Progression related to age

[GarethB]

Andy,

I know what you mean, it does take time to get used to foreign bodies in the eye.

For me it took about three months before I spent most the time unaware I had lenses in. Only the past 18 months I have had to go back to lenses.

Now it is just when the right lens is playiong up I know it is there. Despite a good fit, I have poor tear quality in that eye so the lens is prone to moving and sticking on the wrong part of the cone. As Ali points out you feel discomfort with pressure on the cone.

Personally I think a perfect lens fit is rare in KC whcih is why ouroptoms are so patient as w strive for the best compromise.

[Carol Vines]

Carol

Is the scarring something that will heal or more permanent.

Having just started to use rgp's I'm unsure whether I'm doing the right thing as it feels a little uneasy to put things in my eye that can rub and cause abrasion on what is already a thinning cornea.

Andy

as the others have already said the scarring caused by my lenses was due to them being a bad fit and then over wearing them.

i started seeing the optician i'm with now 4 years ago this month when i was in severe pain and the optician i was with refused to see me for 2 weeks as he said i was non urgent

anyway both the lenses were badly fitted, had only had them a couple of weeks, so the new optician decided he would refit one eye at a time. the left one was done first and after a few lens tries a good fit was found. the right eye is harder to fit as the cone of the KC is offcentre so the lenses keep slipping under my eyelid.

the scarring caused by my lens in my left eye has cleared up, maybe scarring really is the wrong word to use and the vision is the best its ever been, so please don't be put off wearing lenses. as others have said be sensible about wear time, regular check ups etc.

i'm still naughty with my lenses and wear them long hours, following advise from members here i now use systane which has helped. also my left lens is so comfortable most days that i actually can't feel it in my eye, i've just collected another rosek2 lens for my right eye and it feels like an eye lash trapped in my eye, not painful just know its there

[Andrew MacLean]

There is, I suspect a slight danger that systane or other drops may be used by people to enable them to tolerate lenses longer than is sensible or safe?

Is this a possibility?

Andrew

[Ken G]

With regard to age-related progression, I was first diagnosed at 18. I am now 44 and achieve correction through glasses only. My left eye is stronger than my right, and the glasses do not really help my right eye. With glasses I can achieve 6/5 on my good eye and this allows me to lead a fairly normal life (whatever that means), though depth of field is an issue.

Point is, do you go for improved vision by going down the CL route, when it is possible 'get by' with glasses? For some, obviously, CL wear is unavoidable. I was told that CL use may actually accelerate the progression of KC, and so have chosen to avoid them and accept the inevitable visual sacrifice. It is each to their own.

Lynn White, on other threads, has drawn attention to the fact that many more people are discovering they have KC as a consequence of considering Corrective laser surgery. Seemingly pre-procedure eye examination will effectively detect the condition and so the potential patient will be advised against having it done.

This leads one to speculate that the incidence of KC in the overall population is more likely to be underestimated (Lynn's experiences in the Caribbean may also lend weight to this proposition). Were this to be true, should it not logically follow that many sufferers' conditions must stabilise at an early stage and so slip beneath the radar? Furthermore, the often quoted statistic that around 10-15% of KC sufferers will ultimately require a corneal graft may be exagerrated ?

[Paul Osborne]

As for the age related side of things, I am 35 and only recently found I have KC - one eye is correctible with glasses, the other is waiting for a corneal graft.

I get the feeling that the chainstore opticians in general don't really get how to detect or deal with KC - but that is only going on my experience, otherwise I may have had mine detected years ago. I now use a good independant optician who I am very happy with.

Paul

[Carol Vines]

andrew

yes i must admit the systane has allowed me to go back wearing my lenses longer because they are not painful. my optician knows i wear them long hours and says its down to my own common sense to take them out if they become painful, which is where i do push the boundaries

KenG

if you can get by wearing glasses that is good and if i could see with glasses i would gladly give up contact lenses. then again i will stick with lenses rather than have a graft but unfortunately others KC progresses to a stage where a graft is there only option; KC severity varies greatly from one person to another and i'm sure we wear the lenses through necessity not vanity. mine certainly isn't vanity as i wear tinted glasses most days anyway and constantly explain to people that there is no power in the glass lenses.

[Ken G]

Carol

The issue of vanity over functionality hadn't entered into my mind. As I said in my post, it is clear that many of us who have KC have no option but to move to Cl's as the condition progresses beyond the point where glasses can help. The point I am making is that there is a school of thought which says that one should persist with glasses for as long as one can, even if this means not achieving 6/6. That argument is to do with the possibility that cl wear may actually accelerate the progression of KC.

[Carol Vines]

sorry KenG i will get back down off my soapbox having read your post again, i get so used to explaining/having to defend why i wear lenses not glasses.

its interesting how over the years ways of treating KC have changed, for the better i may add, when i was diagnosed in 1981 the practice then was fit contact lenses asap to stop the progression of KC; ten years later i go to moorfields because i couldn't even get 6/60 with lenses and they explain that over the years they had learnt that wearing lenses would not stop KC progressing so the best way of fitting lenses was for comfort as well as vision.

i was tested for glasses at the time and they didn't help which is how my KC was diagnosed originally. at the moment i still don't get 6/6 vision wearing lenses so can't drive for the time being

[GarethB]

To date all refernces to lenses aiding the progression of KC is purely anecdotal and there has never been any proper research to prove or disprove this.

I do agree wuth you Ken if you can get correction with glasses go for it.

As for the rpopertion requiring grafts, I think it is closer to 10% need at least one graft and about 5% of all KC'ers needing grafts in each eye based on known cases of KC.

As rightly said as laser clinics protect themselves from litigation they will refuse to carryout the procedure on a KC eye. As they polcie themselves to a relativley high standard we are going to see the statistics change somewhat in the future.

[wheelnut]

not really sure why lenses should be thought to cause progression in KC - except maybe thorough abrasion.

I have always 'got by' with glasses but when i started to used lenses a couple of weeks ago I was amazed at what i had got used to not seeing with glasses!

Andy