Diabeteyes

Did you know that you can get a free eye test because of your diabetes? Nope neither did I until I decided to go for an eye test the other weekend…

I have my regular eye retinopathy tests at the hospital, from which most of the results of tests say that I have changes in my eyes due to my diabetes, but at the moment there’s nothing to be done. I have noticed that the test results never mention whether the change is for the worse or for the better. So I’m not sure whether diabetes has allowed me x-ray vision or something… the jury’s still out on that one! But the last time I’d seen the retinopathy specialist they said it might be a good idea to have an eye test too.

Now if I’m honest I was a little afraid to have the eye test done, not because I thought it would hurt or something like that. But part of me didn’t want to believe that my diabetes might have affected something as precious as my eyesight. But similar to diagnosis, it’s a thousand times better to know about something like this and deal with it, than to bury your head in the sand whilst things get worse that’s for sure! I also work with computers a lot now, so I wanted to ensure my eyes were protected from that kind of use too.

I chose to go to Specsavers as they had an appointment available and the lovely lady that helped me asked if I had diabetes, to which I obviously answered yes. And she then proceeded  to tell me that I was entitled to a free NHS test, fantastic news. The reason I was particularly surprised by this was that I’d been to another brand of opticians and asked if people with diabetes were entitled to any kind of special treatment and they’d said no. So I’m not sure whether this is a special deal available just from Specsavers or nationwide. But the tests were all really simple and some were even similar to the ones you have at retinopathy clinic. The optometrist even showed me the pictures of my eyes she took which was fascinating to see!

The results of the eye test were given straight away, mine were that I had perfect long distance sight and strained a little with close up but nothing to worry about- just a mild prescription of glasses needed. Which to me was good news as it wasn’t my diabetes that caused this but most likely being around computers a lot. See… nothing to worry about!