UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

As my hydrops is clearing, there seems to be two veins stretching from the corner of my eye (next to my nose) to very close to the iris. They are not particularly inflamed. They have always been there, but just recently seem to have reached nearer the iris.

I know maybe you can examine your eyes TOO much, but seem to recall having read in the past that with KC, the veins can grow over the iris and pupil causing blindness.

Should I be concerned?

Hi Craig,
DOn't panic yet - but they are certainly something your optoms/ophthalmologists will want to keep an eye on.
Veins can certainly grow nearer and nearer to the iris/pupil, and in some cases right over it. They don't actually "cause blindness" in any sense we'd normally understand. But if they grow across the pupil, they can interfere with your vision.
The other problem with them is, if you have viens growing right across the area that is to be replaced in a transplant operation, it can make the "melded together" of old and new more problematic, and the risk of rejection episodes a bit higher.
I've a vein in my left eye that appears to be almost up to the iris, but no-one worried about it yet (that's the eye had had 3 hydrops).
It's also possible that the veins are, if not "growing" at least standing out more now because of the stress your eye has been under because of the hydrops, and it will fade away again as the hydrops recovers. the vein in my left eye tends to be far more noticeable on bad eye/high pollen/low air quality days than when the eye is doing well.
So..... I'd mention it toyour practitioner next appointment, but don't lose sleep over it yet.
Rosemary

Thanks for that, it reassures me a lot. I suppose it's only the magazine-cover models that have nice white eyes anyway!

Craig

The muck about with photos before they put them on the covers of magazines!

If the model has improbably white sclera or teeth, or even improbably blue eyes, then the possibility is that they don\t and that the photo was compuer enhanced.

I havce got a bit of software that does this sort of thing, but I don't know how to use it. I am so close to being able to post a fantasy photo of myself, 6'2", 12 and a half stone, full head of hair, light tan, and looking young for my thirty years.

In fact I am 5'10" (shrunk from my life time tallest at 5'11"). I weigh nearer 15 stone than 14. I have lost the hair from the top of my head, and what is left has lost its colour (my sone calls my hair 'beyond grey') I am 56 and you'd have to be generous to say I don't look 57. But I'm happy.

does anyone know how to use Photoshop?

Andrew

There are so many cover pictures with impossible white eyes, as they don't have any veins in whatsoever! And their teeth are just as false, unless they have the money of the Beckhams!

Hi Craig

I have nothing really to add to the excellent advice you have already been given except that since recovering slightly from a very bad patch a few months ago - and since a new pescription of lenses - I am noticing things much more than I did and sometimes I realise i have no real point of comparison. It is not always easy to be sure if something is a new development, or something I have just not noticed before. Of course once I have noticed (the big crack in the kitchen celling!) it seems huge and obvious, but I don't know if it has grown over night or been there for years. No one else notices it until I point it out - then they say oh, you should get someone to look at that!

Which is all really I can say to you - if you are worried, get someong to look at it (preferably some one who might be able to help!). It maybe that your practicioner saw it a long while ago, but didnot think it worthy of a mention. Or it may need sorting out, so no one can blame you for asking.

Brigid