“I COULD ONLY CONTROL WHAT I DID NEXT”

After living with type 1 diabetes for 38 years, Susanne Mitchell received another life changing diagnosis in March when a routine eye check-up showed she’d developed diabetic macular oedema. It’s been both terrifying and, eventually, a chance to take stock.

- KAREN FITFALL

Being told I needed to have injections into both of my eyes was the most terrifying moment of my life.

“Two weeks earlier, I’d gone for my annual eye check, expecting to hear it was all clear and was instead given the news that the vessels in the back of my eyes were leaking. I had diabetic macular oedema or DME.

“It was 5pm on a Friday evening and I couldn’t get an appointment with a specialist until the following week. I sat there and just thought ‘this is it. I won’t be able to see’. I spent that weekend doing everything with my eyes closed, imagining and trying to work out how I’d manage once I lost my sight. It was very confronting.

“In the 10 days between my first and second specialist appointments, I looked at everything, trying to assess my eyesight. I realised the colour in a painting I had was dulled and murky and when I looked at text messages, it looked like someone had dropped water all over the letters. That was due to the swelling caused by the leaking vessels. It was affecting the macular in both eyes, making things distorted. Without something to stop it, my eyesight was going to get worse.