question about diabtetic eye screening test

[namedoesntmattter]

i was diagnosed with type 2 diabetis november last year about a week ago i went for a diatebtic eye screening test the optician said he was concerned that he found swelling at the back of my right eye and would send results to hospital and gp ive just got letter from hospital claiming that theres no diabetic changes to my eye yet ive looked up online and found that swelling behind the eye can be caused by diabetis there was nothing in letter to say that results would be passed to another dept even if it wasnt due to diabites surely still serious and it should be followed up on i was advised in letter id have another test next year and i think whats the point if they find something as serious as that and dont act on it

I have had almost the same experience. I paid for a private MRI who said there was absolutely nothing wrong. Sometimes opticians are wrong. It was worth the money for peace of mind. Also, if your blood sugar levels are now under control after being very high this can cause changes in your eyes so whatever was there may now have settled down.

Opticians will be overcautious and do not have equipment precise enough to check for changes. You should have annual screening for retinopathy now anyway.

blah there was something though the optician showed result of left eye and said thats how it should look then the results of right eye and it was obvious even to me there was a difference and my sugar levels are still the same theyve been taken again last week so i dont understand why send people for these things something has been found my sugar levels are the same yet nothing wrong see you in another year whats the point

Opticians will be overcautious and do not have equipment precise enough to check for changes

going on what youve said why send people to opticians for these tests doesnt make sense

It is a screening test for referral to hospital as required. Some opticians may have a local contract, others are within a community based nhs service.

this can be extremely stressfull for people to be told this though by optician and then be told nothing wrong see you in another year a few days later by hospital thats messed up

Opticians do the original screening.

If they are concerned about the images, they send them (electronically) to the specialist eye department who will analyse them further.

If everyone was sent to the hospital for the initial screening, the system would be completely clogged up and there'd be no room for the eye department to see any other patients at all!

You've had your initial screening. The optician sought a second opinion. The second opinion (given by the specialist department) is that you don't need to worry, but that you should keep your eye screening appointments in the future.

Eyesight is precious. I'd suggest you do what's suggested. I'd also suggest you stick to other aspects of your diabetic care and treatment to get your sugar levels down and keep them down.

(I'd also suggest you don't try to diagnose yourself via google - it takes a fuck of a lot longer time than 1/2 hour on the computer to train as a diabetic eye specialist!)

(I'd also suggest you don't try to diagnose yourself via google - it takes a fuck of a lot longer time than 1/2 hour on the computer to train as a diabetic eye specialist!)

i dont claim to be a specialist no need for the attitude and i actually looked up diabetic websites who are there to inform so wind your neck in

Go back to the optician and ask if they have made a separate referral. Just in case the optician was worried about something else unrelated to diabetes (however, be aware almost everything can be blames on diabetes).

On another note, when I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, I had few months of blurry sight, then things settled and my sight improved a lot. By itself (having steady good control helped massively).

Well, you seem certain that something is "as serious as that", that it was "obvious even to you" if not to the experts, that the hospital has "messed up" and that "there's no point".

So forgive me if I thought you were imagining that you knew better than the opticians and diabetic specialists.

mauvish i was going on what the opticians had advised then what i had read on a website run by an organisation that helps and advises people after theyve been diagnosed with type 2 diabtites if all your going to do is be smug and condesending take it elsewhere not needed here this is a forum for advice not a licence for people to talk down and be jerks to people when they ask something move along

Is there any need to be so snippy with someone who's probably shitting themselves worrying?

OP: The diabetic eye screening sends off photos to be checked for a specific kind of eye problem. They don't do a more general checkup, but it sounds like the person doing the test happened to notice this other problem and mentioned it to you so you can follow up on it. When did you last have a general eye test? You should be having eye tests at the opticians every year, in addition to the annual retinopathy screening. It's important to do both.

The opticians advised that you be referred for a second opinion. The second opinion is that you don't need any treatment etc at this point but that you should continue to attend your eye screening appointments.

BTW, for some eye changes there is no treatment in the early stages - all they can do is monitor it. It's possible that you have some diabetic eye disease but that it's not treatable (yet?) All the more reason to really try to work hard on getting your blood sugars down. Any visible change/damage in back of your eyes, wrt diabetes, is demonstrating similar changes/damage in other parts of your body.

I'm sorry if you find that fact stressful, but you CAN do something about it, and possibly reverse some of the problems, by doing your best to keep your blood sugar in a normal range.

mwuav im not even reading your last post you clearly have a bad attitude and heres hoping sooner or later you see that and do some work on it i wont respond to you anymore im off for a bit things to do

There is someone with a bad attitude here and it's not mauvish OP. The hospital and optician have done their job, your results have been checked twice. There is nothing to be concerned about atm. The best thing you can do is keep your diabetes and sugars under control and carry on with the screens when you're called in for them.

@mauvish has been really helpful, OP.
You were given a detailed answer to your question and did not appear to appreciate it.

Perhaps those praising mauvish are assuming OP saw an optometrist, and live in a part of the country where the diabetic eye screening works differently to how it works in my area.

If OP lives somewhere with a screening programme that works like mine, IMO she shouldn't follow mauvish's advice to stop worrying and accept she's had all the necessary opinions. In my area, the person who was doing the diabetic screening (most likely someone with a qualification specifically in diabetic eye screening, not an optometrist or ophthalmologist) would pass on the photographs and acuity testing results to the screening programme, then the screening programme would look at the photographs for specific types of changes and pass on their verdict to me and my GP. If my screener said to me what OP's screener said to her, I would go for an actual full eye test by an optometrist.

I don't know how OP's service works, because the post isn't detailed enough, and likely OP hasn't actually been told who she's seen and how it all works. Lots of people will say they saw the "optician" meaning the person who checks their eyes, and not realise that there's a difference between the role of the person they saw and that of an optometrist. OP's screening service might be like mine, in which case OP should go and get this potential problem checked out by someone who's able to check for all kinds of eye health problems. (And she should be having annual eye tests in addition to diabetic eye screening anyway.) The screening looks for specific conditions, it's not a full eye test, and the screener saw something there which hasn't yet been checked out by an optometrist.

It might be that mauvish is right and OP's eyes have already been sufficiently checked by people with the right expertise to evaluate the problem. But mauvish can't know that any more than I can.

It might be that mauvish is right and OP's eyes have already been sufficiently checked by people with the right expertise to evaluate the problem. But mauvish can't know that any more than I can.

Good post, good point - the service probably is provided differently in different areas.

A relative missed out on their routine eye screenings during covid and when they restarted, the community ophthalmologist decided he needed an urgent referral to hospital for assessment for laser treatment. Two hospital appointments later and no need for treatment just regular hospital checks. So op may well just need hospital check ups.

Many people (I might just say most) with diabetes have some changes at the back of the eye as the retina really does not like increased blood sugar levels as can make blood vessels in the back of the eye, leak fluid or blood. It's especially easy to pick up on an OCT machine as it shows all the individual layers of the retina in detail.

So the optometrist has probably found a change, but the change has been deemed by the consultant to probably not be significant and doesn't require treatment.

It's a similar situation with people who have cataract operations, probably 75% of them show fluid at the back of the eye on an OCT machine a couple of weeks after surgery. Most of this is not considered significant and before we had OCT machines it wouldn't even have been picked up.

Oh, you can also contact the optician you saw and they'll be happy to chat it through with you too.

Did you actually go to an optician? Because for 40+ years I've been having diabetic eye screening I go to a specialist unit, have drops, then photographs taken. At a specialist diabetic eye screening clinic, not just a normal optician.