The Jones Family Blog

Friday, March 02, 2007

My Eyes

I thought I would let everyone know what is going on with my eyesight, especially since they say it is genetic, you all might want your eye doctor to check for this condition next time you go.

I have a disease called Keratoconus, you can look it up on the net. It is a thinning of the corneas, and I am basicly legally blind in my right eye now. I went to a specialist a year ago, he sent me to another specialist, I wore special polymer contact lenses for a year, and after losing the 4th one because my eyes changed shape so much, I went back to the original specialist last week.

They were pretty freaked out, including the doctor. They ran all the tests 2 times because they couldnt believe how rapidly it has progressed in the last year. All the interns have to come see the little freak of nature when I am in there, its kind of wierd. They have seen this disease before, but not to this extent I guess. I need 2 cornea transplants now, but first he wants to try a relatively new procedure called Intacs. They are a special implant, 2 in each eye, and hopefully they will flatten out my corneas. If not they will be removed and I will have transplants 6 months apart. St Johns doesnt even have the equipment yet for the implants, so he is waiting on that, then they will do the surgery.

Here are a couple of good links, one explains the disease, another is a picture of the implants that will go in each eye.

http://www.nkcf.org/

http://www.dohenylaser.com/uploads/pics/fig13_intacs_finger.png