Here at Newport Eye Care, we are proud to help our patients who develop diabetic retinopathy.
Diabetes comes with a lot of other problems, affecting your whole body. Even your eyes can become affected by the disease. It is so common that it actually has a name: diabetic retinopathy.
Diabetic retinopathy is a disease of the retina, which is involved in your vision. Your retina is necessary so that everything that you see is transferred to your brain.
Diabetic retinopathy usually continues to get worse, especially if your diabetes is not under control, though it can get worse even with controlled diabetes. For this reason, we recommend having regular check ups so that we can monitor your eyes. During the progression of the disease, you may not even notice any symptoms which makes it even more important to come in regularly.
The first stage of the disease involves the blood vessels in your eyes. They get really weak and leak blood into your eyes. If it continues and leaks into the center of your eye, you will have blurry vision. Your body will try to compensate by making new blood vessels but they are also weak, allowing more blood to leak into your eye. Your body might also try to form scar tissue which causes the retina to move away from your eyes and can lead to legal blindness.
If you have diabetes and would like to have your eyes examined, feel free to contact us today at (207) 355-3333.