I found out that I had Diabetic retinopathy the hard way. I woke up one morning with visible black lines across my eyeball. That was one of the scariest moments in my life. I rushed straight to the emergency eye hospital and was told then of the condition. The black line was actually bleeding in the back of the eye caused by the eye forming new blood vessels. I had a week's wait for the laser treatment and that was quite an ordeal. It is extremely worrying to have a line across your eyeball that you don't really understand. This was the stage that I realised how important it is to look after your diabetes.
The laser treatment was not too bad. It took approximately 30 minutes. They clamped my eye open and used the machine. I can only describe it as something hard prodding me in the eye 10,000 times. I had this laser treatment 3 times in total. I was still driving at this point and was told of a risk of losing my driving license. I hoped that my other eye would be OK because I heard that having both eyes treated would mean that I would definitely lose my license.
Over a period of time the inevitable happened and I lost my driving license. This was very hard to cope with as it was almost like losing my legs and my freedom. I have been very fortunate that my wife can drive and she was a fantastic help to me. The bleeding persisted and I found that my diabetes suffered also due to the problems I was having with the changes. I was admitted for surgery and anticipated 2 weeks off of work. The surgery went well. However, the recovery was slow and I was actually off for 6 weeks. The recovery was not as I expected. For the first week I felt like I had been in a boxing ring. The swelling and bruising was quite severe After 2 weeks I found that I was able to venture outside as long as the wind was done and the sun not too high.
After I had recovered I ventured back to work. This was tough as I had to have plenty of breaks from my desk. I always felt fortunate that I worked in my families business and was allowed to take these liberties without financial issues.
At my next scan I was told that I was to be registered as partially sighted. This was hard to take in as it was almost like admitting that I had wrecked my life by not looking after my diabetes.
Things have progressively got worse. I use a small telescope to see signs etc from a distance and have a magnifier that I use for close up work. Life is not easy and I am starting to get used to living with my limitations. I have learnt that I should have looked after my diabetes from an early age.
I hope that this blog gives you an idea of how Diabetic retinopathy effects you. Living with diabetes is something that you have to control every single day.
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