Specialists - West Midlands Region

[Williams]

Afternoon all,

I was wondering if anyone out there could help me or more specifically my partner, she was diagnosed with the condition some 6 years ago while still in her teens, since then she has managed to cope with the situation by attending regular hospital and optician appointments, however its now come to the point where they feel that there's not much else they can do until her position becomes worse. We're both so worried that she must first of all become blind in both eyes before something is done, I can appreciate that there are plenty of you in a considerable worse position than what she is however as many of you are, we're so scared about what the future holds. Could anyone recommend a good specialist local to the west Midlands region.

Many Thanks

Nick

[Anne Klepacz]

Hello Nick and welcome,
The first thing to say is keratoconus is very variable in the way it progresses and can often stabilise after some years. So most people manage all their lives with contact lenses of some kind. Does your partner already wear contact lenses and do they give her reasonable comfort and vision most of the time?
The hospital that sees the most KC patients in the West Midlands is the Birmingham and West Midlands Eye Centre in Dudley Road, Birmingham. Your partner should be able to get her GP to refer her there for a second opinion and to see whether there are other options for her.
I hope that helps.
Anne

[Williams]

Thanks for that Anne,

She has tried various contact lenses, with limited success. She was referred to our local hospital in Sutton Coldfield some time ago and at the time the consultant seemed to have little knowledge of the condition and saw her a couple of times over the years, eventually telling her there was nothing he could do. The opticians have however been much more supportive and offered her numerous trials on contact lenses, but again with the same results. I understand that people can live perfectly normal lives with contact lenses but it's killing me seeing her getting so upset worrying of the outcome. Are there any private clinics you could recommend locally?

Thanks

Nick

[GarethB]

Scrivens is a chain of opticians in the Midlands and they have people that visit multiple btranches because they specilise in differnt eye conditions. I know one of the contact lesn specialists that is in Rugby is very knowledgeable about KC.

One issue with going private for contact lens fitting is that although you have more time being looked at, because KC isn't their bread and butter business they don't have the same access to the range of contact lenses a hospital does.

You can go back to your GP and asked to be referred to anotehr hospital. The Birmingham Midland Eye Centre which is the second biggest eye centre in Europe (the biggest probably being Moorfields in London) have avery good eye department and very knowledgeable about KC or there is University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire which is where I go and they thought theyw ere running out of choices of contact lenses but they were open to my request to try soft lenses for KC which have been absolutly brilliant.