About a year ago, I went for a dilated pupil exam at my optometrist. The experience left me feeling not so hot. He looked into my eyes and told me that I had some nonproliferative retinopathy. There was nothing that I could see or feel that was wrong, and the only thing I could do was to generally improve my control. He said it wasn't anything to worry about, but I had a hard time believing him.

This morning, I went for another checkup and things were a little different. They had special retinal imaging cameras, so I actually got to see what the optometrist was seeing at a really high resolution. She pointed out the one tiny hemorrhage I have, and she compared it to examples of problem eyes. She said it was the smallest hemorrhage possible, so she's not worried at all. Now I'm not worried at all.
She actually asked if my control was worse last year, because what she saw wouldn't even warrant diagnosing nonproliferative retinopathy. She said that good control can actually improve small hemorrhages, so that might have been what happened.

Better diabetes control is always my goal, so it almost goes without saying. The prospect of having a pump does two things: immediately, I'm going to tighten control so I have better ideas of my carb ratios, and once I get my pump I will tighten control even further.