I posted a few days ago. I was diagnosed last week, and started on just two shots of NPH a day. I have started experiencing blurry vision. The endocrinologist assured me that this was because my eyes had adjusted to my levels being so high pre-diagnosis, and that once my eyes get used to normal levels again, everything would be fine.
It's really just a nuissance because I can't read a lot of things, and with my eyes straining so hard to focus, it gives me bad headaches and makes my eyes tired!
Did anyone else experience this nuisance after being diagnosed? Did it go away? How long did it take for things to get back to normal?
Hi Allen, your endo is right it is just because your sugars are kind of all over the place right now. I don't know exactly why our blood sugar affects our eye sight, but it definately does. the same thing happened to me for about a week or two after diagnoses. it was really annoying driving because it would be hard to focus on signs and stuff. it should go away soon though, so give it another week and you should be back to normal.
I had a similar experience. Before diagnosis, I noticed I was having a harder time focusing on things, but assumed I was just tired...
Then I was diagnosed, and immediately after I started taking insulin I couldn't see anything! I would have to set things on the floor to get them far enough away that I could focus on them. Finally, I realized that when I took my contacts out at night, I was seeing great! I went about a week without corrective lenses (impressive, since i've been unable to read street signs without glasses/contacts since fifth grade). Then I had about three days where I was in between, and then I went back to my normal, bad vision. I acutally got a little worse, but who knows if that was the sugar or just natural degradation of my eyesight.
After I started taking insulin (NPH only like you) my eyesight got VERY blurry. I had to get a magnifiying glass to read anything. It at least 2 weeks to maybe a month and the blurriness started going away. After that it got back to normal.
Don't panic. I have been through the very same thing and I thought I was losing my everloving mind! After awhile, your eyes will adjust. It will be ok!
My son had blurry vision after his diagnosis. Our wonderful pediatric opthalmologist explained that when the sugar builds up in your eyes (which is does during that pre-diagnosis period of untreated high blood sugar), the sugar sucks water into the lenses. It's an osmosis thing. The extra water in your lenses changes the shape of the lenses, hence blurry vision.
In my sons's case, it did go away. It seems like it took several weeks.
Hang in there!
Angie mom to Aaron, 15 years old, diagnosed 4/22/2009
Did anyone else experience this nuisance after being diagnosed? Did it go away? How long did it take for things to get back to normal?
[/quote]
Allen, it's normal. The reason your vision is blurry is simple - when your sugar is high for a long time your eyeball and retina "bloat" with water (it's a complicated process of osmosis, but bloating gets the main point across)
This bloating changes the shape of your focusing apparatus in your eye, which compensates, slowly, over time. When you start to get your sugar under control, the reverse happens as the bloating goes away. However, with insulin therapy, a fast drop in average sugars changes the shape of your eye faster than your body can compensate, typically resuling in "whack" vision for a week or so.
you're doing pretty good being able to use your computer - when I had mone I couldn't read 3" letters in high contrast.
I WAS JUST DIAGNOSED A WEEK AND A HALF AGO. MY EYE SIGHT HAS GOT WORSE, RIGHT NOW I AM WEARING READING GLASSES AS THE DR. SAYS NOT TO GO TO THE EYE DR. FOR 3 WEEKS .BECAUSE OF THE INSULIN I WENT FROM 1.25 TO 3.00 IN A MATTER OF DAYS. I JUST FEEL LIKE KEEPING MY EYES CLOSED TIL MY VISSION COMES BACK!!!! THE INSULIN KEEPS MAKING ME GO LOW TODAY WAS DOWN TO 54 . COULD I BE TAKING TOO MUCH???
After diagnosis I had very blurry vision for 3 weeks to a month. I couldn't read anything. I was in the marines stationed in Japan and I had to have one of my band mates ready my letter from my Mom to me. I also got a magnifying glass which helped somewhat. After a few weeks it started to improve until about a month or so later it was back to normal.
Right before I was diagnosed, I had trouble seeing things far away (blurry vision). Then, right after I was diagnosed, I had blurred vision again, but it was things that were close to my face. It went back to normal after a little while. By the way, welcome :)
Okay, I don't like webmd as a source (see PS below), but the explanation seemed the closest to what my son's ophthalmologist said just a few weeks after his diagnosis.
"High blood sugar causes the lens of the eye to swell, which changes your ability to see. To correct this kind of blurred vision, you need to get your blood sugar back into the target range (80-140 mg/dL before meals and 100-160 mg/dL before bedtime snack). It may take as long as three months after your blood sugar is well controlled for your vision to fully get back to normal."
Another explanation:
The lenses of the eyes are mostly fluid, and the level of glucose in this fluid is determined mostly by the level of glucose in the blood. When the glucose in the lens fluid rises in response to increased glucose in the blood, more water enters the lenses through osmosis. This extra water distorts the optical properties of the lenses, leading to blurry vision. Unlike the long-term eye damage seen in diabetes due to damaged blood vessels, the blurry vision experienced at the onset of uncontrolled diabetes will clear up once blood glucose is under control.
THANK YOU!!! I HOPE SO, THIS IS SO HARD AND SO NEW FOR ME, MY HUSBAND AND MY SON!!! I DON'T KNOW IF I'M COMING OR GOING ~~~ SWEATING,AND SHAKING WHEN SUGAR GOES DOWN AND NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE IS REALLY SCARY.
As others have said, this is normal! But I still wanted to chime in because, HOLY CRAP, I was freaked out when I started experiencing that!
Apparently, your lenses get bloated from high blood sugar. Now that your blood sugar is coming down, they've deflated! They're resiliant and will get their normal shape back before long. I think my vision was pretty much back to normal within a week of the day I realized it was bad.
I had to lower the resolition on my computers to be able to use them, and even then my eyes couldn't take it for that long. I picked up one of those bookmark style magnifying glasses and kept it in my purse for when I needed to read something briefly (like a medication label or a text on my phone), and I was so tired of not being able to read a book before bed that I got the strongest drugstore reading glasses I could find and wore them OVER my REGULAR glasses.
I don't know if you have contacts, but I discovered that I could see with my contacts better than my glasses during that time. When I figured that out, I was able to function pretty well by keeping reading glasses on hand.
As scary as all that was, my vision seems to have gone back to exactly what it was before I started insulin.
HI ELIZABETH, THANK YOU FOR YOUR REPLY...I HAVE TWO SETS OF READING GLASSES FROM THE DRUG STORE. ONE I WEAR ALL THE TIME AND THE OTHER IS FOR READING AND THE COMPUTER. I NEVER WORE GLASSES OR CONTACTS IN MY LIFE, I HAVE ALWAYS HAD PERFECT VISSION...NOW I AM JUST TRYING TO FIGURE THIS ALL OUT. GOING TO START DIABETES CLASSES MARCH 7TH AND AM HOPEFUL IT WILL HELP. THANK YOU AGAIN FOR HELPING ME<3
Allen...My grandson who is 6 years old was diagnosed at Christmas time. He also was rubbing his eyes alot and complaining of them being tired and a little fuzzy. I dont see him doing that much anymore either now.
Yes - took about a month and a half for this to go away after diagnosis. We asked teachers to copy tests and assignments at 150%, had all assignments read to him and stocked up on motrin for that time frame. Things gradually got better BUT it was really disruptive for school.
I’ve noticed day 2 of using insulin. Had headache for 2 days and today I could see. I could read from distance! It’s amazing how our body’s affected by diabetes!