Caring for yourself when you have diabetes and poor vision

How can I enhance my low vision to care for my diabetes?

A few simple organizing and labelling tricks may be all that you need to adapt your daily diabetes tasks for your remaining vision. If these measures are not enough for you to continue most or all of your diabetes care, you can choose from several available vision aids for people with diabetes who have limited eyesight.
Use the suggestions below to make the best use of your reduced vision.
General principles
These general principles can enhance your remaining vision to help you continue all your diabetes care tasks.
Learn to look around your blind spots to see objects through your remaining vision. For example, if you have lost central vision, train your eyes to look at objects from your outer vision areas.
Use your other senses (touch, taste, smell, and hearing) to fill in information that you can't see. For example, use your fingertips, thumbs, back of your hand, or forearm to examine your feet for cuts or other injuries, and use smell to detect any odours that may indicate foot infections.
Use lighting and contrast. Direct lighting is usually best for reading. Many people prefer incandescent lighting instead of fluorescent. Using contrasting background colours will help you see objects, such as a white background for dark objects.
Ask for help if you need it. Just because you need help with one task does not mean that you need help with all tasks.
Simple tricks for diabetes care
Here are some simple, inexpensive organizing and labelling tricks you can use.
Use felt-tip markers to label medicines and record blood sugar results. Felt-tip markers come in different thicknesses. Choose the thickness that you can see best with your remaining vision.
Use large print for record keeping. The actual size of what's called "large print" varies. Choose the print size that works best for you. You can buy a large-print record booklet or make one on a computer or by hand on a sheet of paper.
Use bright colours, stickers, or rubber bands to identify different types of insulin bottles. For example, if you are taking a long-acting and a short-acting insulin, you might use a rubber band around the short-acting insulin and nothing on the long-acting insulin.
Label your medicines and supplies. Label your medicine bottles using large print on 3 x 5 cards and tape the cards to the bottles. Use separate labelled containers for your extra blood sugar testing, insulin, and injection supplies. It is helpful to label your medicines at the pharmacy, before you get them home.
Organize your medicine cabinet so that you can easily locate each medicine. For example, line up your medicines in alphabetical order. A daily, weekly, or monthly medicine organizer may be helpful for organizing daily doses, but be sure you get one with large enough print.
Choose appropriate vision aids
Although your eyesight may fluctuate from day to day, low-vision aids can help you use your remaining vision to its full potential. A low-vision aid is any tool that helps your remaining vision. There are many vision aids specifically for diabetes care, and a different one may be needed for different tasks.
Some low-vision aids that may be helpful for you include:
Magnifying lenses (which make images larger). These include eyeglasses with special lenses, a hand-held magnifying glass, a magnifying lens mounted on a stand for reading, or a device that you can clip onto your glasses (like the device a jeweller uses). Special magnifying aids are available that enlarge the unit markings on insulin syringes.
Needle guides and other devices that help you locate and stick the needle through the rubber stopper on your insulin bottle and help you prepare mixed- or single-dose insulin injections. There are also bottle-holding devices that help you hold the bottle and syringe to safely withdraw insulin. Insulin pens that indicate the units by clicking or have large-print markings can be used to give insulin that comes in a cartridge.
"Talking" or large-print home blood sugar meters. A large-print meter can help you see your blood sugar result clearly. There are also some "talking" meters.
"Talking" or large-print food scales. If you need to weigh your food, there are large-print or talking food scales. You can also estimate portion sizes by other means. For example, 1 cup is about the amount you can place in your cupped hand.
Computerized blood sugar records. Most home blood sugar meter companies have computer software that allows your blood sugar results to be entered directly into a computer so that you do not have to keep handwritten records. You can also print these in large print so that you can read the records.
Tape recorder for record keeping. You can record your daily blood sugar results and other information directly into a tape recorder.
Test Your Knowledge
Answer the following questions to see whether you understand how to make use of your remaining vision so that you can continue to do your daily diabetes care.
Some simple ways I can make use of my remaining vision include:
Using felt-tip markers to label my medicine bottles.
Using a large-print form to keep my blood sugar records.
Organizing my medicines alphabetically.
Low-vision aids designed for use in diabetes care can help me continue to test my blood sugar levels and do other tasks related to my care.
True
False
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Author:	Monica Rhodes	Last Updated May 31, 2007
Medical Review:	Anne C. Poinier, MD - Internal Medicine Steven T. Charles, MD - Ophthalmology Andrew Swan, MD - Family Medicine
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