UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Hi
I recently went to see Mr Daya at the Queen Victoria hospital to talk about the possibility of intacs. I've been struggling to wear contact lenses for years and have gone through all different types, my consultant suggested intacs to improve my ability to wear contact lenses. I travelled with my family from Plymouth and after a long, distressing visit Mr Daya has prescribed me with cyclosporine to treat the allergies as he thinks this is whats stopping me from wearing the lenses. Has anyone had any experience of this or of Mr Daya?
Laura (age 15)

It does make sense to treat allergies, and the use of cyclosporine is not unusual.

Actually, it would not help you to have intacs while still living with an unresolved allergy issue; the added itchiness of an eye recovering from surgery might just give you an irresistible "urge to rub" and leave you with damage that will take even longer to heal.

Did he say anything about intacs once your allergies have been treated?

Andrew

It is also quite common to treat the alergies as described prior to any surgery so that the chances of rubbing the eye during the recovery is much reduced as is the chances of infection. Therefore the aim is to increase the lens wear atime and to try and increase the chances for successful surgery.

In my dealings with Mr Daya I have found him to be up-front, open and honest (seen him privately for CXL). I queried if CXL would be beneficial for my "good" eye - showing very early signs of KC, after having my bad eye done. he actaully said that he didnt think CXL would be beneficial as my main problem in the good eye is severe short-sightedness more than KC and at my age (early 30) it was unlikely that it would deteriorate too much further with KC.

Thanks for the replies,
I agree with his decision to treat the allergies before thinking about surgery as i know i'll need to wear lenses afterward but at the time it felt like a step backwards as i'm struggling to cope with 3/60 eyesight in my better eye.
I've got to go back to him in 3 months and in the meantime use the cyclosporine and try lenses, i was just wondering whether i would need to use it long term if it's successful?

Laura,

What lenses have you tried already? What is the reason you can't wear lenses?

As someone who fits a lot of lenses post INTACs I do have to say they do not always make corneas easier to fit. Sometimes the resultant corneal shape is no easier fit at all, in fact can be worse. In other cases it does make it better and there is no easy way to predict this.

Also, if the reason you are contact lens intolerant IS an allergy issue, unless this is resolved, INTACs won't help anyway.

Lynn

Hi Lynn,
I first tried rigid lenses 5 years ago, since then i have tried various hybrids and then another go with the rigid lenses last year. There seems to be a pattern as i tolerate the lenses well for a few months and then they begin to irritate and the amount of time i can wear them decreases gradually.
I've been told that my right eye is less sloped than the left, but my consultant hasn't really attempted contact lenses in that eye since i had hydrops a few years ago.
From what everyone's been saying i'm not sure that INTACs wil be much help, i think at the moment we've been trying to find a way forward as my consultant is putting off transplant surgery until i am older as this seems to be the only option for my right eye.

Hi.
Never met Mr Daya.
Why are they not trying to sort you out with a lns for your right eye "because it has had a hydrops"??
It is perfectly possible to wear lenses post-hydrops - I've been doing so for 28 years in my left eye, and it has had at least three, possibly five (!) hydrops now.
The first one was 28 years ago.... and I was wearing a lens in my other eye for over 28 years post-hydrops before I was fool enough to have a graft in that one.
Of course, if the hydrops as left a lot of scarring, so when you try to look out of that eye all you see is a lot of white mist, then wearing a contact lens will only make sharper-focussed white mist....
Hope you get the allergies sorted out. I know of cyclosporin as an immuno-supptessant - and someone suggested they pt me on some recently after my the stitch broke in the grat. FOrtunately their colleage found something better! - fortunately for me, and recent blood tests suggest it may be not a good idea for me.
Rosemary