UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Hi there
My optician recently diagnosed me with keratoconus. My doctor then booked me an appointment with a NHS doctor to have a look at it. After examining me the NHS doctor booked me an appointment to get my Gas Permeable Keratoconus lenses fitted in May. The problem is i leave the uk for 6 months to go travelling at the end of march. i wont be able to make the May appointment and they dont have any earlier appointments.

What should I do?
If i go down the private route, how much should i expect to pay and will they be able to get it all sorted by the time i leave in 3 weeks time. What are the chances of me getting an appointment with a private optician at short notice? Also, can anyone recommend a good private optician in London?

Thanks, Patrick

Patrick

First of all, welcome to the forum.

What you should do depends to an extent on what you are going to be doing when you are overseas. If you are trekking or back-packing then you may not actually need your RGP Contact lenses while you are away. You will be back in September / October and I should be confident that there would be an appointment at the contact lens clinic by then! book it before you go.

If you are in dire need of contact lenses, then it may be that they have a cancellations policy at your local contact lens clinic, so that a weekly telephone call would let you know if an appointment had opened.

If you wait until you return, then the delay in getting you started with your lenses would only be 4 months.

Above all, remember not to panic! (as Hippocrates would have said if he had ever read the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy! )

Andrew

Hi Patrick
You'll find quite a few optometrists who see people privately on our home page at 'Optometrists accepting KC referrals'. But while you might get a pair of lenses within 3 weeks if you go privately, that doesn't guarantee that you'll be 'sorted' before you go off travelling. It usually takes a couple of weeks to build up wearing time in rgps - starting with an hour a day and gradually increasing it. And you'd normally need a follow up appointment to check that all is OK. At this stage, it's not uncommon to find the fit or the prescription need to be 'tweaked'. KC eyes aren't easy to fit so the first pair of lenses may not be ideal.
While contact lenses will improve your vision, if you're managing reasonable well without at the moment, then 6 months travelling may not be the ideal time to be getting used to contact lenses! As Andrew says, it depends how badly you want the contact lenses at this stage.
Anne

My advice would be to definitely do your traveling first. KC does limit you in some ways while travelling as there are lots of tedious care routines like cleaning contact lenses to deal with, it also has an impact on some of the activities you may like to do e.g swimming can be problematic and dusty environments can be too. I think you'd probably enjoy it more without the hassle of having RGP lenses, when you get them you'll realise why (it does get better though

If you are as content with your sight as can be then there is no risk in leaving it 6 months to have your lenses fitted on your return, if you go private you may be just blowing money away on something that can be obtained for free on NHS. Obviously if your vision is particularly bad then you may want to think about going private but I'd say only if your vision is pretty bad.