My maternal grandmother had diabetes for a significant number of years, during the latter part of her life. Had I not witnessed my mother give her daily insulin injections, I wouldn’t have known the extent of discomfort that she experienced regularly. As sick as she was, she rarely complained; as a matter of fact, looking back, all I can remember her saying now and again was, “My eyes are bothering me.”

I thought of my grandmother as I was reading a story printed in “Florida Health Care News” that detailed the correlation between type 2 diabetes and vision loss. My grandmother’s vision became significantly impaired several years prior to her death in September 2001.

Learning about diabetic retinopathy, made me wonder if her case could have turned out differently, had she been properly diagnosed. It also reaffirmed the milestones made in patient care since her death, in terms of scientific and technological advances in medicine.

“There is a common misconception that equates a legally blind diagnosis with total blindness, but this is not the case,” said Dr. Soloman Melgen. “When a patient is diagnosed as legally blind, it means they have a ‘blind spot’ that is blocking their central vision in both eyes. Unfortunately, there is no objective method of measuring the various degrees of legal blindness, and oftentimes these patients are left helpless.”

According to the American Diabetes Association, “the number of Americans with diabetes is about 25 million; of that 25 million, 18 million have been diagnosed, while seven million remain undiagnosed. With all diabetes cases, about 90 percent of patients, between the ages of 20-74, develop diabetic retinopathy, which leads to new cases of blindness.”

With more medical information becoming available to emergency physicians, hospital physicians, and outsourced physicians, diabetes patients suffering from diabetic retinopathy will have better chances of seeing things more clearly.

“Fortunately there are things that can be done,” said Dr. Melgen. “We can make a patient’s blind spot smaller and lighter, thereby improving their peripheral vision.”