Home » All About Keratoconus » Traveling to the California Keratoconus Center
Finding a doctor is easy. Finding exactly the right doctor for your rare and complex condition is much more difficult. That is why so many Keratoconus Patients from all over the world travel to the California Keratoconus Center for their non-surgical Keratoconus treatment. They know they’ve found the best Keratoconus specialist for their condition.
If you have Keratoconus, you probably already know that Kerataconus is a rare condition that changes the shape of your cornea, causing light to refract differently depending on its brightness and what angle it enters the eye. The bumpy cornea also makes it impossible to correct with traditional hard or soft contact lenses. Keratoconus patients travel to the California Keratoconus Center to be treated by the cKlear Method™, which effectively treats your Keratoconus with specialized contact lenses, usually Scleral Lenses.
Treating Keratoconus takes time. At the California Keratoconus Center, we invented the cKlear Method™ for treating Keratoconus, and there are generally at least three (and usually four) office visits at the start of your treatment.
But before all of that, we’ll schedule a brief Zoom call with you to discuss your case and help you with your scheduling. If you’ve sent us any of your case history beforehand, we’ll discuss that a bit. And we’ll answer any questions you may have about your treatment and your trip to the California Keratoconus Center.
During your first visit, we will go through the first four steps of the cKlear Method:
After your first visit, your Scleral Contact Lenses have been specifically designed for your eyes, and then sent to a lab to be manufactured. We work with 6 different contact lens labs, each with its own specialties, and choose the lab carefully based on your specific conditions.
By the time of your second visit, the cKlear Dispensing Visit, we will have received your new Scleral Contact Lenses. We will put the lenses on during this visit (prepare yourself for an “AMAZING!” moment) and evaluate how they fit on your eye, down to the micron. We we will also teach you how to insert, remove and care for your new lenses.
Your third visit, your cKlear Progress Checkup, can be scheduled anywhere between 1 and 3 weeks after your dispensing visit. A longer interval is usually better, but we tend to schedule out-of-town patients sooner so they can get back home as soon as possible.
Follow up visits happen months later.
Some out of town patients choose to plan a trip to Los Angeles so that all three visits can be done during a single trip, which can be done in a little over two weeks, but is preferably done over a longer time period. Other out of town patients, especially those who live in California, Nevada and Arizona, often will fly in for a half day for each visit.
Whatever your preference, we will do our best to accommodate your schedule, no matter where you are from or how far you travel. Among the places our patients have traveled from are:
Patients have come from Germany, Canada, Mexico, South America, Asia, Pakistan and elsewhere to visit the California Keratoconus Center. When they do, they take advantage of the following travel advice.
If you are flying in from a relatively local destination, you can’t beat Hollywood Burbank Airport for convenience and proximity to the CKC, especially if you are flying Southwest Airlines.
Burbank is by far the closest and most convenient airport to the CKC at a distance of under 9 miles (click for a map and directions). The ride will take you under 15 minutes in a rental car or Uber, or a bit more in traffic.
Southwest Airlines dominates the airport, having handled over 75% of the airport’s nearly 6 million passengers in 2020. The airport is also served by these airlines:
If you are flying from out of the country or from across the USA, then you will likely end up flying into Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Every major airline flies into LAX.
The CKC is under 24 miles from LAX, but don’t let that fool you: Los Angeles traffic is well known for its fickle nature. As a result, depending on the time of day you are traveling, it could take anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes to drive in either direction (click for a map and directions).
Since an Uber ride can be very expensive in heavy traffic, one common method of travel from LAX into the San Fernando Valley is the FlyAway bus service. For under $10, you can hop a FlyAway bus outside your terminal (which cycles every 20 minutes during daylight hours: see schedule here) and end up less than 4 miles away from the CKC at the FlyAway Terminal in Van Nuys. A quick Uber gets you to the CKC from the Van Nuys FlyAway just a few minutes later (click for map and directions).
While there are large and small hotels all around the San Fernando Valley, these are our favorite, noteworthy or most convenient hotels:
There is so much to see when visiting the CKC. We are located in Panorama
City, which is in the San Fernando Valley, a very large part of Los Angeles. So all of Los Angeles is within driving distance to you. Among the attractions you might want to visit are:
Before you head out to the California Keratoconus Center, Gianny Cardenas, our Keratoconus Coordinator, will schedule a Zoom call with you and Dr. Leonard. During that call, they will review your case, answer any questions you might have, and help you plan your visit, including questions about travel. If you haven’t yet scheduled your Keratoconus appointment, do it today! Call the California Keratoconus Center at 818-891-6711 or make an appointment online here.