Diabetic Retinopathy Treatment Care

Question by ShadowStarr: Is this healthy? It might be a bit long to read.?
(It might be a bit long to read)
I have been diabetic since i was 2 but i didn’t have ant knowledge about it since a year ago
i used to secretly hid away Sweet and Chocolate from my mum because i didn’t understand why i couldn’t have it and no one explained to me the complication of high blood sugar
i am aware of everything now but for a whole year i suffered really high blood sugar and it had affect my eye as i now suffer With background retinopathy

now i find even little food makes a big impact on my blood sugar e.g a grape
sometimes my blood sugar level could rise up to 27.8mmol just due to stress or even a small slice of pizza even a banana

Now this is the diet i follow
Breakfast: yogurt and rice cake
Snack :cucumber with cream cheese
Lunch: gluten free bread (i also have celiac disease) with cheese salad filling (filling is also varied)
snack: 10 almonds and fruit usually varied
Dinner: brown rice and chicken with green pepper (usually varied)

i want to know is this healthy and do i eat enough?
i also exercise 5 time a week for 45 minutes moderate intensity
this enables me to control my blood sugar, at the moment it is at 6.7mmol A1C

Best answer:

Answer by john e russo md facm faafp
It is common in this forum for respondents not to be familiar with the units being referenced. A glucose of 27.8 mmol/L is 500 mg/dL. A glucose of 6.7 mmol/L is 121 mg/dL although I suspect that you may be referring to an A1C of 6.7%. The A1C is reported in % not mmol/L or mg/dL. The A1C represents the 90 day mean (average) glucose. An A1C of 6.7% approximates a 90 day mean glucose of 8.1 mmol/L or 146 mg/dL. An A1C is near the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists goal of 6.5% which approximates a 90 day mean glucose of 7.8 mmol/L or 141 mg/dL. Given the combination of Celiac Disease and Type 1 Diabetes I would very strongly encourage you to seek the advice of a dietitian. This is simply not the forum to seek such information. For example you describe a single day’s intake but you need a varied diet and only a qualified dietitian will be able to work that out with you. If I may be of further assistance please let me know. I wish you the very best of health and in all things may God bless.

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Question by Kumi: DIABETES MELLITIS – Why is it called this?
Why is diabetes called diabetes mellitis?
What causes diabetic neuropathy, nephropathy and retinopathy?
How does metformin or any other diabetic drugs work?

Best answer:

Answer by gohangirl708 is a Humble Diva
Can’t answer your other questions, but…

“Diabetes” means “to pass through urine.” The most common subset of diabetes is diabetes mellitus.

Diabetes mellitus is called that because of the amount of glucose in your urine–you can’t uptake the excess glucose in your blood, so you have “sweet” urine. “Mellitus” means “honey” in…Greek? So it’s like they’re saying honey passes through your urine…there is too much sugar in your pee.

There is another type of glucose, where you just pee a lot of dilute urine; it’s called diabetes insipidus.

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Question by Jennifer: What could cause this weird spot on my vision?
Since last September (not this year, I mean last year) I noticed a strange dark spot in the middle of my field of vision of my right eye. It’s not pitch black, but it is a little shadowy. Kind of just like a little blog in the middle of my vision. Annoying as it was (I mostly notice it whenever I’m trying to read something, since it keeps moving along with wherever I’m focusing my vision), I never thought too horribly much of it since it wasn’t causing me any pain or anything, and I’m not currently covered by insurance…so unless it were some severe life threatening thing, chances are I wasn’t going to be able to justify having it looked at.

Fast forward about a year. It’s still there…the dark patch hasn’t really changed in shape or size or anything. So that’s probably good that it hasn’t taken over my vision or anything. But, there’s these weird squiggly lines coming out of it in either direction. They, however, aren’t dark like the spot. They look like what I can only describe as if a bunch of floaters (I’ve had those since childhood) somehow joined together to create a squiggly line. But the weirder part is that these lines sort of change shape over the course of the day. Sometimes it’ll be an almost straight line, other times it’ll look like a squiggly, zig-zaggy line, and other times it looks like it’s trying to loop around the dark spot. It’s been like that much of the time I’ve had the dark spot, but those lines have definitely become larger with time. They don’t change fast enough for me to sit there and watch them morphing or anything, but say I’m typing and then look up at a light colored wall and see how it looks, then look back down at my typing for a few minutes, then back at the wall. It will have changed at least a little bit in that time.

I know that I *should* have this checked out, and whenever I have the resources to be able to do so, I will. But in the meantime, just some thoughts on different possibilities of what this might be? The spot itself doesn’t cause any pain or anything, although I know that eye is more sensitive to light than the other. (My eyes have always been light-sensitive though, so whether or not that’s changed or if it was already just more sensitive than the other, I’m not too sure.) Only other even possible symptom I can think of is some on again/off again mild headaches I’ve had on that same side of my head for a couple weeks. Not horribly painful (not even bad enough to need to take a painkiller), just enough to be annoying. I thought they might be tension headaches, but the “band-like” description doesn’t fit here, and I can’t think of too many other things that might be causing those, so perhaps they’re related. Maybe they’re not, but just in case it’s a critical piece of info, I thought I’d include it. But, of course, being the hypochondriac I am, I’ve had to wonder if maybe this whole thing is a brain tumor, or an aneurysm waiting to burst or something. I know it could also be something like retinal detachment (which would be bad for how much time has passed, I’m sure), and even though I tested negative for diabetes last time I got checked, the disease does run in my family, so I had to wonder about diabetic retinopathy too. Any other thoughts on what it sounds like it could most likely be based on this description, or anything I haven’t even thought of? More importantly….this isn’t fatal, is it? I would REALLY suck to lose my vision in that eye (but I’m hoping to get this checked before it gets *that* far) but I’m really scared about whether this thing could potentially kill me.

I should also probably mention that I’m a 24 year old female in otherwise fairly good health.

Best answer:

Answer by UmbrellaGirl
It sounds like you have what is called a Scotoma if it isn’t floating around like floaters would. Here is the Wikipedia article on them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotoma

Save up what you can and see a doctor about it soon. It could very well be from your headaches and when they go away, this may fade as well. There is a possibility it could be something serious, so if it doesn’t go away, you should be checked out.

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Question by Santiago Peak: Is this a pre-existing condition?
I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 24 years ago. I moved out of state and was without insurance for several months. I now have insurance through my employer, but have to wait 6 months before I can be covered for a pre-existing condition. I have recently been having issues with 1 of my eyes (retinopathy I’m assuming) and would like to get it checked. My question is if it is diabetic retinopathy, would this be considered a pre-existing condition since it’s related to my diabetes or would this be considered a unique diagnosis for which I would be covered? And if the answer is that it would not be covered and I go see a doctor right away, would I be correct in assuming that any costs incurred after the 6 months then would be covered?

Best answer:

Answer by kiki
that’s tough to say. even if the problems with the eye are just starting, some companies may consider it pre-existing due to the diabetes. the best thing to do is call the insurance company and get the right answer, so you’re not surprised by any costs not covered by them.

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Why is diabetes called diabetes mellitis?
What causes diabetic neuropathy, nephropathy and retinopathy?
How does metformin or any other diabetic drugs work?