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Eye Screening

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Cat1964

Cat1964

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Good morning all hope you're all having a good day so far. Post mans just been with a letter for me to attend an appointment for diabetic eye screening at the hospital on 12th March. I have an appointment Wednesday coming for a 2 hour appointment at the diabetic clinic seeing podiatrist, doctor, diabetic nurse etc. Looks like I'm getting the full MOT over the next few weeks! :D
 
Good to hear that you've got all the checks lined up - you've probably read about some places where they don't do even a fraction of the tests they are supposed to! Hope all goes well 🙂
 
Northerner said:
Good to hear that you've got all the checks lined up - you've probably read about some places where they don't do even a fraction of the tests they are supposed to! Hope all goes well 🙂
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It's quite difficult having to get used to attending all these appointments. Before my diagnosis I rarely ever went to the doctors. Something I suppose I shall just have to get used too. 🙂
 
Cat1964 said:
It's quite difficult having to get used to attending all these appointments. Before my diagnosis I rarely ever went to the doctors. Something I suppose I shall just have to get used too. 🙂
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I was the same - I was still registered with Student Health when I broke my arm in 1996, 15 years after I had left Uni! 😱 When I was diagnosed it was the first time I'd needed to see a doctor for 4 years. For my first year of diagnosis it felt like I was never away from one sort of medical consultation or other - I even cancelled dental checkups because I was feeling so over-medicalised! Things did calm down a lot though, and now I only get the odd flurry of appts. 🙂
 
Northerner said:
I was the same - I was still registered with Student Health when I broke my arm in 1996, 15 years after I had left Uni! 😱 When I was diagnosed it was the first time I'd needed to see a doctor for 4 years. For my first year of diagnosis it felt like I was never away from one sort of medical consultation or other - I even cancelled dental checkups because I was feeling so over-medicalised! Things did calm down a lot though, and now I only get the odd flurry of appts. 🙂
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That's just how I feel like I am being bombarded. The day after diagnosis the surgery phoned and told e now I am diabetic I should have the flu jab. That's to happen this Wednesday too....actually forgot about that. And thinking back to that first appointment I also have to discuss a folic acid deficiency too that they found. I know this probably sounds silly but it just seems like you can never get away from diabetes!!! Nobody lets you forget it, I feel like I have a label attached to me...DIABETIC.....:(
 
Cat1964 said:
That's just how I feel like I am being bombarded. The day after diagnosis the surgery phoned and told e now I am diabetic I should have the flu jab. That's to happen this Wednesday too....actually forgot about that. And thinking back to that first appointment I also have to discuss a folic acid deficiency too that they found. I know this probably sounds silly but it just seems like you can never get away from diabetes!!! Nobody lets you forget it, I feel like I have a label attached to me...DIABETIC.....:(
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In time, hopefully, it will seem less of a dominant factor in your life. You'll probably always think twice about things you are about to eat - whether 'good' or 'bad' - but you will start to devote less of your waking thoughts to this, that and the other - things will become more routine. The reason why companies come up with ways for insulin users to remember if they've taken their injections is because after a while it can be an event that becomes instantly forgettable - you think ;did I just inject, or not?' 😱 So take heart, it won't always be shaping your days! 🙂
 
Hello to both of you. I was just the same, never went near the doctor until last September, now never seem to be away. Cat1964 I am sending you a virtual hug (). I understand entirely, it is there 24/7. I felt so ignorant and alone until I found this forum where people have been fantastic. I read somewhere about rationing your "thinking and learning about diabetes time" each day. So now I spend an hour looking here and reading up my books and planning meals etc. after that I try to forget about it and take as little notice as possible. Really good to hear that you are being well cared for. Northerner is a star, always kind and helpful. It will get better. I am ok about it now that I have accepted it and know that it won't go away. Of course I miss things that I enjoyed such as unlimited fruit, potato crisps etc, I am now just concentrating on staying as well as possible and staying off medication for as long as possible. As a needle phobic I cannot bear the though of insulin injections. Pricking my fingers is harrowing enough for me LOL. Go well 🙂
 
Well it's amazing that so many people are diagnosed by accident, when they've just nipped to the doctors for whatever.

But it's really good that they DO these things for us - well at least provide the service - as nobody is forced to attend the appts and I'm afraid some people don't.

I'd like it if everything was more co-ordinated so I could say - Can't plan anything else for the first week of March (or whatever) every year - and get it all done in one fell swoop. Cos much as I love my consultant and DSN (not so keen on my GP, dentist or optician on the basis the first has no SOH and the latter two always cost money) once a year would suit me.
 
happydog said:
Hello to both of you. I was just the same, never went near the doctor until last September, now never seem to be away. Cat1964 I am sending you a virtual hug (). I understand entirely, it is there 24/7. I felt so ignorant and alone until I found this forum where people have been fantastic. I read somewhere about rationing your "thinking and learning about diabetes time" each day. So now I spend an hour looking here and reading up my books and planning meals etc. after that I try to forget about it and take as little notice as possible. Really good to hear that you are being well cared for. Northerner is a star, always kind and helpful. It will get better. I am ok about it now that I have accepted it and know that it won't go away. Of course I miss things that I enjoyed such as unlimited fruit, potato crisps etc, I am now just concentrating on staying as well as possible and staying off medication for as long as possible. As a needle phobic I cannot bear the though of insulin injections. Pricking my fingers is harrowing enough for me LOL. Go well 🙂
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Hi there Happydog thanks for your words of encouragement and virtual hug. It just seems to be I get 5 minutes to think about nothing but being me and then something happens to remind me of the diabetes. Particularly this morning the letter dropping through the door for eye screening. My mum is also diabetic and is a bit erratic about how she controls it. My mum is blind, she is also elderly and her memory is shocking. So if you ask her how she went blind she'll tell you she doesn't know. Makes me sick to the pit of my stomach that the diabetes could be the cause of her blindness and that it could happen to me. I will be quaking in my boots on Wednesday. I also get checked regularly as my dad had glaucoma and last year we had a bit of a scare with that when the optician wasn't happy with the pressure in my eyes. So you see how the eye thing can get a bit stressful for me. I seem to have gone from being reasonably healthy and never seeing my GP from one year to the next to being in the surgery very other week for something or another or someone phoning or a letter dropping in just to make sure I don't forget I have diabetes....how can I? This forum is fantastic and the people here give fantastic advice and like Northerner are very kind and helpful for when I come on to ask yet another daft question and are there to give a helping hand even though I do feel rediculous sometimes. Stupid thing to say really, I don't want diabetes...didnt ask for it....told you it was stupid. I was chatting with a friend a few days ago who suggested by the way I talk with her about diabetes that there is a huge part of me hasn't yet accepted this 'diabetes thing' yet. Maybe she's right. Just as I say I just want one day when I don't have to think about it at all, but that's never going to happen. I suppose maybe once I have been to the diabetic clinic this week and spoken to the nurse, podiatrist and doctor and see what they all have to say. Once I've been to the hospital for the eye screening, maybe it will all settle down. Maybe the acceptance for me still has to come...meantime I just have to get on with it. 🙂
 
HI Cat1964. I did not know about your Mum and your other background. I can fully understand why you are spooked by the eye screening. Things have improved a lot and the eye screening is there to stop us getting retinopathy. I was terrified, if you look back you will see my posts, but it was all OK and I am OK at the moment. Acceptance is hard especially for us who have not had lots of medical problems. We don't have diabetes of either type in our family. I am not overweight and lead an active life. I have always been careful about what I eat, so I was totally bowled over when they told me. Apparently I have other autoimmune problems including hypothyroidism, so lots to contend with. After denial, grieving, anger etc. I have accepted that this is how it is and it is my disease and I have to look after it for myself. I hope that you will reach that point too. It is not inevitable that you will have eye problems but as you know you have to be mindful, which you are being. Look at it as though it is a chance to take responsibility and prevent the complications. Sorry, not trying to tell you what to do, just to help you to be positive. We all have our low days, well I do. Yes wouldn't it be nice to have a day or two off from it. Would we then have to adjust all over again? Maybe they will find a cure. Take care and enjoy your weekend. () 😉
 
Thanks again Happydog. I will try to be more positive about it all, though difficult to want to be positive about diabetes!!! I just get very freaked out about anything that involves doctors, hospitals etc. I always have White Coat Syndrome. I registered with my practice last year and when I was going for the registration appointment I found myself worked up to such a state about it that I had to wait ages before they could get a decent BP reading. Hence the reason I used to never go to my GP. On another occasion I went to my GP, I hadn't seen him in 2 years so he did a blood test. 2 days later I was in hospital as a result of tht blood test!!!! I don't like all the poking and prodding etc that goes with going to the GP or hospital, so find that best plan is to keep away from them as much as possible....but I expect that will be one 2nd nature eventually. Hope you're having a good weekend too :D
 
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