| Keratoconus (known by many as kc) is a very rare disease in which the corneas of the eye (as opposed, of course, to the corneas of the foot) receive insufficient blood flow and consequently weaken, crumbling under the effect of gravity and eye pressure. | | The result is a creased and crushed cornea, literally misshapen in the form of a cone. "Keratoconus" means "cone-shaped cornea." Imagine looking through a window that was crumpled like a sheet of paper and then unfolded. The resulting creases would created a heavily distorted image. That is how a kc sufferer sees, all the time. | | Every sharp edge becomes a thick shady area... every punctual source of light gets a huge halo around it... It's extremely hard for non-kc sufferers to imagine how it's like. |
| Squinting tends to re-shape the cornea and bring things into a better focus, but obviously looking through constantly-squinted eyes has its own problems. Similarly, special contact lenses can be designed to re-shape the cornea, but because of that shaping property, they must be hard lenses. Soft lenses, or merely glasses cannot help: they do nothing to smoothen the cornea. I have an old pair of hard contacts, but scarcely wear them anymore. | | Although I've learned to adapt to it, this condition affects every aspect of my daily life, even more than the average kc sufferer. I've read many testimonies from others, and the most they complain about is having difficulty driving at night. They seem not to be counting their blessings, considering someone like me cannot drive at all. All my life I've regarded the degree of freedom afforded by vehicularly-abled people with envy. I find the assumption society makes that everyone has a driver's license very offensive. | | But considering the diverse handicaps other people have to deal with, I consider myself lucky being able to cope with mine as well as I do. It's a matter of accepting my fate, and compensating with the necessary knowledge, work, and effort. In my case, the best thing I can do is become fluent in the mass transit system of my area. |