{"id":9189,"date":"2015-10-27T10:50:33","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T10:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.selectspecs.com\/blog\/?p=9189"},"modified":"2015-10-27T10:50:33","modified_gmt":"2015-10-27T10:50:33","slug":"personal-experience-living-with-keratoconus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.selectspecs.com\/blog\/personal-experience-living-with-keratoconus\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal Experience: Living With Keratoconus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well I knew it was bound to happen. \u00a0I put it off for as long as possible. Procrastinated, made excuses winged, whined and complained but here they are as plain as the nose on my face. \u00a0A brand new pair of specs. \u00a0My first pair in over 15 years to be exact. \u00a0That’s half my life lived in denial in watching my world slowly fade out of focus.<\/p>\n

I was 15 when an optician first noticed the monster sat behind my right eye. \u00a0I’d been seeing opticians off and on for three years by then, but most only check the front of the eye in those days. \u00a0But this guy was a bit ambitious and since it was the second time in three months I’d been back with complaints of headaches and blurry vision he had a peek in the back. ” You’re optical nerve is quite enlarged. It’s still within a good size range but we’ll just the keep an eye on it and see if there’s any changes later on ” He told me. \u00a0I always wondered what that meant. \u00a0What is an optic nerve and why would he feel, the need to keep an eye on it?<\/p>\n

The optic nerve<\/a> is a bundle of nerves at the back of the eye responsible for sending messages to the brain which is then interpreted as visual information. \u00a0Fun fact: your blind spot is the place where the nerve connects to the back of the eye. \u00a0Now any disturbance to this bundle can impact the quality of visual information produced. \u00a0Some health issues can cause swelling of the optical nerve which is in itself disruptive to vision. \u00a0In my case? \u00a0I just have a fat nerve bundle. \u00a0You see, like everything else in your body, the sizes of these nerve bundles vary from person to person. \u00a0Mine are a bit bigger than what is considered ‘normal’ but not bad enough to be seen as a problem, yet.<\/p>\n

It was years later that I remembered that ambitious Optician. \u00a0My vision had continued to\u00a0fluctuate and deteriorate. \u00a0I was spending a fortune on eye tests and new glasses to keep up with the changes. \u00a0On top of that I had officially been diagnosed with a condition called Optical Migraines. \u00a0So not only was my vision fading I was having massive headaches that caused auras and rapid visual disturbances. \u00a0So how does one cope? \u00a0Well at seventeen with final exams and SATs looming the options were very limited.<\/p>\n

I eventually got through it all with the help of an Opthamologist Dr.Lefler at the Lefler Eye Care Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. \u00a0He was the first eye specialist who realised that there had to be a connection between all the different symptoms. \u00a0Instead of just testing and writing a new prescription he put me through a barrage of tests to find out the underlying cause. \u00a0The end result was unsurprising. \u00a0I had a well known condition called Keratoconus<\/a>. I also had a touch of Glaucoma, the irregular pressure fluctuations was what was causing the migraines and vision changes. At the time the treatment for this was a few weeks worth of eye drops to lower the pressure and the dreaded rigid contact lens!<\/p>\n

Rigid lens<\/a> are exactly what they sound like. \u00a0An unyielding sphere of glass that sat on the eye like an embedded grain of sand. \u00a0The pain was immeasurable! \u00a0The first few days were absolute torture! \u00a0I did not know how I would cope with them long term and immediately decided that I’d only wear them when absolutely necessary, for school, work and important activities.<\/p>\n

Living in Florida this immediately became impossible. \u00a0There is just something about the air, the light and the atmosphere that sucks the moisture out of a person and anyone who wears contacts knows the importance of keeping the eye and lens moisturised. \u00a0It allows the eyeball to swivel around, helping the lens float with the motion and most importantly moisture keeps it from sticking to the surface. \u00a0Within a month I had endured two eye infections caused by scratches from either my nails when placing or removing the lens, or the lens self sticking and scraping.<\/p>\n

I gave up and resigned myself to a life of low vision. \u00a0As an art student I struggled to complete assignments and commissions. \u00a0My style of drawing and painting varied depending on how well I could see. \u00a0Keratoconus ate away at my cornea and life dragged on, there were wonderful years spent teaching art in Florida. \u00a0Amazing times on the beaches back home in Turks & Caicos Islands. \u00a0All the while thinking that one day I may no longer be able to see any of this.<\/p>\n

\"Another
Another beautiful day on Grace Bay, Providenciales Turks Caicos Islands 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It wasn’t until 2012 that a British GP referred me to University Hospital Soutampton Eye Clinic <\/a>that I sat before a bank of machines enduring one test after another. \u00a0The results this time? \u00a0Much had remained the same! \u00a0I still had advanced Keratoconus, but it was well within the range that new contact lenses could help. \u00a0In the years I spent on the beach medical science had improved dramatically in the field of contact lens. \u00a0New gas permeable rigid lens and sclera lenses were available; they worked like the old rigid ones I hated but were lighter more comfortable and surprisingly did not feel so much like a grain of sand scraping about, I hardly felt them at all! \u00a0It was amazing! \u00a0Although, it took some getting used to as my eyes were retrained, but in the long run, I could see better for longer periods and soon forgot all about my vision problems.<\/p>\n

So why am I wearing glasses?<\/p>\n

The thing about Keratoconus is that it\u00a0is progressive. \u00a0I soon became aware of headaches after wearing my lens for a few hours. \u00a0Then my vision began to blur, I could no longer make out street signs or bus numbers. \u00a0It became hard to judge the distance of traffic and moving objects. \u00a0Then the migraines and auras started up, it was starting all over again! \u00a0Suddenly every few weeks my new lenses no longer worked. \u00a0Appointment after appointment, test after test with unpredictably different results. \u00a0Because of the frequency of removing and replacing the lens I was also going through them quicker than normal. \u00a0I tore them, I lost them, I let them dry out! \u00a0The costs of replacements were becoming too much to keep up with.<\/p>\n

So I sat down with my Ophthalmologist and discussed the reality of my situation. \u00a0Contact lenses were just not for me. \u00a0I needed something that I could easily and immediately take off and put on when needed. \u00a0A pair of glasses could help, but it would take time to find a median prescription that would be useful enough. \u00a0I did a few eye tests on different days and the Ophthalmologist compared them all and decided the best solution.<\/p>\n

So for the first time in fifteen years, prescription in hand I set out to find the frames that would define my face. And here they are:<\/p>\n

\"Testing
Testing my new glasses with a trip to the beach!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And what better place to test them out than the beach?<\/p>\n

\"Everything
Everything looks better with a new pair of specs!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well I knew it was bound to happen. \u00a0I put it off for as long…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[726,1239,1319],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.selectspecs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9189"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.selectspecs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.selectspecs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.selectspecs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.selectspecs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.selectspecs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.selectspecs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.selectspecs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.selectspecs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.selectspecs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}