Keratoconus anyone? Wondering if anyone else has or had it.?

I had 20/20 vision my whole life, until about a year and a half ago. I am near sighted, I have an oblique astigmatism, and I have steep corneas. This whole bunch of eye problems could lead to keratoconus and I think it is because my vision keeps getting worse. I now see 20/70 with the glasses that let me see 20/20 in January. Has anyone else had or currently have keratoconus? Even if you just know someone who has I鈥檇 like to talk to them. I'm 19, I can barley drive at night do to crazy light distortions, I'm almost half way to legally blind and it keeps getting worse and my mom and doctor aren't helping me feel any better about this.

It is a little unusual to see someone with stable vision until about 18 or 19 and then have a significant shift into near sightedness. This does not necessaryily mean you have keratoconus but it is worth looking into. The best way to decide whether you do or don't have keratoconus is by having a corneal topography done. Keratoconus tends to cause a pretty characteristic corneal topography. Usually, you will have a marked steepening of the cornea that tends to be located more inferiorly and will be associated with thinning of the cornea in the steepened area. So have your doctor check your corneal topography and also assess you corneal thickness. Hope all goes well.

I recommend you research CORNEA CROSSLINKING. It's the latest development in HALTING the progress of Keratoconus. It won't get rid of those irritating light distortions, but it will mean you will need less irritating contact lenses to have better vision. Report It

Some causes of keratoconus can be corrected by contact lenses. They may help rehab by the cornea by gently reshaping it, thus reducing and/or resolving the keratoconus. Corneal Topography is the best means of diagnosing and monitoring this condition.

Like you, I am near sighteted, have oblique astigmatism and steep cornea in both eyes. Several tests were ordered by my doctor, slit lamp biomicroscopy, corneal topograpy, and other, all lead to a conclusion, that I have keratoconus. There are advancements in medical field to treat keratoconus. Intacs implant can be placed to normalize the shape of the canonical cornea and Collagen Crosslinking (C3-R) to return the strength to the weakened cornea tissue and thus to stop keratoconus. Intact implant was done in 15 minutes with local anestetics on the cornea. The C3R is planned in January.. Now my vision has improved significantly and can resume my active life at college. O ya, the procedure was done at the Corneal Center of Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad..

I have Keratoconus, and the only way I can get 20/20 is with hard contacts... it sucks big time as they are a pain the the *** to wear.

My doctor has a great understanding on the condition, and it was really apparent when I attempted to go to another one for another opinion on the treatments.

I was seeing (heh heh :) ) a specialist from Kaiser that was also excellent but because I changed my coverage he is no longer available.

So far the best way to correct it is by Hard lenses, but there are a couple of surgical procedures out there to help the ones that no longer have that as an option.

My suggestion for you is to change your doctor, find someone who has experience with that. If you live in the SF Bay Area I could give you the names of the two I liked.

The specialist I mentioned from Kaiser actually travels abroad to do corneal transplants to those in 3rd world countries that cannot afford the procedures.

By the way 3-5 years before I was diagnosed with this I had Lasik. Not sure if it was directly related but it certainly did not help.