Eyeglasses show impact of diabetic retinopathy
A set of snap-together glasses designed by students at Rice University lets people with diabetes see into the future and know that without proper care, the future does not look good.
The educational tool developed by the Eye See You See team will help doctors show patients how their vision could deteriorate over time due to diabetic retinopathy, an eye disease that can result from uncontrolled diabetes and lead to blindness. They hope the tool will encourage patients to follow their doctors’ protocols.
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As a diabetic with retinopathy, I find this sort of awful. I get 6our intent, but it’s misdirected. I think a patient WITH early retinopathy would like this as an insight to what they can expect as their disease progresses. But this isn’t the right approach to educating a diabetic- especially a Type 1 diabetic. This to me is more fear mongering. I knew at 11 this would happen as over 65% of type 1s get this. The intent of these students is to educate patients but type 1s are very very aware of what their future holds. You don’t take 5-10 injections a day, del with constant bouts of hypo and hyperglycemia that isn’t your fault and nearly die in your sleep and just think, but that one eye thing will never happen to me. We know. Scare tactics aren’t necessary, even if they come in hipster frames from young, well meaning people.
@amin zekul sort of. So treatment doesnt fix the co dition but it does alleviate the symptoms by destroying the bad vessels and reducing swelling. So two things happen; you have less floaters after treatment (initially you’ll have a bit more because it’s getting rid of some of the vessels, but then it dies down a couple days usually), and you are protected from new growth for a period of time (or slowed growth). It doesnt have an effect on the floaters you have, that just takes time and tour body will do that. If you had a big bleed, that can require surgery, but most floaters resolve in days/weeks/months depending on the size. Also nice is you’ll get more contrast and clearer vision after because it reduces swelling on the retina and in addition to blood (floaters) theres also fluid seeping from the vessels. But it’s important to understand that injections treat the symptoms and slow progression- they’re not a treatment for the disease itself. There is nothing to treat the disease once the body starts the VEGF response. So you do have to keep it up. Pairing with laser can also help.
I have to agree here. I think this would have been better through computer simulation and showing the progression of the blood vessels in the eyes rather than just showing what your vision will look like. I cannot compare myself to you as I have type 2, but I am having a lot of neovascularization which is causing a lot of floaters in my vision as well as hemorrhages. I would not care to see what the glasses show. Show me the science and what I can to offset it.
Can you improve vision (get rid of those dark spots) after treatment?
Chelsea Medina I have had type 1 diabetes for 28 years. if these glasses was around back then i would have loved to see how my vision would be with retinopathy. I have had advanced retinopathy now since 2012 and have went through many lasers and vitrectomies. If the scare tactic works then great. I would have loved the scare tactic. I am taking really good care of myself now. Still scared when my ability to see goes completely dark.