Diabetic Eye Disease Is A Serious Problem

Sight is something people often take for granted until they have problems. Diabetic eye disease is a serious problem which can have ramifications you may not even have considered so it’s best to learn what to do to avoid it.

Imagine a world in which you’re blind. I’m blind in one eye and I find it very frustrating at times. There are numerous things I have to do to cope. If I ever lost the sight in the good eye, I don’t know what I would do.

Diabetic retinopathy is when blood vessels in the retina are damaged and the nerve signals sent to the brain are distorted. It’s easy for you to have eye problems and not know it until it becomes quite severe because symptoms don’t often show in the early stages.

Symptoms you will notice include:

• Floating things in your eye(s).
• Difficulty seeing at night.
• Blind spots or shadows in certain parts of your vision.
• Blurry vision that slowly deteriorates over time.

There are surgical procedures to help remedy the problems if they’re caught in time. However, there’s not always a guarantee of success. In my case, I hadn’t been diagnosed with diabetes. I had a glaucoma operation that was ‘successful’ but my sight never returned and after doing some tests, we discovered I was a type 2 diabetic.

There are different forms of laser surgery designed to correct vision problems but, as with all surgeries, there’s always a risk factor so you should really look after your health so you don’t have to face surgery at all.

You may suffer from diabetic retinopathy. This is when your retinal’s blood vessels get damaged. Cataracts are a common eye problem but there’s a very easy surgical procedure to remove the damaged lens and replace it with a fully functional new lens.

Glaucoma is where the fluid pressure in your eye increases. This can cause nerve damage and loss of sight. I have had cataract and glaucoma surgery. I had the cataract done when I was only 25 years of age, which is quite young for cataracts and the cause was never found.

I had the glaucoma procedure only 6 years ago, after which my sight simply never returned. It was the scariest thing I have ever experienced. It’s NOT something YOU ever want to experience.

If you’re diabetic, you’re twice as likely to get glaucoma, cataracts and other forms of eye disease as compared to non-diabetics. If you have any problems with your sight, you should always get it checked out because early detection means there’s a greater chance that you can fix the problem.

Diabetic eye disease is a serious problem that can easily be avoided by controlling your diabetes and getting checked if you notice any symptoms, no matter how trivial. I truly believe in the saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

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