Did You Actually Have Symptoms Before Your Retinopathy Diagnosis?

I've been wondering about something after talking with someone close to me who has diabetes. She had always assumed that if diabetic retinopathy ever became a problem, she'd notice something obvious first. Blurry vision, spots, flashes, something that would make her think, "Okay, I need to see an eye doctor." Then she learned that it doesn't always work that way. Her vision was still fine, but she'd started noticing an occasional strange sensation around one eye. Nothing severe and nothing that lasted long, so she wasn't sure whether it was even related to her eye. Her first instinct was to wait until her next routine appointment. That's what got me thinking about how people here actually discovered their retinopathy. For those who have been diagnosed, did you have any warning signs beforehand, or did your eye doctor find it during a routine diabetic eye exam when you felt completely normal? And if you've ever developed a new or unusual eye symptom between appointments, did you call your eye doctor immediately or wait to see whether it went away? I'm asking because it's easy to assume that "my vision is fine" means everything is fine. From what I've learned, that isn't necessarily true with diabetic retinopathy. I'd be really interested to hear what your experience was like, especially if your retinopathy was caught before you noticed any changes in your vision.