do any of you notice that your eyes get dry and itchy, almost like there is dust or sand in them, when your BG is going up or even just a little higher than "normal"?
i've been told by my opthamologist that i have very dry eyes. not alot of tear production apparently. i find this kind of funny because some days it seems that my eyes water ALOT. this does seem to happen when i get a little tickly sensation in my throat from the dry air at work.
but then there are times when my eyes are so dry they drive me crazy! sometimes in the morning, other times it seems to happen for no reason.
i decided to do some research of my own, as well as some blood tests. i was noticing that when i wake up in the morning and have that dry, itchy feeling, my BG's are usually a little on the high side. heading towards or upwards of 10mmols.
sometimes when it happens during the day, i test and again the BG is creeping up. it may be right after eating a meal, or sometimes it seems to be hours after.
there are quite a few sites online that state that people with diabetes do suffer from dry eyes and this is related to blood glucose control. those with "less control" (i loved this way of putting it!) tend to have dry itchy eyes. those with "better control" don't seem to suffer as much.
i figure that i have about as much "control" as a person with diabetes can have. i eat sensibly, test more than 6 times a day (some days upwards of 12X), i bolus for each meal and snack according to the carbs and glucose levels that my pump calculates for me. my A1c has been decending for the last year (hopefully this one will be less than my previous 7.2).
and still, sometimes i feel as though i've walked through the Sahara Desert!
funny enough, there are some sites that state that as women near the age of menopause or are going through it, there will be more episodes of Dry Eye Syndrome. they also mention that a number of autoimmune disorders, including Diabetes, cause "dry, itchy, gritty eyes".
so i guess in my case, it's a little of both perhaps. i will continue to test my BG's when my eyes feel this way, and see what kind of pattern develops. it seems my eyes are my own little CGM for high blood sugars! please let me know if this itchy, gritty, sandy eye thing happens to you when your blood sugars are high.
in the meantime, i will continue to hum this little tune, while dropping the lovely eye drops given me into my sandy eyes!
Hi Kim,
ReplyDeleteI have the same thing going on!! I have noticed that the dry, itchy eyes usually tell me that my glucose is high and after I correct, the itchy, sandy feeling goes away. I haven't done any research on it, but I am almost always in a high range when the dryness occurs.
It has also made wearing contacts very hard for me. As soon as my eyes feel dry, the contacts usually start to "bug out" and I have to remove them. Last meeting with my optometrist , he switched me to the daily contacts that you throw away after one use.
Maybe Mr. Sandman can bring me a bottle of eyedrops too!!
Hmmmm, that's interesting. I know I do have vision changes (blurry) if I'm very high or very low. And my lips, hands and feet often feel extra dry if I'm high. I haven't noticed my eyes, but I wear hard contact lenses and may just be used to them feeling dry often. I'm going to try to remember to pay more attention to it though, and see if highs are related!!
ReplyDeleteThanks guys, for sharing such informative data. eye drops
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