Weird eyes

[Veilofignorance]

Hi, I (45M) was diagnosed as T1D 10 days ago. In the last few days strange things are happening with my eyes. My long distance vision (for which I wear glasses with a mild/moderate prescription) has improved, and I can see much more sharply without glasses or contacts. Conversely my near vision (which has always been perfect) has quickly deteriorated - anything closer than 1 metre is blurred.

I have made an optician appointment for Thursday, and have read that eye shape can change when BG changes. Hoping therefore that the blurred vision is temporary due to BG dropping when I’ve started taking insulin.

I know this isn’t the place for medical advice but was wondering if anyone else has encountered similar issues soon after T1D diagnosis?

 

[Merluza]

When I started using insulin my long distance vision suddenly improved dramatically after about a week, I stopped needing glasses at all. This lasted for a month or two then my eyes slowly reset to more or less the same as they had been. It felt like a miracle.

 

[victorhamesse]

In my experience with it's a side effect of untreated vs treated diabetes. When I first had D I noticed my eyesight had changed while driving. Then I started taking Gliclazide and the eyesight improved.

Just last year I had the same experience. I want to the optician to get some new glasses, two months later I was informed that my HbA1c score had gone up to 96. Again I took some medication and the score diminished and so did the need for the new glasses. I never wore them, but reverted to the previous pair as continuing to give better vision.

D seems to change the optical properties of the fluid in the eye and therefore one's vision, is my conclusion. Higher viscosity ?

 

[Veilofignorance]

When I started using insulin my long distance vision suddenly improved dramatically after about a week, I stopped needing glasses at all. This lasted for a month or two then my eyes slowly reset to more or less the same as they had been. It felt like a miracle.

I had the same miracle feeling about my improved distance vision! But I will be happy for that to revert to normal if it means I also get my reading vision back

 

[Lucyr]

I have made an optician appointment for Thursday

Don’t buy new glasses so soon after diagnosis, it’s a waste of money as your eyes will change again as your bgs stabilise. Get a pair of cheap reading glasses from a discount store and go back to the opticians when your blood sugars have been stable for a few months

 

[Veilofignorance]

Thanks for all the really helpful replies. Happy to say that my eyesight is already a bit better today and my optician has also advised to wait for things to settle before I see her. Really appreciate everyone’s help!

 

[Martin62]

Mine did the same , had to buy a cheap pair of reading glasses until my vision returned to normal once my sugar levels were under control.

 

[pjgtech]

Think I read somewhere (maybe on here?,) that diabetes and fast weight loss/BG changes changes the shape of the lens in the eye and this is why some people notice a difference in their vision. As others have said if BG levels become stable again then vision may return to normal again. Cheers
NB: not medically trained, so.....

 

[Daisycoo]

Hey, my eyes were the same. Been diagnosed 3yrs and this summers eye test was a lot better prescription wise than previous tests. 3yrs ago my eyesight was awful, slowly started to get better after diagnosis and insulin (T1D) once everything settled and I got a grip on T1D
Been wear glasses since 2yrs old so can’t go without. I’ve had 4/5 pairs in that time frame, but recently the eyes have settled and have a better prescription that I treated myself to some slightly fancy ones from Pop Specs - great service from them and ready to collect in 20-30 mins
Some cheaper ones I bought over the year were online (Firmoo) with changing so much, delivery was around 2-3 weeks but never had an issue with the specs

 

[helli]

Think I read somewhere (maybe on here?,) that diabetes and fast weight loss/BG changes changes the shape of the lens in the eye and this is why some people notice a difference in their vision. As others have said if BG levels become stable again then vision may return to normal again. Cheers
NB: not medically trained, so.....

The way it was explained to me was that our body tries to get rid of excess glucose in all possible ways. For example, we wee more, teeth are more likely to rot and tears contain sugar. The lenses in our eyes adapt to focus for the focal length of our tears. The focal length of sugary water is different to the focal length of salty water.
So, as our BG slowly rises and our body has more glucose to get rid of, our lenses change shape. When we start to bring down our BG following diagnosis, our lenses need to change back to “salty water” focal length which can take time.
Hence, after we start to bring down our BG, vision is blurred for a while.

 

[Wendal]

When I started using insulin my long distance vision suddenly improved dramatically after about a week, I stopped needing glasses at all. This lasted for a month or two then my eyes slowly reset to more or less the same as they had been. It felt like a miracle.

Similarly when I got diagnosed exactly the same thing happened to me.I remarked on this to my optician when I had my retinal check but he did not really comment in return.
The thing I could not understand was in the years when I was not diabetic I could read a car numberplate at about 25 metres ( no glasses) but no further.
However the week after I got diagnosed and started insulin I could read them clearly at 30-35m without glasses and although my long term vision has gone back a little to normal ( pre diagnosis) I would say it is still slightly better which I do find puzzling as my BG is certainly much well less controlled than it was pre diagnosis.

 

[Tdm]

My eyesight got better. I remember this also happened some years ago, then went back to normal.
I mentioned it to an optician and they just shrugged.
I think looking back, that was the diabetes kicking in...i was diagosed during covid but i don't think that kicked it off due to the previous occurance