As the mother of an adorable year-old girl, Lau Mei-fong was accustomed to some of the common perils of parenthood, such as being often blurry-eyed from broken sleep. But Lau, 30, began to notice that her vision was discomfortingly fuzzy more often.
Oddly, the lower part of her vision would be more distorted than the rest. So, when she read, the bottom of letters would be blurry while the rest would remain relatively in focus.
Lau (whose name has been changed for patient confidentiality reasons) had been shortsighted for a good part of her life. But while the vision of most people with shortsightedness stabilises in adulthood, Lau's continued to worsen in her 20s.
In fact, she had to visit her optometrist more frequently in recent years to change her contact lenses. One day, the optometrist refused to change them and referred her to Dr Arthur Cheng Chak-kwan, a specialist in ophthalmology at the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital.
The optometrist told Lau that she might have a condition called keratoconus, which corrective lenses could not help. Lau went home to research the condition online before her appointment with Cheng.
What she found gripped her with fear. Keratoconus is a degenerative eye condition affecting the cornea, a clear tissue covering the front of the eye that protects the eyes, filters out some of the sun's ultraviolet rays and bends light entering the eye to help us see.