Hi, My name Chris Davis, I’m a former U.S. Coast Guard swimming Instructor, and in 1991 I was diagnosed with an eye disease called KERATOCONUS, which is the thinning of the Cornea. Upon my initial diagnosis and beyond, My vision was a MESS!  Cars tail lights, especially at night, looked like airplane propellers and the basketball rim was an orange blur.  I often rendered undeserving salutes to fellow shipmates because I couldn’t see the rank insignia on his or her collar clearly.

So, upon my Honorable discharge from The Coast Guard in 1995, (and not because of the disease), KERATOCONUS was deemed as my disability. I was placed on a donors list but due to the readily availability of Corneas over the years they did away with the list.

In 2009 I stopped driving, but I was still playing basketball though, and in 2010 I received my first cornea transplant on my left eye, followed by Cataract surgery on the same eye in 2012.  This process would repeat itself in 2016 with my right eye with Cataract surgery to follow in 2018.  Developing Cataracts is one of the side effects of having the Cornea transplant surgery.  Both surgeries were performed at the V.A. Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

After the surgeries my vision was improved greatly but I still had to be fitted with special contact lenses.  Those contact lenses improved my vision even further but were also designed to continue to slow down the thinning process, for the Cornea transplant surgeries did not cure me of the disease KERATOCONUS!  Today, I continue to wear the contact lenses, eight to twelve hours a day, but only five days a week. I take steroid drops in my eyes daily, for anti-rejection plus, allergy drops and refresh tear drops, both of these on a daily basis but as needed. Still not driving, although at times I consider it, not playing basketball anymore because of other reasons.

So, through God’s Grace and Mercy and all of the donors out there, THANKS to you all for making it possible for me to have the surgery and not having to wait a life time to do it!!

Sincerely,

Chris Davis