Last Christmas my 17-year-old son was diagnosed with Keratoconus, although the consultant, for some reason, decided to only give us the name of conical cornea. She then went on to say I should not look it up on the Internet and worry myself. Fortunately I did go on to the Internet, discovered the proper name and found this wonderful website.. I asked a lot of, what now seem silly questions, but didn't at the time. I received a lot of information and support from others on this site; this enabled me to carry on researching and finding out just what KC is and what treatments were available. It seemed to me and my son that the only way forward was to have his bad eye cross-linked; my son was also very keen to have his 'good' eye cross-linked too. Further research made it clear that not many doctors were willing to cross link an eye where the KC is sub-clinical.Lots of time on the Internet was not wasted when we eventually decided to have the treatment done by David O Brart at St Thomas's Hospital. I had looked at many possibilities including treatment at the Dresden hospital where the cross-linking treatment was first developed. But travel to Germany seemed unnecessary in the end and we have been very happy with the treatment offered by David O'Brart. He is constantly researching and developing his technique and currently is scratching a grid on the cornea instead of removing it completely. The Riboflavin, with an accelerant, is absorbed through the grid. We are very pleased with the results so far although of course we have to wait for a while longer before knowing whether the treatment has been completely successful. My son had one eye treated in the Easter holidays and the other one treated after his A-level exams in July. He is very pleased to have had his 'good' eye treated as he was very keen to retain the good sight that he has in that eye.
So far so good.
Alongside the search for treatment was also the search for a lens which fitted. This was not at all easy and I cannot praise the tenacity of Jen McMahon at Great Western Hospital enough. It has taken seven months to find a lens which fits and Jen has been very patient and kind throughout this process. We finally now have a Kerasoft lens which fits well and is improving his vision. Success!
Receiving a diagnosis of Keratoconus when you are 17 and in your last year of A-levelsis a very considerable blow. The psychological impact of being diagnosed with an eye condition which is progressive and incurable is not to be underestimated. I am proud that my son has been able to continue with his A-level studies and gets three good passes enabling him to go to university and study engineering.. Okay he did not get the grades predicted but no one is surprised at that; it would surprise me if in the circumstances he did get his predicted grades. But what remains is that he has had the cross-linking done as soon as we could possibly get it done, by someone we have faith in and thereby hopefully retaining as much vision as possible at this time. In addition to this he is still able to study engineering as he wanted to. It doesn't get much better than this, in my opinion. Well except that he can still do his scuba-diving which he loves so much and he is off to do next month before he takes up his place.
So to anyone out there, particularly young people, who have recently had a diagnosis of keratoconus, you can still follow your dreams.
