My 16yr old has been diagnosed

[sarah b]

Thanks for that Rosemary,

The doctor at the hospital just briefly mentioned cxl,as an option and said it might become available in future and to read up on it. Of course with my son being 16 its not our decision to have the treatment, he would have to decide that for himself. Basically we just have to wait and see how his eyesight is in the next year. We went and got some eyedrops earlier to help with the dryness. One more question does he need to be careful in sunlight? We re off to Florida on holiday in June.

[rosemary johnson]

Hi again sarah,
Being careful in sunlight: many people with MC do tend to get light sensitive, and wear dark glasses and big-brimmed hats in sunny weather.
SOmtimes this is directly related to the KC - the irregular cornea refracts the light in unusual directions, nd bits of the back of the eye that don't normally get much light start getting stray beams. SOme pepole with this sort of problem find the light sensitivity gets better when they have their contact lenses in.
Other people just get light sensitive - according to the neuro-phthalmologists I went to see, they're jsut light sensitive and this isn't directly related tot he KC, though people with another eye condition are more likely to get hyper-light sensitive too. No-one knows why, and according to said experts, there's nothing to be done about it other than dark glasses and big brimmed hats outside in the sun, and not going anywhere with flash photography, floodlights or other things that annoy the eyes.
So.....
suggest you/he stock up on cool shades before going off on holiday.
I gather that there is a general increase in the advice to wear dark glasses and protect one's eyes these days, anyway, regardless of having odd conditions like KC!
Rosemary