I take a selfie a day to check my eyes are OK
LIKE so many people her age, Lynsey Scott is no stranger to a selfie.
But the reason the 36-year-old takes a picture of herself every day is strictly for the good of her health.
The Glasgow woman has an overactive immune system that’s resulted in a strange side-effect – both of her eyes have burst in the last three years.
The admin worker has now had six eye transplants in a nightmare period which left her fearing for her sight.
“My immune system means I have eczema and asthma and I’ve always had thinning of the corneas,” explained Lynsey, from Glasgow.
“I had a wee ulcer on my eye and one morning I touched my eyelid and it felt soft – I realised my finger had gone in too far.
“I knew that wasn’t right and I couldn’t really see out of it, so I went to hospital and they rushed me into surgery.
“My cornea had perforated and they hoped to super-glue it, but it didn’t work so I needed a transplant.
“That was in May 2014. It didn’t go too well. I got an infection and the doctors weren’t sure what was happening.
“I was getting lots of tests and was on different medication, but the cornea was becoming whiter and whiter and I couldn’t see out of it.”
Four months later, Lynsey required another cornea transplant in her left eye, but the problems continued. “It was May 2015 and I had no vision in my left eye due to cataracts caused by anti-rejection steroid drops.
“One day I moved my head forward and heard a plop – it was my right eye bursting. I’d three or four weeks with virtually no vision, which was scary.” Lynsey needed a new cornea in her right eye, but this failed to take. In total she’s had four transplants on that eye, with the final one being fitted last January.
“My doctor at Gartnavel says he’s terrified when he sees my name on his appointments list because he doesn’t know what will be coming next,” Lynsey smiled.
One of the most unpleasant procedures Lynsey went through was when she developed a fungal infection behind her eye.
“I was taken to theatre, wide awake, and they made a slit in my eye and put a scalpel underneath. It was the most horrible feeling, like a knife on bone.”
Although Lynsey currently has almost no vision in her right eye, she’s praying she’s over the worst of it.
Now she hopes highlighting her case will encourage more people to donate their eyes when they die.
“People don’t like the thought of doing it and I can understand that.
“I was lucky that there were corneas available despite all of my transplants being done as an emergency, but that’s not always the case.
“I know someone in Fife who had a transplant postponed because there wasn’t any donor tissue available.”
Lynsey now keeps a constant, close check on her eyes.
“Because my vision isn’t great I can’t see detail too well when I look in the mirror, so I take a selfie every day and that lets me zoom in and keep a check,” she added.