Thank you Duke for sharing your experiences. There are two kinds of people: those who accept the way things are, i.e. the “status quo,” and those like you who believe in the possibilities. This attitude will make you an excellent veterinarian. I am glad that you persisted in your search for a better solution.
A decade ago, I felt like you that we needed to do better for keratoconus and other difficult vision conditions. I decided that I could not wait around for somebody else to invent what I needed, and that I simply had to do it myself. We think alike, and I know you will make great contributions to your chosen career. Patients like you somehow find doctors like me.
I’ll let Duke tell his own story:
Duke’s Feedback Letter
Each morning since I received my Laserfit lenses, I have looked at them and told myself, “Once I have these in for all practical purposes I will not have keratoconus till I take the lenses out.”
Before Laserfit lenses, I had been wearing RGP lenses for almost ten years. My vision, though I wished for better, was not limiting my functioning. However, the tremendous discomfort from wearing the RGP lenses was limiting my functioning and greatly impacting my quality of life. I was a slave to the lubricating drops which I had to apply frequently to prevent my eyes from drying out.
My horse is a very important part of my life, but whenever I would ride him, I would have to remove my lenses as they were completely incompatible with dusty conditions. Goggles were not a solution because of the ongoing need to remove them even for the brief time needed to apply more lubricating drops. Even in non-dusty conditions in which I could wear sunglasses, I would have to find shade before taking them off to apply more lubricating drops because the intensity of the sunlight would overwhelm my eyes.
As it can be imagined no matter my need for my RGP lenses, I was miserable wearing them and concerned for my future. Pursuing a career in veterinary medicine in the weeks before my journey to Texas, I had been touring veterinary colleges to which I had been invited for interviews. Though my hard work and dedication during undergraduate on the verge of being fulfilled, I found myself worrying about my RGP lenses, “How am I going to be able to perform surgeries as a veterinarian when I have to apply more lubricating drops so frequently?”
Searching the internet for alternatives, I found the Laserfit website. After reading everything on how the Laserfit scleral lenses would be customized to fit the shape of my eye and customized to correct for the defects in my cornea and reading the testimonials of people who had been helped by the lenses, I decided that I had to take a journey to Coppell, TX.
Upon meeting Dr. G. and his wonderfully cheerful staff, I told him that two great things could happen to me during my time there, I could get accepted to my preferred veterinary college and his lenses could bring unprecedented vision quality and comfort into my life. He expressed confidence in being able to improve vision in one of my eyes but told me that he had doubts concerning the results that could be achieved in the eye with a central corneal scar. The results that were achieved have been life changing.
Now I am living in a nearly post-keratoconus life. Even in the eye with the corneal scar, I achieved 20/20 vision, but the vision improvements for me are the smallest way in which the lenses have improved my functioning and quality of life. The comfort of the lenses sitting stable in my eyes with the soothing saline bathing my corneas is what has brought the biggest changes.
After returning home from my fruitful journey in Texas, I was able to ride my horse on a forty mile ride across the Southern Californian desert. Turning around at the twenty mile mark, I could see my home town in the distance beyond the hills my horse and I had crossed. Able to make out landmarks from such a distance brought home the full realization of what Dr. G’s Laserfit scleral lenses have achieved for me, “I haven’t thought about my lenses since I put them in this morning! I see better than I have ever seen before! I have been freed from the lubricating drops!”
In the months since I have been wearing my new lenses 12-18 hours a day without the pain and discomfort I endured for a decade with the RGP lenses, I haven’t had to use lubricating drops once, I can walk out into the sunlight without having to immediately put on my sunglasses, I can easily wear goggles to protect my eyes from the dust when riding my horse, and my vision is better than ever before. Dr. G’s Laserfit scleral lenses enable me to go through my day as though I no longer have keratoconus, and that is something incredible!
Before I left Texas, I was able to tell Dr. G. that I had been accepted into my preferred veterinary college, and with his marvelous lenses I can be at peace knowing that among the challenges ahead my eyes will not be one of them anymore. Thank you.
