Pam is from Gastonia, NC and had been diagnosed with keratoconus when she was a child. Pam’s vision slowly decreased as she grew into a teenager and she had to undergo a corneal transplant in each eye in her early teens. Pam was then fit for glasses but was not able to see well out of her glasses because corneal surgery results in irregular astigmatism which is not able to be corrected with eyeglasses.
Pam had tried hard contact lenses but found them to be very uncomfortable. She was not able to tolerate the feel of the hard lens and therefore had to wear glasses and live with poor vision. Pam lived with decreased vision for about 30 years before she came to see Dr. Barbara Marcussen at Complete Eye Care in Belmont, NC. Pam had an eye exam and she was found to have 20/100 and 20/200 vision with her glasses. Pam was not able to see clearly with glasses because of her irregular astigmatism as a result of her corneal transplant. She had a very limited driver’s license which did not allow her to drive on certain roads, at night, and had several other restrictions. Pam took care of her mother and had children so her limited driver’s license severely restricted her quality of life.
Dr. Barbara Marcussen evaluated Pam and decided to fit her in a scleral contact lens. These scleral contact lenses are designed for each individual cornea so Dr. Marcussen was able to design a scleral lens that would correct for all of Pam’s irregular astigmatism. Scleral contact lenses also vault over the entire cornea so they are extremely comfortable since nothing touches the cornea. Scleral contact lenses are extremely safe for anyone who has had any type of corneal surgery since they do not touch the cornea. Dr. Barbara Marcussen took a topography reading of Pam’s cornea and based the scleral contact lens on the 11,000 points she obtained from the topography measurements.
Pam put the scleral lenses on and was able to read 20/25+ vision for the first time in over 30 years!
Pam now has clear and comfortable vision and is able to get a normal non-restrictive driver’s license like everyone else. She is so happy to finally see clearly and we are all so happy for her too!
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