Richard had LASIK over 20 years ago, before LASIK was even FDA approved in the United States.
Complications ensued unfortunately for Richard and he developed a corneal disease which has recently received a lot of attention, keratoconus. Keratoconus is a thinning of the cornea which leads to vision loss and visual distortions. Keratoconus patients suffer from symptoms like blurred vision, ghosting, multiple images, glare, halos, and starbursts around lights.
Richard suffered from severely blurred vision due to the keratoconus in one of his eyes. He couldn’t see close, he couldn’t see far, they tried to treat him with contact lenses, changed the lenses, varying types, etc. and nothing helped. In his words, “everything was blurry.”
Richard was determined to figure out how to improve his vision. He did his research and found Dr. Slade at our office. After he saw the contact lenses had failed, Dr. Slade tried various options to fix the problem, he was determined. “Cros was not available yet. Even to the extent of cutting the flap totally off and sewing it back on. Talk about painful and uncomfortable. We tried three surgeries.”
Richard came to Slade & Baker Vision in Houston and finally decided to go through with the Corneal Collagen Crosslinking procedure, otherwise known as “CXL.”
During the CXL procedure, Richard remembers “it was totally painless. They treat your eye with a yellow fluid, there is a blue light, and that’s it, it’s over. It’s incredible.” The CXL procedure does take some time, but in Richard’s words, is not uncomfortable, especially not when compared to the years of visual distortion that keratoconus patients have to suffer through!
Two years later, Richard’s vision has improved by 50%.
He is no longer in uncomfortable contacts, but in very, very thin lenses. We love success stories in all the procedures our doctors perform at SBVC like LASIK and Laser Cataract surgery, but the success stories we experience in patients with corneal issues like keratoconus, are special and mean a whole lot to us. We know the struggles they are faced with are not the usual visual issues in being near-sighted or far-sighted. They truly come to us with a lot of questions, concerns and having read so much on their condition. When the treatments for them get them to a 50% improvement, we are so overwhelmed with happiness for them.
Thank you Richard for sharing your story and for coming to us from Laredo. We hope you feel the trip was worth it. Thank you for letting us share this with other keratoconus patients who are looking for answers.
If you or any of your loved ones suffers from corneal issues, keratoconus, or any of the symptoms mentioned above, please call us for an evaluation today at
