I'm scared :(
Got some lovely news from my ophthalmologist today. Apparently I have a progressive eye disease called Keratoconus in both my eyes. It means the cornea, the transparent protective layer on top of the eye, will gradually deform more and more and cause increasingly bad distortion of vision. Apparently it can be stopped, more or less, with a semi-experimental treatment called cross-linking.
Unfortunately, what they apparently can't do yet is repair the damage that's already been done, so at best my eyes are going to remain in the state they're in now, which isn't great news - my right eye's been pretty bad for a while now. I put it down to a return of the increasing shortsightedness I've had all my life, and which I'd been warned might return after laser surgery, and didn't worry about it. Of course, now that I know, I could slap myself for not going to the doctor sooner. They might have been able to do something right away and preserve much more of the vision in my right eye.
My left eye's still okay - right now I can still more or less comfortably read normal-sized text on a screen from a normal viewing distance. If it gets any worse at all, I'm going to get serious problems with small text, and also with fiddly work like removing stitches.
I might have to wear hard contact lenses in the future, too, which I'm super excited about considering that soft contact lenses were painful for me already and hard ones are supposed to be worse.
And like all that isn't bad enough, apparently insurance doesn't pay for the cross-linking, and usually won't pay for the contacts, either. I'm German! Things like this aren't supposed to happen! "Insurance won't pay for a medical treatment I need" just isn't even a concept over here. (They do pay for a corneal transplant, which, according to Wikipedia and my ophthalmologist, is the inferior last-resort let's-hope-it-won't-come-to-this treatment I'm hoping to avoid.)
Oh hey, and now that I think about it, I forgot to mention the laser treatment when I applied for disability insurance, too, so if this ever gets bad enough to interfere with my job, I won't be covered for that, either.
I'm going to the eye clinic tomorrow to get a second opinion. Maybe it won't be as bad as all that? I'm scared.
In conclusion:
.( <-- Look, it's a smiley with only one good eye! JUST LIKE ME. Ugh.)
Unfortunately, what they apparently can't do yet is repair the damage that's already been done, so at best my eyes are going to remain in the state they're in now, which isn't great news - my right eye's been pretty bad for a while now. I put it down to a return of the increasing shortsightedness I've had all my life, and which I'd been warned might return after laser surgery, and didn't worry about it. Of course, now that I know, I could slap myself for not going to the doctor sooner. They might have been able to do something right away and preserve much more of the vision in my right eye.
My left eye's still okay - right now I can still more or less comfortably read normal-sized text on a screen from a normal viewing distance. If it gets any worse at all, I'm going to get serious problems with small text, and also with fiddly work like removing stitches.
I might have to wear hard contact lenses in the future, too, which I'm super excited about considering that soft contact lenses were painful for me already and hard ones are supposed to be worse.
And like all that isn't bad enough, apparently insurance doesn't pay for the cross-linking, and usually won't pay for the contacts, either. I'm German! Things like this aren't supposed to happen! "Insurance won't pay for a medical treatment I need" just isn't even a concept over here. (They do pay for a corneal transplant, which, according to Wikipedia and my ophthalmologist, is the inferior last-resort let's-hope-it-won't-come-to-this treatment I'm hoping to avoid.)
Oh hey, and now that I think about it, I forgot to mention the laser treatment when I applied for disability insurance, too, so if this ever gets bad enough to interfere with my job, I won't be covered for that, either.
I'm going to the eye clinic tomorrow to get a second opinion. Maybe it won't be as bad as all that? I'm scared.
In conclusion:
.( <-- Look, it's a smiley with only one good eye! JUST LIKE ME. Ugh.)