Eye problem, ....or lack of!

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

Okay, so this is some weird shit going on with my eyes. A few weeks ago I had bad blurred vision in my left eye. Having seen both the optician, and my doctor, I was called for an urgent appointment at the hospital. After several tests etc the told me that there was a shadow on my left eye and would need surgery. They said it was some sort of cataract. Today I was back to the hospital for what I thought would be a pre-op assessment. A different doctor saw me, did a few tests and then told that there is no surgery needed. there are no cataracts causing concern and that the blurring was probably caused by my sugar levels being to high at the time and affecting the thickness of the lens! Got the all clear and told to come back in a year for a regular check up! Great result, one less thing to worry about.

[allardjd 1,853]

My dad was a long-term diabetic and I have some close experience with diabetes and eye issues.  Be very careful, Alan.  The problem with diabetes is that for every hour your blood sugar is out of control, there's a price to be paid.  The insidious part is that the payment comes a long time down the road, so if you're not minding your diet, etc. and are frequently out of control, you soon get the idea that you are "getting away with it", which encourages further risky behavior.  My dad was taken in by that and by his sixties was essentially blind - totally in one eye and very, very degraded in the other.  He couldn't drive, couldn't read without very, very strong magnification and strong lighting and assorted other problems, not related to eyesight.  Wounds don't heal, particularly in extremities, and the risk of amputation because of gangrene in seemingly minor wounds becomes markedly higher.

 

It's a nasty, nasty disease and needs to be taken seriously.

 

/lecture

 

John 
 

[OzWookiee 151]

Wow take care there Alan. Need you bringing in those sweet screenshots =) 

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

Cheers Guys, I've been type 2 Db since 2000 but at the time they think it could have been missed by my previous GP in London for anything up to 6 years! I started with just metformin tablets but since 2012 am on insulin injections as well. Marie has been type 1 Db for about 25 years or more so between us we do keep an eye on things. However whilst we can control what sugar we add to food, there are hidden sugars in almost anything one buys in the shops. We now check ingredient lists on food packaging and if Sugar or Sucrose etc is high on that list it stays on the shelf.You have to watch a lot of the so called "Low-fat" products as although , yes, they are low in fat. they often have an incredibly high sugar content. Other things to watch are large amounts of carbs which also turn to sugar in the body and fruit which has sugar in it's genetic make up. The stuff is a killer but it's taken various government bodies years to finally realise it in spite of the medical profession warning about it decades ago. I'm normally pretty careful with my own intake, though occasionally some things do get through. I test blood sugar levels at least twice a day , sometimes more, and always if i'm going on a long drive. I keep a bottle of lucozade and glucose tablets in the car just in case of a Hypo, though thankfully it's never happened yet.  I attend all my Db appointments at GP surgeries and Hospitals including eye screening so am pretty much on top of things. This occasion flagged up because the effects were so sudden. However thankfully the problem has settled itself. However, it's wise to take it on board as a warning. As John rightly says, Do NOT take chances with this disease. If you have it, or suspect you have it, get checked out.

[wain 879]

you take care Al, my wife was told she has DB last year, was a real eyeopener for me as I didn.t realise how much of an issue it can be....

[J G 927]

DB is a nasty thing.  A couple of my friends have type 2 DB and it isn't a lot of fun. Uncontrolled DB is a killer, a colleague of my wife's husband didn't manage his DB well and he went to being a fit man to a wheelchair and finally to his grave. He was only in his forties.

 

On a lighter note, a couple of weeks ago I hade one of those big WTF moments in my life.

 

I have always had issues with my teeth, mainly because the roots of them are much longer than they should be.  I had my wisdom teeth when I was young and I had to have it done under a general aesthetic as the long roots had fused with my jaw bone.  It was nasty! 

 

I have a dodgy tooth at the moment and my dentist sent me up to Kings Hospital in London to have it looked at.  I should mention here that kings is a teaching hospital and the dentistry faculty is huge.

 

So I went up to Kings and waited for my appointment to actually happen, expecting a long wait as is the norm these days. Not this time. I was immediately ushered into the main dental area which consists of a large room, hall really, with many low screened of dental chairs with dental students causing pain to the general populous. I was surprised to be introduced to the head of the department, with no sign of a student in tow.  He had a poke around in my mouth and sent me down for x-rays. The dodgy tooth was x-rayed but then so was my entire mouth, both top and bottom jaws. By now I was beginning to smell a rat. Seeing the head man was unusual enough, but x-raying my whole mouth was a bit over the top I thought.

 

Slightly radioactive, I headed back the hall of pain thinking I would be up for my share of torture. but it was not to be.  Again I was ushered in to see the main man who invited me to sit in the chair, but this time he was accompanied by a couple of dozen students. That rat was stinking now.

 

Each student was told that they should look at my x-rays and then at my teeth, taking careful note of what they saw as "they would never see it again in their whole careers as it is incredibly rare". The first student approached and was asked where would she expect to see teeth like these. she had no idea as to the answer. she wasn't the only one. None of them knew, even when the long roots and a few other interesting differences with your run of the mill teeth were pointed out.

 

Well it seems that I have the teeth of an Eskimo. WTF? It seems Eskimo's teeth are quite distinctive and are significantly different to the rest of the world.  It also means that I have Eskimo blood in me from somewhere.  As for the dodgy tooth, they couldn't help me on that. 

 

 

 

 

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

1 hour ago, J G said:

 

Well it seems that I have the teeth of an Eskimo. WTF? It seems Eskimo's teeth are quite distinctive and are significantly different to the rest of the world.  It also means that I have Eskimo blood in me from somewhere.  As for the dodgy tooth, they couldn't help me on that. 

 

 

 

 

Well that would your penchant for raw seal meat and iced drinks !!

[brett 2,310]

@Alan- Sorry to hear about your woes and glad the latest issue has gone away for now. Take care of yourself, life is too short as it is.

 

@JG- Glad they got to the root of the problem.

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

Sounds like it could be an Adventure exploring the unknown roots of that toothy ancestry J.G.

 

Alan: Keep on top of it, check instruments and fluids, ensure proper stores are aboard for a trip, monitor levels throughout the day...heck...it's just like flying, you got this obviously.