On the referenced study I don’t understand the conclusion because they make this statement in the results section:
We found no evidence to suggest that more gradual reduction of glycemia might be associated with less risk of early worsening.
Maybe I am not understanding the sentence. The words “no”, “more”, “less”, and “early” in the same sentence. Anything more than 3 adjectives and adverbs in a single sentence and I am lost. 
Do these studies not suggest that there is worsening of an already pre-existing complication? If so (and I do think that this is the case) their subset of rapidly improving diabetics is already predisposed to progressive retinopathy, and is not composed of a completely representative profile of patients whose AC is rapidly improving.
Please correct me if my reading is incorrect.
That’s definitely what I read - it only gets worse if you have it already even mildly
They do. Which is not relevant to the OP, but my links were in response to Sam’s point (“There is some evidence that retina problems are more likely if a1c is reduced super quickly… how quickly is too quickly isn’t really something anyone really seems to know”) and CarolynA’s (“I’ve seen that tossed around other facebook groups but none have been supported”). Sorry for the confusion.
I did see the eye doc 2 weeks after diagnosis (already had the appt scheduled to update my glasses/contacts) and she saw no evidence of retinopathy. We didn’t make any changes just because my eyesight was still blurry from being high for a long time and then changing but not yet stable. My eyesight is already horrible without any “conditions” (my contacts at -7.5 and I’ve been wearing them since middle school). I’m already at a huge risk of going blind because my grandma had macular degeneration and according to 23andme before the nerfed the health traits due to the fda, I have a 33% change of getting it eventually. I pulled up the archive after my diagnosis and it also said I had an increased risk of type 1 diabetes… thought I had dodged that bullet due to age but I guess not. I first found some mentions of risk due to rapid a1c decrease about a month after diagnosis, but I was already on the path of reducing a1c fast and there are proven risks to a high a1c. It was (and is) a no-brainer to reduce a1c immediately.
Hey Carolyn, did you take any medication in these 11 weeks? I am also in the same phase as you.
Did you have to stop using diabetic medicine after your a1c level was back to normal at 5.5?
I once had eye problems except at the time I didn’t link it to diabetes and neither did I go for checkup.
I just assumed it was due to using a pc for too long, this came and went randomly.
Was diagnosed on september last year with an A1C of 14+ apparaently the meter was maxed. Glucometers read HI, doctors had trouble getting my bg low when I got diagnosed I remember being given shots of insulin each hospital we went that day. I was never in DKA or in any real trouble because of this, infact the following days I ended up loosing alot of energy because of the ammount of inslulin I had in me.
Since I started using insulin 4 months later I’ve never experienced eye issues not once, my a1c dropped from 14%+ to 6.9% in that time, all has been good except I was using alot of insulin basal before going to sleep and may have been sleeping through hypos which were noted with numb feet on waking up. Actually the only side effect I’ve ever really had are as a result of hypos.
Offcourse I corrected my basals myself