UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Hi,

i am 37 years and had Keratocons in my right eye 20 years back, and then i went for a transplant 12 years back, but ended up with high astigmatism. i went for lasik to correct the astigmatism, but the result was that the astigmatism was back and my vision is very bad. i lately went for scleral lens which in combination with glasses could give me 20/25 vision- something that helps during the day or in wathicng TV ot looking at anyhitng with strong light.

the prblem that i have is even with the scleral lens, at night or in a low light environment, the contrast of vision is not good; this makes difficult to recognise faces. is anyone aware of any solution to solve the loss of contrast problem?

also for my left eye, it has been stable. 4 year back, i noticed that i needed -0.5 degrees of astigmatism, bit never bothered to use glasses for this as i was fine without it. lately, because this is the eye i rely on, i tart feeling that putting this small degree of astigmatism helps me for reading very small letters. can this be the satrt of keratoconus in my left eye, even at this age?

appreciate if anyone has any feedback on those 2 challenges.

thanks.

Hi Suzynaim and welcome to the forum,
I think a lot of us find our night vision and vision in low light levels is poor. It certainly has been for me, both before my transplants and since. Maybe someone with a bit of scientific knowledge can tell us more, but I've always assumed it's because the pupil dilates in an effort to get more light into the eye, and maybe changes how effective the contact lenses are? This may well be rubbish, so it would be interesting to hear a proper explanation! I also don't know of any solution.
As for your other eye, I believe most people have some KC in the 'other' eye, though for some it's hardly noticeable and may progress very little.
Anne

Hi Anne,

how old are your transplants and did you get KC in both eyes? do you use any lenses now? are you able to manage a normal life?
my problem in low light is recognising face. i can read the computer and watch TV with the scelral lens. the problem though anything that is low contrast sensitive like human faces.

My transplants were back in 1986 and 88 (one in each eye). And yes, I've continued to wear rgps since then, which give me good vision. I'm also lucky to get pretty good vision in glasses too since the grafts, even though I'm very short sighted. So yes, I lead a normal life. The only restriction is not driving after dark. And ignoring the funny looks from people who wonder why I'm wearing sunglasses during the day,even when it's not sunny.
Anne

Weirdly my "good" eye (soft lens) seems to show less contrast sensitivity than my bad one (piggy backed even then not great). I've no idea why though but ti is quite pronounced. I had a casual search on the internet and it looks as though the way the brain deals with the information it gets can have quite an effect, even be trained.

http://www.bcs.rochester.edu/people/daphne/VisionPDF/LiPolat2009.pdf