HELP!

[Vigilante]

Help...im at a complete loss now.

I just went for the contact lens fitting today with Mr Pawson, I tried one in his room and again got the same thing as last time, It took away some of the ghosting effect but made it more in focus and closer to the real object and again visable on everything!

The cornea scan did show mild KC but with a very thin cornea. I was basically told today that I could well have the back of my cornea having a form of KC or thinning from that side which would stop them being able to correct it with the rgp lens....

I asked about CXL but got told my cornea is too thin for that....erm I aint got a clue what to do.

Seeing the top opthamologist at this local hospital on friday morning, I have the sinking feeling that I am stuck looking at multiple vision unless I get a cornea transplant which im told they wont consider with KC being mild usually....good god.

[longhoc]

Hi there Vigilante

Sorry to hear that treatment options for your Keratoconus aren't straightforward. It's absolutely no consolation whatsoever but unfortunately such is the nature of the disease that a) few patients present what can be described as "typical" Keratoconus -- there's an awful lot of variation between one patient and another often with few major overlaps in how the condition manifests itself and b) resolving the impact of your Keratoconus is therefore similarly tricky.

From what you've written, I've got a bit of a query because one set of information has different implications to another set. When the clinician told you that you have what was defined as "mild" Keratoconus, this didn't tally with having a very thin cornea -- too thin apparently to consider Crosslinking. What might have happened is that the distortion of your cornea wasn't too significant but your cornea was still thin. Did you get an actual value for the corneal thickness e.g. 350 microns or 0.425mm (or something like that) ? Treatment options are heavily dependent on the remaining thickness of the cornea that you have. Also, it's possible that you have a condition which is similar but different to Keratoconus called Pellucid Marginal Degeneration (PMD). Was that mentioned at all ?

If you're having an appointment with an ophthalmologist, might be worth asking for the corneal thickness measurement and mentioning the phrase Pellucid Marginal Degeneration to ascertain if that might be what you're dealing with here. Also, I like to get a copy of my "scans" (sometimes colloquially referred to as a "Pentacam" after the manufacturer of the one of the more common corneal measuring devices). Useful if you want anyone else to get a rough indication of what's going on with your eye.

Best wishes, and try not to be too concerned or worry, there are always options !

Chris

[Vigilante]

Thank you for the answer,

The cornea scan did show a typical mild keratoconus cone area towards the bottom of my eye I believe as well as the actual measurements, but I had an area from the middle and top part of the cornea that came out looking light blue on the scan with a measurement around 320 microns I think he said it was. This is what he considered strange because the actual cone is very very mild.

The rpg's I have tried at both the high street optician and now at the hospital have both had the same effect, they make me see sharper so im able to read better on the acurity test chart to a line or so above normal trying hard, but the multiple ghosting also got sharper and closer so instead of there being 2 complete or 3 complete projected eye chart boxes it looked more like a box within a box. I was asked to explain what I see but how hard is that? I could draw what I see easier than explain it haha

I will write down that name you said and ask the opthomologist on friday, hope to god he really can shed some light on whats happening here, I think the optician is of the opinion that its a mix and match thing here with the front part doing a classic cone and also thinning from the back...no idea how feasable that even is, its hard to find such information on the internet to even match this.

[Vigilante]

Out of interest, does anyone suffer with headaches caused by the KC vision problems? I have had constant headaches now for 7 weeks which seemed to be located always around my cheeks/eyes/forehead/temples.

[Anne Klepacz]

Headaches as a result of KC vision are quite common - I certainly used to have them when my vision was bad. I've always assumed that they're a result of the brain struggling to make sense of all the ghosting and distortions. But maybe there's a more scientific explanation that the experts can give us.
Anne

[Nickysells1]

Hi

My cornea was a little thicker at 450 microns but my surgeon did say he could perform dent pocket cxl down to around 250 microns I think it was. This is due to just been a small incision in the epi layer I believe.

Downside is its mostly private treatment and not many nhs hospitals have the dent laser apparently.

Worth looking into or asking your consultant about I would suggest

Hope that helps and best of luck

Nick

[munster]

feel your pain

I have moderate KC in both eyes. My lens fitter also suspects that I may have KC damage to the back of the cornea Which as you say is totally uncorrectable with RGPs. Kerasoft lenses work best for me.

Unfortunately, I am fighting with ghosting and night vision is a pain with all the triangle shaped light streaks around every single light source

I've been referred to a specialised eye consultant at St Pauls Eye Hospital, Liverpool.

Will keep you all posted. Good luck with the lenses.