I saw some concerns about the future of Artemis and my keratoconus. Actually, seems there's been a lot of discussion, and has turned into a game of telephone where information gets wildly muddied the more it gets passed on. It was amusing to be informed of this to be honest, haha. So, I'll address some stuff real quick.
Keratoconus can be treated. During ch1, I was diagnosed with it. During chapters 2 and 3, I got crosslinking done on my corneas to stop the disease. At the start of ch4 I finally got my medically necessary contacts through Kaiser.
Some have suggested getting glasses instead of contacts. Glasses were the first thing I tried to get to correct things. Unfortunately, very few with keratoconus find success with glasses and the most common treatment are special hard contact lenses called "scleral lenses". And like glasses, they also require fine-tuning.
My keratoconus has not delayed CH5 in any way. Getting things ready for Steam (recoding elements of the game to work with Steam Deck/controller took some work to do as well as other factors preparing for Steam) rocked things a bit. As stated, I've had my other contacts from Kaiser since CH4. For those in my inner circle know I've been wanting to see a doctor in LA for a while now. He himself has keratoconus too and has equipment suited to treating this with far better accuracy. Why not see him in the first place? He's in Los Angeles and the bill was roughly $4,000 out of pocket. Medical/vision insurance is such a grey area with keratoconus and I've been dumping funds toward custom 3D assets and upgrading equipment for Artemis development instead because as said before, I can see well enough with my previous set of contacts. It was just a matter of comfort and was something I was willing to deal with for the time being while I saved up for this doc. I've had my latest set from the new doctor for a couple of days now and I'm not getting constant mucus build-up or red eyes anymore. I've actually had some people ask if I was sober because my eyes were often red from irritation. The comfort level is a 10/10 now.
Thanks for attending my Keratoconus TED Talk lol
Have yourselves a great week and stay hydrated!
- digi.B
