UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

I have just been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and wonder how it sits with KC. I was told that I had probably had it for a number of years.

I am waiting for my appoinment with an optian.

I beleive that diabetes can be detected during an eye test, but I think that the KC, which makes viewing the back of the eye difficult for the optician, may have masked the early diagnosis of diabetes. Anyone know of an answer.

For those who don't know about diabetes, if it is left untreated, can result in blndness.

Anyone else out there with the disease?

David in Cornwall

Hello David,

I think your suggestion that the KC makes the optician's life difficult must be correct.

In my case, I was diagnosed with KC and Diabetes on the same day by my optician - the KC diagnosis proved to be correct.

The Diabetes suggestion, thankfully, was not.

David,
the distorted cornea for KC patients tends to confuse any optitian and those that are not fully aware of the condition can arrive at strange conclusions.

An opthomologist at St.Georges SW London once diagnosed iritis. I got a second opinion as I was not happy putting steriods drops in my eye. The so called condition had cleared up by the time I got a second opinion (4 hours later) which confirmed that it was not Iritis .The second expert stated that he never seen the condition clear up on its own or within that space of time. His conclusion - grit which caused a minor corneal scratch which required no further treatment.

I have received an email from a person on this list who has given me some reassurance about the two and the following extract from the email is interesting.

...
according to my experts, the blindness associated with diabetes is Glaucoma (basically the sugar and stuff in the blood messes with and increases the pressure of the fluid inside the eyeball). That's if as a diabetic you develop it
...
Now, as I understand it KC (as the cornea thins and extends) leads to a drop in the pressure of the fluid in the eyeball, so one cancels out the other, rather than complicating either condition, therefore, as a consequence of the KC, our risk of developing Glaucoma is significantly less than a 'normal' diabetic, suppose it's an example of advantages and disadvantages to every situation.
...

So far the poll leaves me in a minority of one!!!

David HOLMAN

David,
The opthomologist I used to see once said he had never seen a KC patient with Glaucoma.