Patient Stories

For Emily Davidson, life is a roller-coaster of adventure, and she takes the ups and downs, twists and turns in stride. Emily’s love for photography and nature took her from her childhood home in Queens, NY, across America. First, she flew West toward sunny New Mexico, and then to the dynamic San Francisco Bay Area coastline before settling into the Southern charm of Atlanta, GA. Still, Emily knew that something was getting in the way of experiencing the world fully: her eyesight. Emily had blurry vision and saw halos, starbursts, and smears — symptoms of her keratoconus, a progressive Patients with HOA often have extreme difficulty with night vision and may see ghosting or have double vision corneal thinning disorder. “Between my work helping others and being able to focus on the beauty in gray skies, and the big sunsets and the beautiful scenery, you don't necessarily realize how bad your vision may be,” she reflects. “It served as a very good distraction for how bad I was seeing.” Making sacrifices because of vision Always adaptable to her circumstances, Emily began making sacrifices. First, she stopped going out at night, as the glare from traffic lights made it hard to drive in the dark. As her job in the insurance industry required more computer work, Emily struggled to keep up because the screen was blurry, and her eyes were fatigued after long days. Before, she regularly ventured into the lush landscape surrounding her, but Emily’s poor vision forced [...]

"It all started when my friend was doing my makeup. 'Are you aware you have this cloud-looking thing on your eye?' Having eye problems was not new to me. I have had Neurotrophic Keratitis - a disease that causes my corneas to erode - in my right eye since I was 5 and in my left eye since I was 16. I accepted the fact that my vision was never going to be perfect; I knew it was getting worse as I aged. I already needed to use eye drops all the time because of the constant dryness. Hearing my friend make that comment though, I realized maybe my condition was worse than I thought. Seeing a Corneal Specialist After visiting a corneal specialist, I heard for the first time that I was at great risk of going blind. All of a sudden, I was having my eyelids partially sewn shut to limit exposure to air, new sets of drops/ointments to try, lifestyle changes such as wearing ski goggles outside in the winter to protect my eyes, and going to the eye doctor so many times a month I had the eye exam letters completely memorized. While my left eye vision was significantly better than my right, I was still having trouble seeing things clearly. I needed a large font on my phone and a bigger TV - and squinting at things became the norm. Failed Treatments Failed treatment after failed treatment, I started to give up hope that my [...]

Baylor University PROSE Patient, Robert Burns, runs the Sound Off Louisiana blog.  And though he refrains from promoting products and services, he invoked a "point of personal privilege" to provide special recognition and praise to the doctors and medical staff at Baylor University School of Medicine's Ophthalmology Department for the incredible benefit they've provided to his eyesight. Burns visited the medical facility for over a week in early June of 2023 to be ft with PROSE scleral devices.  In this video, he shares his journey using RGP lenses prior to PROSE, and provides a thorough step-by-step process for applying and removing his PROSE devices. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IliT08SMQ24&t=104s&ab_channel=RobertBurns  

Thank you to Scott K. who submitted his family's story on our website. under the Share Your Story link at the bottom of our Patient Success Stories page.  Patient stories are incredibly important in helping others better understand the need for and the process and benefit of PROSE treatment. "During the summer of 1997, our daughter, age 8, had an allergic reaction to bactrim, for which she was on day 9 of a 10-day regiment. We took her to a children's hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, where she was diagnosed with Stevens Johnsons Syndrome. It was 10 days of hell for her, my wife, and me. The most severe effects of SJS were with her eyes. Light hypersensitivity, constant pain, and constant corneal ulcers all contributed to her anxiety (and ours). For 18 years, our daughter dealt with the above. At age 26, our daughter's eye doctor informed us about the PROSE treatment. We took her to Boston during Thanksgiving week of 2015. The staff were so supportive. The men, women, and children who we met who were being treated all had life-changing stories to tell about their journey to be at Boston. It was truly a miracle! The very first day, after being fitted with PROSE devices, my daughter was able to go outside, in the daylight, not having to wear two pairs of sunglasses! From that first day, her's and our lives changed for the better. She had endured 18 years of misery because of her eyes, and just [...]

“The enemy of perfection is good.”  Nate Jessiman told me about this quote from Voltaire, which an eyecare practitioner had told him during a visit. “This quote is terrible,” Nate said. “It’s a crutch for not trying to do more. I want to continue to see advances.  Good is not good enough.” Nate was diagnosed with keratoconus in his late teens. Now, 25 years later, he has his first pair of PROSE devices with SmartSight HOA® correction and can see well –not perfect – but well.   Getting a keratoconus diagnosis  More than 20 years ago, keratoconus wasn’t as well known. When he was first evaluated by an optometrist in his teens, the provider thought Nate was on drugs, because that seemed to be the most likely cause of ghosting, blurriness, and double vision, also known as higher-order aberrations (HOAs). Nate’s keratoconic corneas don’t have prominent bulging, but the condition is advanced enough to cause significant HOAs in his vision.  The aberrations impacted his ability to recognize faces from a minor distance. “I knew there was something wrong with my eyes. So, I went to Ocala (Florida) about 2 hours from where I lived, and spoke with a specialist.  That was when I finally got the keratoconus diagnosis.” Over the years, he saw multiple eye care practitioners. Scleral lenses really didn’t become commercially available until the last 15 years, so Nate and the eye care community were dealing with limited options.  When he finally was fit with scleral lenses, the [...]