a couple of ‘background changes’ letters over the years, but more recently my results have been remaining as ‘all clear’.

Hopefully with maintenance of fairly stable BGs you will see your eye changes stabilise, or perhaps even clear up?
 
There was background retinopathy at first testing, and then at the second one it was gone, and has not come back. Just one more reason to keep blood glucose within limits.
 
Thank you all. I fully intend to keep BG levels at a constant, healthy level.

The change in BG levels does explain a few things, like how I had a rather weird summer of 2021 where, I wear glasses anyway, I had my annual eye test 5 days before my initial diabetes diagnosis (beginning of June) and the subsequent medication to get BG levels down. This eye test showed no change in prescription all good!! But by July I was having issues with not being able to read anything (I work in IT so use monitors to read stuff and perform some fiddly repairs on PCs/Laptops!) and seeing things in the distance. So I went back to my opticians for a retest (they're an independent outfit and have a good relationship with them); they reported that prescription had changed so opted to get a couple of single vision frame/lenses for one for "reading" and one "everything else"! As a temporary "fix". All was fine again for 6 weeks, but noticed that my "everything else" pair of specs had started to go off!! So having thought about it, I grabbed my original pair and started to wear them, low and behold, I was back to 20/20 vision once again. But fast forward another couple of weeks and was starting to have issues reading again, but distance was fine. So I got my "everything else" pair back out of the draw and started to use those for reading.

So I now use my original pair for "everything else". My previous "everything else" pair is now used for "reading" and my previous "reading" pair for fiddly stuff or reading small print on documents. So to say that my first 6-months living with Diabetes has been a bit of a roller coaster, is an under statement. But I am learning and reading the testimonies here I realise I still know nothing!! But thanks for all the advice.
 
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