About a year ago I was diagnosed with keratokonus on both eyes, and was sent off to a specialist to look into having C3R treatment. As you do, I read up about it all online, joining this forum in the process. Well, time for an update...
I had the procedure done at the Military Hospital here in Prague (one of the best hospitals in the country, by all accounts) -- the clinic was very modern and the staff were great. I mention this having seen a few Czech hospitals which fall a little short of these ideals.
Well, I had my left eye done first, then went back a week later for the right. The procedure was mildly uncomfortable due to the eye clamp, but otherwise fine. Lots of eye drops, then an hour in the dentist's chair (well, similar) with the clamp and some thick yellow riboflavin drops every 3 minutes for 30 minutes, then more of the same for another 30 minutes but with the UV lamp on. Sent packing with a bundle of drops and instructions (x drops, y times per day) and an eye patch to come off a couple of hours later. The whole thing was surprisingly free of pain, though for a day or two following it felt like I had a little sunburn on the eye. Which, in a way, I did. Weird but not terrible.
I went back the week later to have the one on the right done, and even brought a camera to have one of the nurses take a few pics to scare the family (they're a blend of sci-fi and A Clockwork Orange, but for the lack of fiction).
Following that, we had check-ups at intervals of 1 month, then 2 months, then 4 months, after which the doctors were happy with the new thickness and stability of my corneas, and told me to make an appointment with my optician (Dr Blachut, of Beno Optik) to do something about my vision. Probably involving rigid gas-permeable lenses, though we have yet to have that appointment so I can't say for sure.
I have to say that my vision has been better... It fluctuated a little over the past few months, settling at a suitably annoying amount of ghosting/haloing under whatever I'm looking at, most noticeably when looking at a point of light in the darkness. Well, at least we can do something about it...
Oh, and for those C3R tourists out there - the military hospital is at uvn.cz (they have an English-language site), and I paid 14,000 Czech Korun for the procedure on each eye (that's about 470 pounds at today's rate).
Hope this is useful for some of you!
Richard
