First let me say that I am a 51 year old architect who can no longer function because of my lasik surger 6 years ago. I have triple vision in my left eye which is 20/200 and double vision in my right eye 20/60.

I have been to a number of surgeons and none seem to be able to help me. My eye topography shows decentralized ablations, central islands and irregular astigmatism. I am currently wearing contact lenses which help in daylight but unfortunately do not help me with reading or night vision.

My doctor has tried to make glasses for me, but can not obtain any kind of acceptable correction. The contact lenses work the best, but are insuffcient to provide anywhere close to acceptable vision to function as a design professional.

My work has been affected to the point that I can not read or work very well on the computer. The double and triple vision makes it very difficult if not impossible to work with our CAD programs.

Recently, I visited a highly recommended surgeon at Baskum Palmer and was told that corrective surgery was not yet available for far sighted patients. My opthomologist has suggested that I consider a corneal transplant but this is something that I would only consider as a last resort.

At this point, my frustration has become almost to the point of manifesting itself as depression. I am frustrated by my lack of options and more so by my inability to read, look at drawings and lierally focus on details.

I know that asking this sort of question is open ended and perhaps quite subjective, but I see myself at a dead end and frustrated with no options.

I would appreciate any suggestions that you might have, but ONLY from physicians please.

Thanks
Architect Mike

You should consider trying to find another contact lens specialist. I have to recommend an optometrist who is by far the best in my experience at helping patients with irregular corneal shapes. His name is Ed Boshnick, and he is located on Coral Way in Miami. He uses a variety of very advanced contact lenses - and his success rate is extremely high. I am actually working on a paper that reports on his exremely high success rate at fitting patients with ectasia after LASIK.
His office number is . He has a website, and one page that may be helpful is the one that discusses scleral lenses. http://www.eyefreedom.com/slenses.asp
The patient whose photo is on the website is a patient who I have seen who had the worst appearing corneas imaginable - but he was not a candidate for a corneal transplant due to his severe ocular condition (called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome). In my office - we could only get him to see 20/200 in his better eye. But Dr. Boshnick was able to fit him with scleral lenses - and now he has a drivers license. It is truly amazing - and I have been extremely impressed with the results of Dr. Boshnick.
One additional patient to mention. Following LASIK, a firefighter developed ectasia - but was intolerant to contact lenses. As well, he needed to sleep in his lenses when he was on duty - as he has to be able to respond with a minute to any emergency. Dr. Boshnick was able to fit him with a scleral lens - and now this patient is able to work and function.

I hope this helps.

Bill Trattler, MD
Miami, FL