Distortion measurements of the eyes

[Gabriela Neal Gonzalez]

: Hi,
I am 15 years old and I am new to all of this. I was diagnosed with KC about 4 weeks ago and I am soon to go and have my contact lenses fitted. One question I would like to ask is in what units do they measure the distortion of the eye because I was told that I was 10 in my right and 3.5 in my left. At what stage of distortion would they start thinking about doing a surgical procedure. please write back if you have any information and advice for me Thankyou. Gabriela.

[Sweet]

Hello there and welcome to the forum!!

I deleted one of your posts as you posted it twice so don't worry if you wonder where it has gone!!

I just want to say hi but i am not sure of the exact measurements for eyes and what they would think about surgery. You will be informed at all stages and able to ask questions.

Wishing you all the best with contact lenses, do come back and let us know how you get on!!

Take care

[Andrew MacLean]

Gabriela

I am presuming that they used a Keratometer to measure the curviture of your corneas. There ar other methods available: they can do a laser topography of the eye or even adopt an even more recent innovation called First Definite Apical Clearance Lens (FDACL).

All of these methods are able to give a numerical value to the curviture of your cornea. My guess would be that your results show that your Keratoconus is more advanced in your "10" eye than the other.

Actually the specific number need not worry you too much. It really gives them an idea of what sort of lens they ought to fit to your eye. These days there are several different sorts of lenses each with different fittings for people with keratoconus. The prognosis is very good: the first line of action is to fit llenses to the eyes. when one lens becomes unsuitable there are others to try.

Then there are new types of low-level surgical intervention: Intacs, C3R etc.

following that there are more radical surgical interventions.

So, do not panic. And do stay in touch with the KC community through this site. We are all in the same boat!

Yours aye

Andrew

[Gabriela Neal Gonzalez]

Hi,
Thanks to the both of you for the advice and the support i will be going to get my lenses this wednesday so I will let you know how I get on. But I do have a question to ask When you got your lenses did you gradually break them in over a period of time? Gabriela

[Andrew MacLean]

Yes, I was told an hour the first day, two on the second day, three the next, etc, up to the target wear time.

All the best with your new lenses.

Andrew

[GarethB]

Hi Gabriela,

Will you be on half term this week?

If so that will make breaking the lenses in easier. Make sure you let your teachers know because initially you will only be wearing them for less than the school day so you need access to a clean area to put lenses in and out. The school first aid room is ideal, but let all your teachers know too just incase you were to have problems.

Student Support Fact Sheet

The above will be useful to show your teachers to help them understand what you are going through.

Good luck with the lenses.