“Your only option is a corneal transplant,” the ophthalmologist stated matter-of-factly.” Although I’d known for years it could one day come to that, I needed time for the reality of having a part of my eye replaced with donor tissue, to sink in.

For years contact lenses provided me with the good vision I lost due to keratoconus, an eye condition in which the normally dome-shaped cornea progressively thins, causing a cone-like bulge to develop.  I’m not sure what caused this disorder, but it could have happened wh....