Light Sensitivity

Most diabetics experience light sensitivity. I never had a problem with it as a teenager, even though I had been diabetic for more than sixteen years when I became old enough to drink.
The summer when I was 21 marked the first time I saw an eye doctor on my own. I don’t remember what my childhood eye doctor did, and I do not remember ever being dilated before 1990.
I saw a quack at Vision World because I wanted new glasses for distance vision. Nearsightedness for me had begun in 7^th grade.
I should have kept my mouth shut and just gone for the standard vision correcting test. I think mentioning diabetes brought more "concerns" for me, and, incidentally, bigger bills for the doctor.
I found dilation to be an excruciating process, particularly that first time. They put drops in your eyes that expand your pupils in a stuck open position. Then they shine ultra bright lights in your eyes and flash the lights around while they look at the retina. Your pupils are stuck open afterwards. The excess light your eyes receive hazes and glazes over everything. I had taken a bus to the appointment. I had a hard time finding the bus stop for the way home.
My eyes did not recover from the light sensitivity. Ever.
No doctor would ever admit that diabetic light sensitivity can be caused by the eye treatments they give. The examinations are necessary. The diabetic eye must be monitored. I don’t dispute that.
I do, however, question the methods used in the treatment of diabetics. Some may cause problems, and no doctor seems to want to entertain the possibility aloud. I don’t believe that the onset of my lifelong light sensitivity began immediately after a dilation exam any more than I believe that the Cialis had nothing to do with the hemorrhage.
Staring at the sun can make you go blind, and often not until hours after you stopped staring. So why such a stretch to believe that artificially opening the eye and flashing of light so brilliant that it hurts can do damage, even if "just" gradual damage over long term repetition of this exam? The light used in the exam is as bright as the sun, even if it is a more white light. Some theories state that sun-staring blindness is a matter of UV rays. I think if that were entirely true, it wouldn’t hurt the eyes of even "healthy" people to have highbeams flare into their eyes.
I never saw that quack again after that 1990 visit. Twice my life gone by, I don’t remember his name. Besides the onset of light sensitivity I just remember one other thing, besides the result of his little eye fry.
He told me that if I did not have immediate PRP surgery, I would be blind in six months.