[Achilles]

My apologies for bringing up an old thread, but a search and read found this to be the most likely place for me to post this.

I was diagnosed 4 months ago with an unknown A1c but fasting was 262 mg/dL. I felt horrible and was somewhat shocked to find out I had diabetes but at the same time I felt that there was an explanation for why I had been feeling so bad.

I have regular eye exams because I wear glasses. Last year I had a full exam by an opthamologist who dilated my eyes and didn't detect anything. An optomotrist earlier this year didn't detect anything either. Well, after my diabetes diagnosis I have been working hard on my A1c and my first one came back 6.3% last month.

I scheduled an appointment with the same opthamologist I saw last year and he diagnosed me with diabetic retinopathy. He referred me to a retina specialist who I saw today.

The retina specialist looked at my eyes and confirmed background non-proliferative retinopathy in both eyes. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the worst, he said right eye was a 2 and left eye was a 3. He also said I have macular edema in my left eye.

I was shocked about all of this of course. I asked if rapidly improving my blood glucose may have caused this and he referenced the DCCT report where 13% of patients may experience something called "early worsening." I felt guilty about this because I've worked so hard to improve my numbers and then this! He said to keep my A1c under 6.5% and I told him I was aiming for under 6.0% which he said was even better. I asked him about what was better dealing with the "early worsening" or slowly bringing down the BG numbers. He said that it was better to get in control as quickly as possible to avoid more complications. The "early worsening" usually stabilizes and may get better if I control my BG numbers under 6.5%.

I got the dye injection in my arm and numerous photos were taken of both eyes. The doctor came in and explained them to me and asked if I had any questions. I did have a few and he recommended laser treatment for the macular edema on the left eye. He said it could get better on its own but it was my choice. In his opinion he said I should get it done. So I did. It only lasted about 3 minutes and was not very painful at all. I can still see 20 / 20 in both eyes with my glasses and tonight I seem to be seeing fine too. I asked about vigorous exercise and he said no restrictions there.

This macular edema thing is kind of frightening though. I go back in 3 months for a follow up. I should have my updated A1c at that time too.