Orb mapping

Ever since the third grade I've worn glasses. I've also worn hard contacts, gas perms, and soft contacts. Now I'm back to glasses. Like most glasses wearers, it's always been a dream for some magic cure to come about and fix me. Then came lasik, PRK, RK, and all the other Ks. I went in five years ago to be tested, sure that I was going to be free of nearsightedness/astigmatism.

Crushing news that I wasn't a candidate came my way. Apparently, my corneas were too thin for surgery. Fast forward to now, and I decide to see what new techniques are out there. The doctor looks at my eyes, says he thinks I have a problem that would keep me from having any kind of corrective surgery: Keratoconus.

Keratoconus (from Greek: kerato- horn, cornea; and konos cone), is a degenerative non-inflammatory disorder of the eye in which structural changes within the cornea cause it to thin and change to a more conical shape than its normal gradual curve.

I'm going in this Wednesday to have my eyes mapped, kinda like a topographical terrain map; the final answer as to whether anything at all can be done for me called Orb Mapping. I'm not holding out a great deal of hope, and neither is the doctor, but he said to have it done, to know for sure.

Yes, I can correct my vision with glasses (big thick honking things), or contacts (which after so many many years of wearing them cause pain now), but I'd always dreamed of being able to do without them. Who hasn't, who needs help seeing? Those who have good uncorrected vision just don't understand the longing we have to not be dependant on glasses/contacts. A dream indeed, maybe one that will never come true.