Hello - Who turned off the light??

[Phrazer99]

Hi everyone, I'm Gareth from Cardiff, 41yo, beet T1 since I was 19 I think.
I've been on Novorapid and Lantus for as long as I can remember, and up until last Saturday I've been really lucky, I've had no complications at all.
Then in Saturday, something blew in my right eye. One second I'm standing on the side of the football pitch watching my 9yo son playing football, then suddenly I've got this worm type black line in my vision, and I'm looking through thick spiders webs.
I was terrified. I had an emergency opticians appointment on Monday, and was in hospital on Tuesday, and before I knew it I had emergency laser treatment (who knew getting zapped by 2700 laser blasts in the eye would hurt so much?!?) To try and stop the bleeding.
I'm due in in another 10 days or so for some more laser based torture/treatment. Can't wait.
So you've probably guessed by now, I've got retinopathy. Whoopee!!
Has anyone else had things happen like this? I'm really scared about the future of my vision now.
When will/if things might improve?
When might these black wobbly things go?
Will I ever be back to normal again?
Is this now the new normal?

Thanks for any advice, I'm not going to deny I'm really worried what the future holds vision wise.
Thanks
Gareth

 

[Inka]

Welcome @Phrazer99 🙂 I’m very sorry to hear about your eye problem. That must have been very frightening to happen so suddenly like that.

There are a number of people with retinopathy here. Hopefully they’ll be along soon. In the meantime, you could use the Search button top right of this page to search for threads about it and about laser treatment.

 

[Alan44]

Hi @Phrazer99 and welcome to the forum

Sorry to hear about the eye problem, hope you can get it sorted asap.

Just as an aside, I went to Barry college back in the early 70's and lived in Penarth, my Mother was born in Barry and worked in Cardiff, until meeting my Father during WW2 and moved to England.

I loved Cardiff as a teenager on the loose

Alan 😉

 

[goodybags]

hi @Phrazer99 welcome to the forum
ouch Gareth that must’ve been a horrible shock for you, problems in vision certainly are not nice, and to come on so suddenly not nice at all, hopefully the hospital sort a suitable plan of effective treatment for you that it all goes ok for you.

I have a very different problem with my eyes to you, but have retinopathy and have for the last 10yrs have been seen with monthly/ 6 weekly visits to the eye department always a scan and usually treatment, throughout that time.
(Up until recently thought it was about 7 years) but at last consultation they confirmed to me it’s been ten years.

The hospital I’m under (on the NHS) have I must say overall has treated me very well, especially at the moment, even through Covid was seen and treated as required under the plans they had in place,
whenever as I would describe them had black wobbly things in my vision it was always following treatment and was just a few days, my black wobbly bits weren’t after every treatment and usually my treatment (which was injections was actually ok) and relatively pain free especially if I was able to relax when the treatment happened.
I still have have several floaters, that just kind of float around like bubbles & flys, these I only see in one eye, but I think they are actually there in both, I only had laser treatment to one eye and just the once and it wasn’t painful like you described
but like I say my problem wasn’t/isn’t the same as yours, now when I see the consultant at the hospital I ask loads of questions to try and understand what’s going on, which I didn’t at first

apart from your eye problems, how’s everything else going on with your Diabetes control management of the condition ?
hopefully you will get some great help and support from the forum

 

[Flower]

Hi and welcome @Phrazer99

I’m really sorry to hear about your sight problems. Retinal haemorrhages are utterly terrifying, I’ve had a lot over the years in both eyes. My first one happened overnight so I woke up with no sight, whenever they happen it’s awful.

Were you already being treated for proliferative retinopathy? A lot of the treatment needs time & patience which is so hard when you just want to be able to see something other than swirls of blood. Over time the blood starts to be reabsorbed and fade from black through to lighter brown but sometimes it doesn’t completely disappear. The eyeball jelly traps the blood and it can’t clear away. If there are further bleeds & I hope there aren’t then there is the option of a vitrectomy operation where the eyeball jelly & trapped blood debris are removed and the eye is filled with a saline liquid. This clears the space in front of the retina so light can get in & should there be further bleeds they drain away fast from the liquid. I’ve had vitrectomies in both eyes and it was a relief to have them done. I’m sure your clinic will advise you on what’s best and when.

Laser can be painful, I asked them to stop and move to a different area when it got too much. I’d ask about taking paracetamol before the laser.

Hopefully things will settle for you, there’s a number of things that can help after retinal bleeds, laser, some of the anti vegf injections - if appropriate, and surgery if too much blood builds up in the eye jelly.

It is a case of wait and see, I found it incredibly frightening waiting for the blood to clear, waiting for appointments, hoping things would improve. However there is so much that can help and I hope you can get back to normal.

Managing all the usual stuff we have to do with diabetes, glucose, blood pressure, cholesterol etc are all vital to help eye health. If your HbA1c is a raised then reducing it slowly is vital if you have retinopathy. Perversely a rapid reduction in HbA1c can speed up retinopathy progression which is not what anyone needs.

Wishing you well.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Yikes @Phrazer99 that sounds like a really scary time 😱

Thank goodness the emergency laser treatment was available - not pleasant, but hopefully it will have helped.

Had you not had any background changes noted in your annual screening appointments to give you a bit of warning?

As @Flower says, hopefully your eyes will clear in time, and the laser surgery will have helped to stabilise things.

Good luck, and let us know what you find out at your follow-up appointments.