Shanice Cole in action for the Richmond Black Widows (Photo courtesy Douglas Charland)
Shanice Cole has never let anything stand in the way of her passions, even her own eyes.
She is a tight end for the Black Widows, Richmond’s semiprofessional women’s football team. Cole joined the team in 2016. "I have been playing [football] since this team started,” Cole says. “Before that I was playing basketball in high school and college. The start of this team is when I started playing.”
Cole played basketball at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and also played basketball professionally in Switzerland for a time before her move to Richmond and her discovery of the Black Widows. “I always wanted to play football, but as a girl they look down upon that when you are younger,” Cole says. “I want to motivate little girls now to play more.”
In 2011, she wanted to enlist in the Air Force reserves. During the application process, it was discovered that she had an eye condition, keratoconus, which causes the dome shape of the cornea to progressively thin into a cone shape. The cornea becomes warped, which causes vision to become distorted or blurry. This condition is found in about 1 in every 2,000 people. It is progressive and is usually diagnosed in patients in their teens.
The diagnosis caused Cole’s Air Force application to be denied and left her worrying about her vision. Her fears were well-founded.
“It never makes people blind; however, it can get severe enough to make someone legally blind,” says Joseph Iuorno, a certified ophthalmologist and fellowship-trained cornea specialist with Commonwealth Eye Care Associates. Keratoconus distorts the “window” that people see through to the point it can be unsafe to drive. The cause of this disease is unknown, but keratoconus may be linked to excessive eye rubbing.
“In patients that aggressively rub their eyes, for example, people who have Down syndrome, there is a higher incidence of keratoconus,” Iuorno says. “We always ask about a strong history of eye rubbing and encourage stopping eye rubbing as much as possible.”
People are able to adapt with glasses and special contact lenses. For several years, this is how Cole lived with her keratoconus. She wore glasses and special hard contact lenses that helped her vision. The eyewear did not stop the progression of the disease, though, and it also started to interfere with playing football.
“I was wearing semipermeable contacts, like hard contacts, so I could not wear them as long. The game can last up to four hours with the warm-up,” she says.
Shanice Cole (Photo courtesy Douglas Charland)
This prompted her to look into treatment to halt the progression of the disease. There are two treatments for keratoconus, one of which is a corneal transplant. For years transplants have been the main method of combating keratoconus, but the procedure is major surgery.
“A transplant takes people out of contact sports,” Iuorno says. “You get a finger poked in the eye or a significant hit to the head, it would be devastating for a transplant. Even though it is successful, it is fragile.”
The procedure that Cole underwent to treat her condition and still be able to play football is called cross-linking. The treatment is an in-office surgery where the outer layer of the cornea is removed, then vitamin B drops are applied to the cornea in intervals for 30 minutes. The eye is then exposed to ultraviolet light for another 30 minutes with more drops applied. The end result is that the fibers of the cornea are strengthened to prevent further warping.
The procedure does not cure the disease but can stop its progression before vision becomes significantly impaired. It can be an ideal treatment for people with keratoconus who are interested in playing sports or just have an active lifestyle. Most insurance companies will cover the cost of the cross-linking procedure.
After the treatment Cole says that living with keratoconus has been easier. Her vision has improved with the aid of glasses and new fitted contacts.
“As a result of cross-linking, it helped halt the progression of the disease. But it also helped me to be fit for better contacts,” Cole says. “I now have a different lens that I can wear for eight hours or more, which also allows me to see better.”