KC Treatment?

[admirc]

Hello !

I'm 21 years old and i have been diagnosed with KC recently. My vision was getting worse and i decided to get a lasik consultation to see if i was a candidate and thats when i found out i have KC. My right eye is worse then my left eye. I wear glasses now and my prescription is -4.25 in my right eye and -1.25 in my left eye. Should I seek and get the frigid contact lenses or should I wear glasses for now and see if it gets worse God forbid and only if it does seek to get frigid contacts. What are my options? I thank you for any advice you can give me.

Bless

[Anne Klepacz]

Hi Admirc and welcome to the forum.
We're finding quite a few people now who only discover they have keratoconus when they go for laser treatment to correct short sight. That's because the topography machines detect low levels of KC - low enough not to cause a problem, but enough to mean that laser treatment would risk making the KC worse.
If your glasses give you good vision, there's no particular reason to switch to contact lenses at this stage. Your KC may not get any worse. If it does start changing, you can always investigate lenses at that point.
Anne

[pepepepe]

You took the words out of my mouth there Anne, and most of ours I'm sure ! Admirc your in a good situation, you can get a Corneal Topography done as you wish regularly to monitor your KC (there may not be no progression ever from where you are now) before any outward signs of KC start appearing and become symptomatic/problematic.

Well done in searching for more info.

Pepe

[GarethB]

My wife has been wearing glasses for over 30 years because of astigmatism mainly. I got her to have topography done while I was being fitted with a set of experiemntal lenses and the topography suggests she has KC.

As she has coped for so long with glasses we have decided there is nothing to worry about, the only thing for us that has changed is that we will have topography done on my daughter at every eye test so we can detect it eary and then decide if further treatment is necessary. We've not said anything to my daughetr as she is only 9 and currently has absolutly no vision problems.

[admirc]

Thank you all so much for responding and thank you for your advice

I decided that I will continue wearing my glasses for now, they do give me pretty good vision, my left eye is pretty good but my right eye bugs me ( since its much worse -4.25), for example when i see traffic lights at night they are streched out, without glasses the light goes in a circle with my right eye and with my left its a little bit streched but with glasses they are just streched and again right one is worse then the left one, and when i cover my good eye my left eye when i try looking at stuff and reading stuff with my right eye its pretty bad its cloudy and it doubles stuff a lot and thats what bugs me the most, but thank God my left eye is pretty good (only -1.25) so for the most part i forget about it

I will get a Topography test in 6 months or so to see if theres been any changes

I only have one other question, what about wearing regular contacts not frigid ones would that be a good idea? i just feel like if i had contacts i would kind of forget about it more and think of it less or would it be the best to stick with glasses?


Bless

[GarethB]

My wife finds her vision better with daily disposable soft contacts for astigmatism because she is what we would call sub-clinical.

That said she finds contacts like the rest of us tedeous.

Once you go into the realms of conatct lenses you have to consider the costs of solutions, cleaners and so on. Not an issue with daily disposables, but there you have the monthly cost of a new set of lenses.

Glasses in wife wife's case are by far the cheapest and more convenient solution.

If there is no need for Rigid Gas Permeable (RGP) lenses i would steer clear for the time being. They are not the most comfortable because of their rigidity.

[admirc]

Thanks for responding GarethB

I wouldn't mind investing in contacts if they were going to work because i feel that they would make me feel better, i do not want the RGP's for now i am interested in regular contacts that non KC patients get, would that be a good idea, would it be a problem to get regular contacts since i do have KC or would it matter, my glasses give me good vision but i think about them too much and its bugging me thats why im interested in regular contacts

Bless

[GarethB]

Getting regular contacts to work depends on how bad the KC wrks as they only correct the regular astigmatism where they is slightly off spherical.

KC the eye is more like a rugby ball with the texture of a crincle chip so all the crincles need correcting which normal soft contacts for astigmatism fail to correct.

Kerasoft are stiffer so hold their shape more and are on of the two types of soft lenses available for us but I think it is mainly hospitals that fit these.

[Andrew MacLean]

admirc

Welcome to the forum. For my part, pone of the most difficult things to cope with was the fact that the rule for keratoconus is that there are no rules and each of us presents a unique combination of factors. There are general principles that will inform the management of the condition, but then the art of the optometrist or the ophthalmologist will be to assess how far our eyes differ from the general principle.

All the best.

Andrew