recently diagnosed with keratoconus?!

Sorry to hear your diagnosis, but it sounds like yours was caught early, which is an excellent sign. Keratoconus is a very variable condition. Generally, the younger you are at diagnosis, the worse things end up, but progression tends to be slow (on the order of years) anyways. There are some procedures to stabilize the cornea if there is evidence that it's progressing; they aren't available in the US (yet) but we deal with it all the time up here in Canada.
Bottom line: get corneal topography or other corneal maps taken routinely (every 6 months or so) to monitor progression, and consider intervention if there's evidence of deterioration.
And an excellent resource for all things keratoconus is the National Keratoconus Foundation: http://www.nkcf.org/

I'm an optometrist.

The course of Keratoconus is somewhat unpredictable and it can take many years to progress to the point of severe vision loss, depending on the individual. If is often difficult to diagnose, so the fact that you have been diagnosed at such an early stage of the disease might help to prolong the onset of severe symptoms. Your questions would be best answered by your ophthalmologist since he/she would know your case. It is extremely important that you see your eye doctor on a regular basis. Part of an eye specialist's job is to answer your questions. Make a list of all your questions, prior to your next appointment and make sure to get answers to all your questions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keratoconus
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/11… -

Keratoconus is a progressive condition. In some patients this can occur quickly over a 6 month period of time at times and for other patients it can be a slow insidious process.

Diagnosed early is positive, since you can immediately seek treatment before you have progression and vision loss/changes.

The only know treatment to stop the progression is C3-R (cornea collagen crosslinking). The crosslinking treatment started in Germany during the 1990's and has show long term stabilization. In 2003 Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler who pioneered the use of INTACS for Keratoconus in the United States began performing C3-R. The treatment can be performed over a 3 day visit to the Los Angeles area.

My son had this treatment by Dr. Boxer Wachler. Unfotunately, the doctors did not tell us he had keratoconus until his vision had been signficantly impacted. His vision drastically changed over a 1 year period of time. He had to have both the INTACS and the C3-R treatment to stabilize and improve his vision. It was amazing. Prior to the procedure the big E was blurry and the next day his vision was 20/40. He was able to pass his DMV eye exam.

My advice is don't wait - seek treatment as soon as possible.

www.KeratoconusInserts.com