I hate computers !! no that is not it ROFLMAO.

I had an appointment with an opthamologist, first time ever seeing one actually, usually Lens Crafters is where I go. But my two doctors have been bugging me to do so, so of I went.

He informed me with diabetes we have a greater chance of cateracts because of the sugar, and also eye damage from uncontrolled sugars. This I knew but what I didn't know was ......trying to maintain an A1C below 5 is not a good thing, tho it may sound good. It is better to maintain 5.4 - 6 A1C, by being too low, you are actually depriving the body of the needed insulin and this can cause serious problems with the body.

Also when the gloucose spikes, as we all have had at times (over 150...the body will send sugar into the eyes via the blood vessels behind the eye and into the lens of the eye. When the sugars come down, it does not come out of the eyes very quickly, thus causing more eye damage, and this is why our vision gets blurry for days at times and over time this can cause eye damage if the numbers do not get into control.

Needless to say, my eyes are still dialated, but they are healthy

That was the first thing that happened to me, I had Cataracts both eyes, removed one then the next year the other, even though I am in control I have Glaucoma now, both eyes.

I have a male friend who was dx with Type 2, he would not expect it..he is now blind in one eye and April the 2d..will have cataract surgery on the other eye.

Pay attention it can happen to you.

I am glad you had a good report Gayle.

thanks for scaring the crap out of me !! lol

there goes my weekend

but sincerely do appreciate the info

mizizgayle,
can you elaborate a bit about what you learned? Specifically the part where you mentioned:

"by being too low, you are actually depriving the body of the needed insulin and this can cause serious problems with the body."?

I'm also curious about the spiking above 150 part... Sometimes when I have a piece of fruit (even with protein as well) I can spike into the 160's before it heads back down to a more normal range. Does that mean every time I have some fruit I'm doing some damage to my eyes??

I'm guessing that my A1c will be about 5.5 or a bit above next time I have it checked (if my tracking has been right), but I never heard about it being bad to go too low. Good to know.

The doctor had asked me about my A1C and figured out how compulsive I was with my health. I told him 5.3 and it had been there for quite a while. He said not to allow myself to continue trying to lower the A1C but keep it in the mid 5's or even into the 6's was fine. That our bodys needed to have this insulin created by our bodies and if you get too low, then the body can actually run into complications down the line, same as having uncontrolled numbers causing the release of too much sugars. The thing that is not good for us, is actually needed by the body and organs, and we need to find that balance of course. Once in a while spike is ok, hope I didn't give the impression that once was a problem.

Diabetes basically causes all the problems vascularly eye disease suffers of course from the sugars getting into the eye lens via tiny blood vessels, and this is pretty much how the kidneys are affected, circulation, etc...for an eye doctor he was pretty informative and took the time to explain all and even had a eye model to show this.

But this is why sometimes our eyes seem to be on a roller coaster vision wise, I know at times it seems like my glasses are not doing me any good, he said that is because of the sugar in behind the eyes and it takes a couple of days for the eyes to return back to their normal vision

AmDk, it is the uncontrolled high numbers where you can run into trouble, fruit is a high glycemic and will spike quickly but does return/should return back within your range within the two hours...That is why the A1C is important to keep track of. Our blood stores sugar molecues for 3 months, the more sugars the higher A1C

Indeed scary, Gayle
My BGs (blood sugars) are running "wild" again..
But the problem is "slight headaches" , the vision seems to be OK.
Scary
161 (pre 3rd meal) , 815 pm.... I blame my softness toward ice cream...this must stop...
But its the very slight headache......that causes worry.

could be from the high numbers?

Earthworm,

I also get mild headaches sometimes. I tend to think it has to do with the glyburide I take. About a month ago I reduced my daily dose from 5 Mgs to 3.75 Mgs. My numbers are continuing to improve as i move forward reducing my carbs.

John7013

Thank you mizizgayle.