Retinopathy screening and what they told me to watch

Started 17 February 2025 · 14 replies · 149 hearts · read 2.5k times

LinnetKendal, UK · 17 February 2025

1.4 years ago

Retinopathy screening and what they told me to watch — putting it in its own thread so it does not get lost in the check-in.

Some background first, because it matters for the question.

I have read the guides here, which were more useful than anything else I have found, and I still have a question they do not cover.

My prescriber has been fine, genuinely. The problem is that I get nine minutes twice a year and there is no version of nine minutes that covers this.

I will report back either way, because I have been helped by other people's follow-ups more than by their questions.

MarkCoventry, UK

I have been in this circle a year and this question comes round every few months. It is not a silly question. It is the question.

NadiaCairo, EG

the opening post said something I want to sit with for a second.

Similar here, and mine turned out to be a completely unrelated deficiency picked up on bloods.

BunnyWeston-super-Mare, UK

I asked my nurse the same question and she said something I have repeated ever since: that the aim is to keep you on treatment, not to get you up the schedule.

MiraFacilitatorRotterdam, Netherlands

I want to slow this down a little. There are four different answers flying about and they are all somebody's real experience, which makes them true and not necessarily relevant to the person who asked.

TullaTralee, IE

Building on what the reply above wrote rather than answering the original question.

What helped was lowering my own expectations of the week rather than trying to hold the week together.

ObiLagos, NG

My experience was very boring, which I offer as data. Some of us just get a dull time of it.

6me too 1

BaySt Ives, UK

I am the person who had the frightening version of this. I went in, it was investigated, and it was not what anyone feared. Going in is the whole of my advice.

OttolineEdinburgh, UK

the reply above said something I want to sit with for a second.

Coming back to this a fortnight later to say it settled. Leaving the update because I hate reading threads that stop.

CassWakefield, UK

Building on what the reply above wrote rather than answering the original question.

Practical, boring answer: write the three questions down before you go in. I have never once remembered them otherwise.

11me too 3

RonanBelfast, NI

#10

I did exactly the same and felt terrible about it. You have not done anything wrong.

BrunoMilan, IT

#11

Yes. All of this. I had the same in my third month and I remember thinking there was something specifically wrong with me, which there was not.

10me too 6

MoBradford, UK

#12

Mine lasted about seven weeks and then lifted over a few days. I cannot tell you why. I can tell you it lifted.

MiraFacilitatorRotterdam, Netherlands

#13

the reply above — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

Two things, both boring. First, none of us can tell you what to take. Second, the conversation you want to have is with your prescriber, and we can help you write it down.

JunoBrighton, UK

#14

Two things that helped me, neither of them clever: small amounts more often, and drinking a lot more than felt necessary.