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Help Please! Just Diagnosed T2

Posted , 6 users are following.

mrssaner
mrssaner

hi all,

i was diagnosed last week with Type 2. On Christmas Eve....nice gift Huh!?

My number was 335.

Doc put me on 500 mg of Metformin 1x a day and 2mg glimepiride 1x day.

i just cut the glimepiride in half to 1mg, Doc okayed it.

My numbers have come back into normal range for the past 4 days, I have been on a strict diet that I put myself on, low carb, no sugar, using Stevia.

here is my problem that scares me to death: since I stared taking the meds and have eaten right, my vision is very blurry.

i have severe anxiety/panic attacks.

my doc told me my levels had to get back to normal and that my vision would return to normal too.

i had 20/20 before this and now can't read anything on the comp screen and everything else has a blur to it (slight) for distance.

this is scaring me to death, I'm doing everything I need to so why isn't itnormal yet.

ive read in other forums people say a week, 3 weeks, one guy said 3 months!

I understand why, they get blurry but would like to know a timeline, I'm praying it comes back quick.

i just had to buy another pair of reading glasses, I went from 1.00 to 1.50.

has anyone ever had this? Please tell me how long before your vision returned.

Will exercise help to quicken the process of restoring it? 

Im 45 

female

non hereitary, just horriblefiid choices.

I need to lose about 30lbs more.

to be in normal weight for myself.

Any advice or information would be much appreciated! Thank you so much!

1 like, 16 replies

16 Replies

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  • mrssaner
    mrssaner

    Posted

    Typo: meant to say horrible food choices 
  • barbara26695
    barbara26695 mrssaner

    Posted

    Have you asked  if the  vision problem  could be  related to your anxiety attacks  I  deal with anxiety in patients  and  sometimes the  anxiety with cause  vision problems It could be the diabetis but it also could be  the anxiety I would mabe get a CD with some nice relaxing  music  and see if that helps  I am sure  others  will  reply who know  more than I  do  about  it  but  its  well worth a  shot
    • mrssaner
      mrssaner barbara26695

      Posted

      Hi, Barbara,

      I don't think it's related but sure it doesn't help.

      i do listen to relaxation and do body relaxation techniques when I can.

      just one more thing I need to get under control. Thank you for writing back

  • akphoto
    akphoto mrssaner

    Posted

    Can I reassure you; I'm a T2 diabetic and suddenly developed 'flu symptons' with blurred vision, loss of energy, passing water very frequently and always thirsty. I took myself to our local diabetic clinic at the hospital and I was diagnosed with hyperglycaemia (too much sugar in the blood). I was reassued that all these symptons were to do with my excess sugar and I was put on insulin. Within a week of starting insulin my symptoms started to disappear and by a month I was 'normal'. Injecting insulin is a bit of a bind but I feel better than I have done for quite some time (My BG reading are now almost 'normal' at 7-9 mmol/L)
    • mrssaner
      mrssaner akphoto

      Posted

      Hi AK,

      sorry I haven't responded sooner, I've been feeling horrible, bad headaches for 2days and nasty toothache.

      Doc didn't put me on insulin, gave me Metformin and 2 mg of Glimepiride, which I have reduced to 1mg, it was dropping my numbers fast.

      i also stopped taking the metformin tonight, again Doc said ok, due to overload on toilet situation. Sorry TMI, last for hours .

      its weird, I was diagnosed Christmas Eve, and within a weeks time I have gotten my numbers down from 335  to the low 100s eating and no higher than 115 fasting.

      i changed my whole diet the minute I heard the news. 

      BUT: this vision thing freaks me out, I'm trying to stay calm..

      i have NEVER had to use reading glasses or any glasses for that reason.

      my left eye is clearer than my right,not sure why.

      i understand it takes time for your eyes to adjust back to normal but I can't find out anywhere on the interest a time frame. 

      Iam petrified of going and getting my eyes dilated, they are blurry enough!

      now I have to get to an oral surgeon to get this tooth pulled and am afraid if I go, either the stress or novicaine will numb my eyes this way.......yes, I know I'm totally thinking irrationally, but that's fear.

      thank you so much for writing

  • blodwyn
    blodwyn mrssaner

    Posted

    Hi,I was diagnosed this time last year after suffering all the symptoms you have.I was put on 500gms Metformin twice a day and given a lot of advice on diet by the diabetic nurse and YES my eyesight did return after about a month.I had to park up the car for that time.Since then I have had a new glasses prescription and was able to confidently start driving again.I also had to buy reading glasses to help me cope (I'm shortsighted and have worn glasses since childhood )

    Have you seen your diabetic nurse yet? Have you been given an appointment with retinopathy?

    With T2 Diabetes your red blood cells become sticky and that's what causes the change in your eyesight.Once all returns to normal so will your eyesight so please DO NOT PANIC.

    Follow the advice of a good diabetic nurse with regard to diet.Monitor your glucose levels every morning at least.Losing your eyesight certainly concentrates the mind.3 of my sisters are also diabetic and are not as careful as I am since they didn't get blurry eyesight and don't drive either.By the way, you should be taking an ace inhibitor too.

    Hope this reassures you. 

     

    • mrssaner
      mrssaner blodwyn

      Posted

      My symptoms started it the end of July , just excessive thirst and calf muscles locking up, also dry mouth.

      didnt think anything of it, I was trying to diet and noticed I lost weight and was eating smaller portions, I went to doc on a fluke just to get CBCs and lipids done because I thought, hey I'm doing great. Tops I was 50lbs overweight, I've lost 28 since July .

      how long does it take for the red blood cells to get unsticky?

      all I do is pray for my vision to clear.

      i can't see a dietician until the 23rd, that's the next open appt.

      below is what I wrote to another response:

      Hi AK,

      sorry I haven't responded sooner, I've been feeling horrible, bad headaches for 2days and nasty toothache.

      Doc didn't put me on insulin, gave me Metformin and 2 mg of Glimepiride, which I have reduced to 1mg, it was dropping my numbers fast.

      i also stopped taking the metformin tonight, again Doc said ok, due to overload on toilet situation. Sorry TMI, last for hours .

      its weird, I was diagnosed Christmas Eve, and within a weeks time I have gotten my numbers down from 335  to the low 100s eating and no higher than 115 fasting.

      i changed my whole diet the minute I heard the news. 

      BUT: this vision thing freaks me out, I'm trying to stay calm..

      i have NEVER had to use reading glasses or any glasses for that reason.

      my left eye is clearer than my right,not sure why.

      i understand it takes time for your eyes to adjust back to normal but I can't find out anywhere on the interest a time frame. 

      Iam petrified of going and getting my eyes dilated, they are blurry enough!

      now I have to get to an oral surgeon to get this tooth pulled and am afraid if I go, either the stress or novicaine will numb my eyes this way.......yes, I know I'm totally thinking irrationally, but that's fear.

      thank you so much for writing

       

  • john08164
    john08164 mrssaner

    Posted

    If you have drastically dropped your carb intake, and are taking drugs as well, the glucose level in the fluid in your eyeball can have dropped an awful lot. Whenever you increase the number of dioptres in your glasses, you get a magnification effect that makes it easier to read, even if the glasses are the wrong strength to compensate for a deteriorating focal length in your lens/eyeball configuration.

    When I went onto a low-carb diet, my focusing actually improved, over about 3 weeks.

    I work all day at a computer screen, and I find that whilst I can function well with 1.25 dioptres, by the end of the day I need 2.0 or 2.5. If you are suffering from anxiety, that will also reduce your focussing. About 14 years ago I got hold of a chart by Dr. Gottlieb that involved squinting at it to bring two separate images into one. Another exercise, recommended by Bates, involves focussing for a few seconds on a finger at about 6 inches a way, trying to see the loops and whirls in the finger, and then switching to an image 50 yards or so away. A few repetitions and you should be able to focus much better. I have from time to time had to do this up to a hundred times, to get rid of what the opthalmologists refer to as "ciliary muscle spasm" from too much work at the computer. However, I would not recommend that, particularly if you are anxious, since it gave me tears streaming down my face, although it did improve my vision.

    After contracting early-stage diabetic retinopathy from having too high blood glucose for a number of years, I visited the opthalmologist and told him about the chart and the finger exercise. He said he liked the chart.

    Dr. Gottlieb has written a book, available on amazon, called the "Read Without Glasses Method". There have been lots of good reviews. I could not manage to throw my glasses away, but I went down from 2.0 dioptres to 1.25 for most work, at least till I became tired.

    Your eye lens muscles (and the muscles around the eye that make both eyes converge on the same image) should adapt to your changed glucose level within a few weeks. The exercises will probably speed these up, but you need to be very gentle with them, and build up gradually.

    • mrssaner
      mrssaner john08164

      Posted

      hi John,

      live been trying the squinting thing, hopefully it will speed it up.

      will my vision go back to the way it was before or will I need glasses? 

      I can't see the swirl on my finger but try and the look 50 yards away.

      i do it a few times a day.

      i barely took in carbs but realized I can have a certain amount and I now use stevia, I just eat healthier now, doc said I can eat what I want but try to keep it portion controlled and stick with a low carb /barely any sugar diet, almost everything has sugar.

      where can I get a copy of the chart itself?

      all I want is my vision back to normal.

      i pasted below more info I replied to an above response,but I'm sure you can read them, they both have more info.

      i just want to know when, like how long my eyes will clear up.......

      blurry vision ion and dental work = a panic anxiety ridden situation for me and I already take Klonopin for my anxiety...go figure

      Hi AK,

      sorry I haven't responded sooner, I've been feeling horrible, bad headaches for 2days and nasty toothache.

      Doc didn't put me on insulin, gave me Metformin and 2 mg of Glimepiride, which I have reduced to 1mg, it was dropping my numbers fast.

      i also stopped taking the metformin tonight, again Doc said ok, due to overload on toilet situation. Sorry TMI, last for hours .

      its weird, I was diagnosed Christmas Eve, and within a weeks time I have gotten my numbers down from 335  to the low 100s eating and no higher than 115 fasting.

      i changed my whole diet the minute I heard the news. 

      BUT: this vision thing freaks me out, I'm trying to stay calm..

      i have NEVER had to use reading glasses or any glasses for that reason.

      my left eye is clearer than my right,not sure why.

      i understand it takes time for your eyes to adjust back to normal but I can't find out anywhere on the interest a time frame. 

      Iam petrified of going and getting my eyes dilated, they are blurry enough!

      now I have to get to an oral surgeon to get this tooth pulled and am afraid if I go, either the stress or novicaine will numb my eyes this way.......yes, I know I'm totally thinking irrationally, but that's fear.

      thank you so much for writing

    • john08164
      john08164 mrssaner

      Posted

      You have dropped your blood-glucose an awful lot, and I would expect your eye focussing to have gone off, temporarily. If I were you, I would ring your GP to see if he agrees with me (there is just a very slight chance that something else might be involved). I can't comment on dentists, since I try and avoid them: again a phone call to the receptionist might cause him to delay treatment.

      You can find lots of material by Googling "Gottlieb" or "Gottlieb chart". There is a simpler eye exercise that he uses without any text, but just with two coloured rings.

      I do agree that the first time they put the drops into your eye, it is worrying to have blurred vision, but it always clears up after a few hours, and I find if I walk about a lot, it clears up faster.

       

  • john08164
    john08164 mrssaner

    Posted

    Being able to focus your eyes depends on the shape of the eyeball, the flexibility in the eye lens, the refractive index of the fluid in the eyeball, the 5 muscles that rotate the eye so as to get both eyes looking at the same image, (and they dart about all the time during "saccades" so they work very hard) and the brain's control over all these factors. Damned complicated! Drops in your eyes cause the muscles to become temporarily weaker, so vision gets fuzzy.

    As you age, the lens gets less flexible and the eyeball gets elongated. The brain compensates for all these changes, but eventually it becomes too tiring to keep the various muscles constantly contracted. In my case that caused headaches. At that point people get fitted with glasses, and that happened to me at age 45. At least I first noticed it at that point, because a job change meant I had to read a lot of text in small print. I have had to do that ever since for 20 years now, using glasses. By doing the eye exercises, I keep the power of those glasses quite low.

    I found looking at the world through glass a bit off-putting to start with, but after 6 months I stopped even noticing.

    Because you have dropped your blood glucose so much so suddenly, the refractive index in the eyeball has changed, so focussing is outside your brain's range of adjustment in the short term. Over around 3 weeks, it will gradually change this range and focussing will return. It is possible that your eyeball and lens changes will make it necessary to wear glasses, to cope with the new low-glucose in the eyeball. But the glucose needs to be low to prevent long-term damage to the blood vessels in the eye, which is a secondary danger with diabetes. So that is your doctor's first priority. He should send you to an opthalmogist who will examine the back of your eyeball with a light, Alternatively, if you do not appear to have been diabetic very long, he will have a retinal photograph taken. (That is basically to save money.) Both these procedures require you to have drops in your eys. They are completely painless and just involve shining lights into your eyes.

    If you do need glasses, then the various eye exercises should allow you to keep their power low.

     

    • mrssaner
      mrssaner john08164

      Posted

      John,

      thank you so much for all of this important information, I truly appreciate it.

      im still trying to take it all in. Tomorrow will be day 14 of blurryness, so I'm hoping and praying next week it will clear up.

      my numbers have been really good. I did notice my right eye is more blurry than the left. Any special reason for that?

      they were the same before,I think ...

      I have been wearing reading glasses 1.50 on and off, I like them better on of course because I can see clearer, and not just to read, I use it walking around the house and if I go to the doc, I think they are giving me headaches, either that or not wearing them is straining ?

      a few people told me to not to wear them all the time , only for reading or things you need to see close up because then your eyes adjust to lens.

      others told me no, I can wear them and my eyes will be fine.

      today I had an aura migraine which normally freaks me out but is much worse vision wise when this blurryness is already there.

      therapist says the stress of the gave it to me, it is a lot to take on, I'm all new to this.

      i probably could use a 1.75 lens but trying not to go up.

      I still don't have a nerve to get eyes dilated yet, I need to be calm and I'm far from it, doc may have to give me something to relax, or maybe when the vision clears I can get enough nerve.

      still have to go to the oral surgeon and get rid of this pain but scared my eyes will stay this way if I go through something that stressful. Possible?

      sorry if i am repetitive, I'm just scared.

  • Chrisy
    Chrisy mrssaner

    Posted

    Hi,  I just wanted to point out that while your body is fighting an infection your sugar levels will be higher.  This is a normal reaction to infections.  Naturally you will also probably have visual problems until your tooth infection has calmed down and your sugar levels return to normal.  I just wanted to say have you visited an optician and asked for a sight test.  the optician if anything will help to calm your anxieties by keeping an eye on things for you and explaining what is going on.  Can't hurt.
    • mrssaner
      mrssaner Chrisy

      Posted

      hi Christy,

      not sure if it's an infection or not.

      i have a cap in the back that has to be removed,the tooth decayed underneath it, so it already had a root canal, about 12 years ago. Didn't know your tooth can decay under a cap. I've been putting it off for 2 years....hate dentists...but it's giving me horrible referred pain to an upper tooth that had a root canal and cap.....go figure. (They saw nothing on the X-ray up too, said it was referring from another tooth).

      if you read the bottom of what I wrote above, you'll see my fear.

      all I want is my vision back clearly.

      all I do is pray all day.....and the worst thing is I am a smoker, I know its horrible and can hurt things in the long run, I want to quit but my nerves get the best of me, and I find myself smoking more . 1 pack a day. 

      I don't know how much longer I can take this before I completely break down.

      my numbers have been really good, 115 being highest and that in the morn. During day to night anywhere from 87 to 105

      i will make an appt with the optician, not ophthalmologist, just yet. 

      Maybe he can calm me a bit.

      thank you for writing 😄

    • Chrisy
      Chrisy mrssaner

      Posted

      Good luck with that and I hope you sort out your teeth soon.  I know easier said than done but try not to worry so much about everything as this never helps.  I do understand the worry about your sight as I lived with my Mother having Macular Degeneration and losing her sight totally over years.  It is frightening, which is why I recommended you see your optician to be on the safe side.  I always go to my nearest eye hospital A&E with any eye health problems that might affect my sight, being diabetic you should never take chances.  (I suffered a cold sore in my eye last year, never having suffered from cold sores I was not aware this could happen - very painful.)  I also can suffer from anxiety so I know it is not easy to just stop worrying which is why you need get checked out to stop the worry.  Good luck sorting this out.
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