It's been about 5 years now since I have been diagnosed with Keratoconus (kehr-uh-toh-KOH-nus)
A lot of people have no idea what it is. To give a brief description....
A degenerative non-inflammatory disorder of the eye in which structural changes within the cornea cause it to thin and change to a more conical shape than its normal gradual curve.
Keratoconus can cause substantial distortion of vision, with multiple images, streaking and sensitivity to light
This has been a struggle for me and unlike my weight I can't change. I will live the rest of my life with this. Laisk surgery is completely thrown out the door with my disease and not even an option for patients with our condition. Depending on how bad the eyes are and normal vision would be 20/20 some of with KC see at 20/500 and I have talked to individuals who had it as bad as 20/800. There is no reversing this disease. Some say it's hereditary but it's never been said that anyone else in my family has or had it.
My quality of life is sometimes ruined by this. It's hard sometimes at work to focus on what's in front of me, and working in the computer industry makes it for long days. People with KC should be wearing hard lens contacts. Lords knows I have tried and it just it too much for me to handle. I have stuck to glasses. If down the road my condition worsens I will need to have what is known as intacts. (small round rings that are placed in the eye to flatten the bulge of the cornea. The other option at worst would be a cornea transplant.
This is serious stuff and I'm not even joking about it. It scares me all the time. My worst fear is nighttime driving. During the day is fine. The worst thing about during the day depending on the lighting in the room is sometimes it's difficult to see who's in front of me at about 30ft away. I feel rude at times when someone waves to me and I wave back but never knew who it was.
Living with KC sucks. Now that I'm on Amy's insurance which was much better than mine I have went and seen another eye doctor to try to get a better handle on my KC issues. He was able to correct my vision with glasses at an incrediable increase. I can't wait to get them and has informed me that my case may not be as bad as some others. He doesn't see any scaring of my corna nor does he see an imediete future for sugery.
here are some of the symptoms and then some pics below as to how I see the world and keep in mind I'm not stretching the truth with these photos, you can look this up.
* Increased light sensitivity
* Difficultly driving at night
* Halo's and ghosting especially at night
* Eye strain
* Headaches and general eye pain
* Eye irritation, excessive eye rubbing
This is a normal view how you see street signs and how I see them
Here is a website of some other photos to give you more of an idea of just how bad it is. Click Here
