UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Hi i have had trouble with my eyes for years.They were changing on a yearly basis and costing me a fortune in glasses.It was not until august 06 when i went to do my driving test i found out something was wrong.I could not read the number plate ,and that was with new glasses. i went to a different optician to ushual who said i had KC.
i got reffered and am still not sorted.
I have tried three types of contacts and none of them gave me the vision i needed. Yesterday i tried the hard ridgid and my eyes reacted badly. My eyes have changed already, though the speacialist says i am stable. I am noticing more headaches and feelings oof nausea, struggling to make out the faces of people at a certain distance, and struggling with seeing power points in lectures.
I have been feeling gutted my driving test cancelled three times. my theory runs out october.i am also a student nurse and qualify nov.
i do not know anyone else with KC and i am sure people dont believe me.

Hi Kerrie,

Welcome to the forum, I am sorry to hear that things have been rough recently.It can take time to find a solution tailored to your individual situation and as such KC remains a very frustrating problem.

But as I can testify, this place is a wonderful resource so please feel free to make it a second home.

You'll find those who are going through a similar ordeal to you but more importantly you'll also meet many who have come through similar difficult times.

Just keep at it, and you'll get there but in the meantime please feel free to ask anything you'd like.

Hi Kerrie and welcome to the forum!
I'm sorry to hear that you're having trouble finding lenses that will work for you, but as I'm sure others here will tell you, it can take a while to find the best fit and type of lens for KC and lenses that also give good vision. So I do hope that you have success soon. And it does take time to build up lens wear, starting off with just an hour and gradually increasing the time each day until you can hopefully wear them at least 8 hours. In the meantime, have you found the Supporting Students leaflet on the home page of the site which you can download? You might find it helpful to give to your tutors so that they do things like giving you hard copies of the slides they use in lectures and make other adjustments to help you. And if you PM me with your postal address, I can send you a copy of our basic information leaflet about keratoconus. Good luck!
Anne

Hi Kerrie and welcome to the forum.

In East Anglia you have some good optoms outside the hospital system, one post here quite frequently

Most peoples eyes react badly at first when trying lenses which is one thing that makes the fitting hard. Hence not trying too many lenses in one fitting. There are a great many lens types to try which come under the rigid category.

Hang in there, download copies of the student leaflet for studies, it is a lot easier to rpint presentations cmpared to when I was studying and you should be fine.

kerrie

Welcome to the forum! We all recognze the situation you describe. We all believe you!

You'd be surprised how many people do have KC (I certainly was). the information on this site is enormously valuable and useful.

I hope that your finding us is the start of a more positive stage in your KC experience.

all the best.

Andrew

Thanks for the replies.
It is amazing to see there are so many others that have KC.
My first lens were soft perm and they were fine but did not give me the vision. next ones were semis which were blue, although i did not get the vision they did give me blue eyes to go with my blonde hair!!
The last ones were the ridgid which as soon as they went in, my eyes streamed and my eyes kept fluttering. It felt like i had been stabbed in the eyes with hundreds of shards of glass.
They really were unbearable.

Is there a group near me ? I live in lowestoft if no one knows it ( which many do not) then it is about a 45 min drive away from Nowrich.
I am also curious about wales, my family come from there and i might move when qualified.

Lowestoft? My mother in law taught in Lowestoft during the war, and the Scottish architect Charles Rennie MacIntosh was arrested there on suspicion of being a German spy. He spoke with a Scottish accent.

I love Lowestoft! It is good to know that there is someone from there using the forum.

Andrew

It is good to come across somebody who knows it and where it is!!
However if you were to come here now i do not think you would like it. They are completely changing the road system and there are blockages everywhere!
It os quicker to get to Nowrich and back then it is to drive through lowe.
I used to have a boyfriend from scotland he was from inverness, i was 16 he was here for a boatbuilding course.

Inverness used to be the place where English was said to be spoken best. The voice there has changed and now has quite a lot of Dingwall influences.

I am sorry to hear that Lowestoft has changed: I think I;ll just cherish old memories, rather than come and see hos they have scarred the face of an old friend!

Still, I am sure you would allow me to picture the Lowestoft of memory as I read your posts.

Andrew

Kerrie,

My brother lives in Southwold and a resident optician here practises in Great Yarmouth and sometimes in Ipswich.

She has provided me with loads of help despite having never met her

No doubt she will see this post and make contact and may be able to help too.

No Anglia group yet, nearest is London, but we are always here if you want to start your own group.

Lenses being painful first time round is common, remember it is un natural to put soemthing in your eye, grit is painful enough and we put large plastic discs in. Once the fit is right then they become a lot more bearable. It is because the eyes natural reflex of trying to wash a foreign body out needs changing that it takes a couple of weeks or months to get used to them.

The tearing problem too is one reason why we need to go for several fittings, it is imensley hard to correct vision in an eye full of tears.