I have keratoconus.

Have you ever heard of keratoconus?

Did you start wearing glasses after becoming an adult? Do you wear glasses often?

My younger sibling, who has been wearing glasses since childhood, is always uncomfortable.

One day, I started to develop dermatitis on the skin beside my ear caused by glasses frames.

So, we made an appointment at the hospital to try LASIK or LASEK and visited the hospital.

Conducting precise examinations ranging from 1 to less than 10 items.

The last examination suggested a suspicion of keratoconus.

What exactly is keratoconus, a disease I've never heard of before?

A message that easily conveys to the doctor amidst very difficult words is

A disease where the cornea becomes pointed

The cornea is fundamentally thought to be a hard structure, with the cornea protruding.

Wow~ I was overwhelmed with fear. I was advised to go to a big hospital for tests instead of a local clinic.

Keratoconus is

It refers to a condition where the cornea protrudes outward in a conical shape.

Symptoms of keratoconus

The reasons for the symptoms that occur are still not clear.

It is said that abnormal shapes of the cornea and severely deformed areas develop wounds, leading to symptoms.

The typical symptoms of keratoconus usually begin with blurred vision, similar to sudden refractive errors or astigmatism.

I wondered if the glare was always there, but it turns out that the vision loss was always greater in the left eye (amblyopia) on one side.

Glasses usually took about a week to arrive after placing an order.

And I started to feel that the glare and double vision were worsening one day while waiting for the bus at the bus stop.

The distance where you can see the bus number is gradually getting closer.

I just thought to myself, "My eyesight is getting this bad!"

These symptoms started to signal to me one by one, so why did my eyesight just...

I just thought it was getting worse, but I had never heard of keratoconus before.

The threat of blindness was so severe that I thought the sky was falling.

Keratoconus gradually causes corneal protrusion, leading to astigmatism, which results in decreased vision.

Eventually, it causes pain in the eyes as well.

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If left untreated, it can lead to acute cone-shaped corneal degeneration or corneal edema, resulting in a rapid decline in vision that may cause permanent vision problems, so I was quite scared.

Factors of keratoconus

Treatment methods for keratoconus

Unlike the time I experienced, it seems that there are now many more treatment options available.

You can stop the progression with collagen cross-linking surgery that strengthens the cornea.

The cornea is a structure composed of layers of collagen, one of the protein components of our body, linked together.

Patients with keratoconus experience a decrease in the bonding strength below normal levels, leading to deformation of the corneal shape.

Because of experiencing this, corneal collagen cross-linking is one of the effective treatment methods to strengthen this bonding.

Collagen cross-linking uses ultraviolet light and riboflavin to enhance the bonding strength of collagen, a corneal component.

Riboflavin is activated by ultraviolet light energy, and during this process, it is said to improve the bonding strength of collagen within the cornea.

When keratoconus progresses, rigid RGP lenses are considered suitable for vision correction.

When keratoconus worsens, special lenses and surgical methods are among the most effective correction techniques.

In my case, since too much time has passed, one-night treatment is not possible, assuming that the condition has progressed further.

I was diagnosed that only corneal transplant is possible.

I was only familiar with corneal transplantation information related to blindness in the eyes, so I was scared, but

Fortunately, I think I have been consistently getting checked every six months. The cost of the tests wasn't easy to afford in the past either.

Keratoconus mainly occurs in people in their 20s and 30s, but it can also progress during adolescence and in individuals over 40.

Therefore, it is one of the diseases that everyone, regardless of age or gender, should be cautious about.