Perfect Peepers!

It's had been five years since my last eye exam.

I don't really have any excuses, and actually the OC is responsible for making me go have my eyes checked. I knew diabetics could experience complications involving their eyes, but it wasn't registering very high on my radar screen until I noticed other bloggers were having their eyes checked regularly. With my increased attention to diabetes care, I decided it was time for a check-up. Oh, and my husband scheduled me an exam! (It's okay, I schedule his doctor's appointments... we take care of each other!)

Our appointment was last Saturday, and it was really cool! The doc has been taking care of my husband's eyes for years. My hubby has a really unique astigmatism and has to have special contacts, so he and his eye doc are old friends. I thought we'd each have our appointments alone, and that they were just scheduled back-to-back. Dennis (that's my husband) mentioned to the doc as they were going back for his exam, that I'm deathly afraid of the glaucoma machine. You know the one that puffs the air into your eye! I had a terrible experience years ago, when my family eye doctor had to try to get a reading on the "puffer machine" but I kept pulling away and closing my eyes. Finally when I was nearly in tears from the fear, he said "Okay, you're young, I bet you don't have glaucoma!" So, Dennis tells the doctor about this and he decides to call me back to the exam room. He let me hit the button to puff the air into my husband's eye. Thinking that this would make me more comfortable, I guess. Well, it worked because when the doctor made me sit in front of the dreaded machine, I opened my eyes wide and got readings on both eyes the first try. I felt like I had overcome such an obstacle.

I think we're getting at the real reason I avoided the eye doctor for so long!

Anyway, we both went in the exam room. The doc had me go first because he had to dilate my eyes. We started asking some questions about how diabetes affects the eye. Our doctor gave us the most thorough explanation about diabetic retinopathy. I was amazed! The doctor examined my eyes and kept commenting on how great they looked! He was teasing my husband because his vision is pretty bad... but we figured, he has poor eyesight, I have diabetes... we all get something!

I was so glad I went to the eye doctor and learned more about how my diabetes affects my eyes. Now I have yet another measuring stick for my diabetes care! Plus, when you have a chronic disease, isn't it nice for a doctor to tell you something is Perfect?! :)