THE STORY OF ONE FAMILY'S JOURNEY WITH TYPE 1 DIABETES AND CELIAC DISEASE.
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Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Eye Anxt.

Sugar had an eye appointment at the beginning of December.  It was her first since she began wearing glasses last summer.  The doctor wanted to do a vision screening to check her prescription...and, also, dilate her eyes to check out everything else.

She had her eyes dilated once before, and...well...let's just say she wasn't much of a fan.

Knowing her anxiety about it, I opted not to mention it until I was absolutely sure the doctor was going to do it.  Since she had just had a comprehensive retinal screening at the 2012 Friends For Life Conference, the doctor let her off the hook over the summer.  She mentioned, however, that  she wanted to take a look at things herself before too much longer.  Suffice to say that I was pretty sure this visit would include a dilation.

And it did.

And...the SECOND (literally) Sugar heard that dilation was part of the plan, she turned into a ball of nerves.  Here, let me show you...

Her appointment was at 10 am.
We arrived at 9:45 and got the news to expect dilation right away.
 Yup.  Anxt.

OFF THE CHARTS!

The vision screening was sketchy that day.  It was impossible to differentiate between visual disturbances from hyperglycemia or the need for a stronger prescription.  Overall, her eyes were deemed very healthy, but we would need to repeat the vision screening about a month later.

Which brings us to today.

With stellar BGs, she hopped in the chair, and passed the vision screening with flying colors.  No need for a prescription change at this point!

I've always read about high blood sugar and vision issues.  I learned about it in nursing school.  I know it happens.  This becomes an important element when it comes to school work and standardized testing, but until today, I couldn't qualify how high blood sugars actually affect SUGAR'S vision, because I had no way to measure it.

Turns out that those high numbers really DO mess with things!  

PS...Just because I love it....here's that awesome warm and fuzzy video again ;)




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4 comments:

  1. Natalie has MAJOR anxiety about getting eye drops at the Eye Dr. which then causes me to have anxiety! That is amazing to see on the cgm though just how much her nerves affected her BG and then affected her sight. Before Natalie was dx, she would always tell me that she could "see 2 Mommys"...it freaked me out and her eyes would look weird when she said it. At first I thought it was because I was up too close, but after dx I'm sure it was the double/blurry vision from high bgs. So sad and scary. The eye stuff scares me to death, but thankfully we have an eye Dr. that I completely trust. Way to make it through another appointment!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I right there with Sugar on the Eye Exam anxiety!! I stress for days about it and battle wonky blood sugars the night before and the anxiety lasts until after the exam is over. Then I'm so tired that all I want to do is sleep. Not sure if it's from the drops, the stress or some weird kellyism - probably a combo of all 3!
    btw, Sugar and I both had eye exams today!
    http://diabetesaliciousness.blogspot.com/2013/01/eye-exams-make-me-sleepy.html

    We are in this together!!
    Love you guys!!
    Xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  3. Horribly fuzzy vision is one of my first warning signs of high blood sugar. It's amazing how much it affects things.

    I hate the dilation part too, but it gives me a good excuse to wear a pair of awesome sunglasses.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Me and 10,000 other people (or at least 10,000 other views) love that video too.

    The thing that scares me most about the eye doctor is that eye puffer thing to check for pressure. I guess they don't have to use that anymore though (fingers crossed).

    ReplyDelete

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While I'm happy to share our experiences with what works, and what doesn't work, for the management of Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac Disease in our house, please do not mistake anything you read here for medical advice. Decisions regarding your/your child's health care should be made only with the assistance of your medical care team. Use any information from this blog at your own risk.