“In our town, football was an important part of growing up.  In elementary school, I was an enthusiastic and – thankfully – relatively oversized linebacker.  I wore thick glasses and when I took them off to play or practice, I was not always sure of what I was looking at.  I remember just trying to stop anything that had a different color jersey.“Freshman year of high school, in 1972, I got my first set of soft contact lenses and everything changed.  I remember how satisfying it was to intercept a ball that I could actually track as it came toward me.

“Through college, I participated in sports, and majored in Business, graduating with an MBA.  My eyesight was far from perfect, but I got by with contact lenses.  After graduation, I moved to Boston to begin my career.  Shortly after my move, I found a new eye doctor and scheduled an annual visit.  The doctor completed the exam and then asked, ‘Do you rub your eyes?’  I had never been asked that before. After thinking about it, I told him yes.  I remember being 4 years old and rubbing my knuckles into my eyes.  It felt good and I was amazed by the colors produced in rubbing my eyes.

“So, at age 24, I heard the word ‘keratoconus’ for the first time and learned I had a progressive eye disease.  My new eye doctor described my condition and told me my eyesight could continue to deteriorate.  I was warned to stop rubbing my eyes.  In those days, the disease was one of watching and waiting.

“Forty years later, I’ve started and owned several international businesses.  I have been lucky that my vision changes have never been so severe they couldn’t be managed by a change in my contact lenses.  For the past several years, I’ve worn Boston XO RGP (rigid gas permeable) lenses.”

Jim admits that keratoconus may have demanded a few concessions over the years.