I posted this over in the AutoX/RR section this morning and wanted to put the reminder up here to since a lot of ya'll do your own work.

 

I am guilty of this also, like I’m sure many others are too. I have two nice pair of goggles in my garage, still in their packaging. I am going to take them and put them in the middle of my workbench. Thanks for reminding us of what we should already know.

Thanks,

Clayton from Las Vegas

 

For my whole life I never wore safty glasses, just shop class and the gun range. Maybe thats because someone made me and it was required.

I got a metal splinter 1/1000th of a MM near my eye. Lets say I now have a nice pair of yellow/brown tinted glasses.

2pk at Lowes for $10

 

Good info... I always keep several pairs of safety glasses around and use them whenever "an eye injury task" is at hand.

VR

 

I'm guilty too. I have safety goggles/glasses, just get lazy most of the time, which is a poor excuse, just human nature I guess.

 

I never work on the car without safety glasses.
I even wear dark tinted safety glasses when moving the lawn and using the weed wacker....

 

Hey guys,

As if you needed any more examples of why to wear glasses....This is long but a true story about me.

In June of 2002, I was at work, trying to remove some large bolts from a fixture. They were rusted, frozen solid in place. I used heat, penetrating oil , you name it. Began to smack the part with a hammer to help free up the stuck bolts.
On the third whack, it felt like someone just had punched me in the face. My right eye was instantly killing me, I dropped to my knees, grabbed a clean towel, held it up to my eye, rubbed it a little..when I pulled it away, it was all wet. At first I thought it was blood, but it turned out to be the vitreous (sp?) fluid from my eyeball. Many of you may not even realize your eye is filled with this clear fluid. I have had pieces of metal get in my eyes before, usually removed them myself with a Q-tip, annoying but no big deal...this was obviously much more serious.

I went to the bathroom to look in the mirror and see how bad my eye looked, or see what was in it. It looked fine, but it was then I first realized when I closed my left eye, I couldn't see anything...total blackness.

I was taken to the ER, where they examined my eye, and ran some catscans on it. In consultations with an opthomologist, they determined I needed immediate eye surgery. I was transported to another hospital about an hour away.
All this time I was in absolute misery. it wasn't pain so much as it was like an itch I couldn't scratch. On top of that, they made me lay flat the entire time, and not raise my head for any reason...I wasn't sure why, but I later learned they feared my eyeball might collapse.
Once at the new hospital, I met with the surgeon who informed me I would be operated on in about an hour. I was knocked out, and in surgery for over 4 hours. When I woke up, I felt good, sure I was pumped full of morphine, but the eye felt great. It was heavily patched, so I didn't know yet about my vision. I stayed overnight in the hospital, and was released the next morning. I felt great at that point, no pain or discomfort whatsoever...I was relieved everything was "fixed".
Had an appt with the opthomoligist that morning, he removed the bandages, examined and tested my eye, and then broke the bad news to me:

"I'm sorry, but you will never see out of that eye again" is what he said. <gulp>

He went on to explain all he had done to repair the damage to the eye...but the minute sliver of metal that penetrated it actually passed completely through my eye, and severed the optical nerve behind my eye. There was no repairing it, or even getting to the metal sliver w/o completely removing my eyeball, and he said even then chances were slim. He decided not to do that in the surgery, because he felt although the eye was useless, that it would still appear normal, and it still tracked well with my good eye, so he felt that would be the best option for me.

Whatever hit my eye is still in there somewhere. I can never have an MRI on my head because of this. On top of all that, my right eye had always been my strong eye with perfect vision. My left eye had always been very weak and blurry.

I struggled for a couple months afterwards just to see well enough to function and live somewhat normally. I certainly couldn't drive, and my depth perception was wayy messed up. Had this happened to my left eye, I would probably would have been fine.

My left eye did strengthen and improve considerably within a few months. My normal optometrist said that was impossible, but it did. He originally prescribed me glasses to correct the vision in my left eye, which I hated wearing, especially when driving, because they overcompensated my messed-up depth perception. I quit wearing them after about a year, as my left eye continued to get better. Last May, my left eye tested well enough that I don't even need an eyeglass restriction on my driver's license, I was ecstatic about that. The doc was amazed too, and finally agreed the left eye was getting stronger.

But it'll never be the same. I've 'adapted" to the depth perception problem, but it will always be there for me. As far as long distances and driving, it's fine, but at arm's reach is where it messes me up. To this day, people hand me items, and "I miss". It can be somewhat embarassing. Catching an item someone throws at me is out of the question.

Many of you know me personally, but I think only one or two CF people know this about me. I don't advertise it, nor am I writing all this for sympathy. The one important thing I learned from this accident, is that we all hear what amazing miracle fixes can be done with eyes these days...I found out there's still many things about the eye that simply cannot be fixed.

I just don't want anyone else to go through what I did. Please, wear your glasses, because blindness SUCKS!. I actually was wearing glasses when this happened, but with no side shields (I always hated them). They almost definitely would have prevented this.

Lancer for this reminder.

 

Thanks for the story. I think this amplifies the reason to wear goggles. From now on I will be wearing them for everything except putting gas in my car. Tom, You are lucky that you left eye kind of took over for your vision.

Can you define “an eye injury task”?

Thanks,

Clayton from Las Vegas

 

I think he means if he is doing a task with a risk of eye injury, he wears eye protection.

I also am lax on this issue. Though I wear eyeglasses, I know they are inadequate protection and I need to buy some safety glasses too.

 

I had a really close call while watching a guy work on my car at the body shop (shaving a part of the new bumper down) when a chunk came out and hit my lower eyelid. It didn't feel good, but I'm sure it would've been much worse had it hit my actual eye. Some type of eye protection is better than no protection at all. If you don't have safety goggles handy, at least throw on a pair of sunglasses.

 

I always used eye protection when working on something mechanically but never even thought about it for cutting my lawn. At least until last summer.

It was very dry and I it a patch of especially dry grass. It flew in the air and some got in my eye. It started hurting. I rubbed it with my oil and gas covered fingers and then it started burning too. I washed my eye out for about 5 minutes and the burning stopped but it hurt so bad I could not open it and when I forced my eyelid open I could not see much.

It was in the evening and I have three small kids so my niece came over and took me to the ER. They looked at my eye and told me that "normally we would just refer you to an Optomitrist on Monday (it was a Friday) but your eye is the worst I've ever seen so I'm calling her in tonight." I complained about the pain and he brought in some numbing eye drops. The doctor left them on the bench near me so put drops in every 15 - 20 minutes or so when the pain would come back.

The eye doctor came, told me how badly my eye was scratched, and told me that any vision loss "should be minimal." I asked about getting some of those good eye drops and she told me "no, those things will melt your cornea if you use too much." Not what you want to hear after dumping that stuff in your eye for the past 2 hours.

Anyway, my vision is pretty much normal now and I wear full eye protection whenever I'm doing anything even remotely dangerous. Up until this incident I would have been more concerned about my feet and hands than my eyes, but it taught me a good lesson.

Just thought I would pass it along.

 

I know youre not asking for sympathy, but man Im sorry, to completely lose use of an eye sounds horrible.

 

damn...some of these stories really make ya think...

 

When I was 18 years old I worked for Olson Wire Co. in Baltimore MD. While using a small trimmer machine my boss Mr. Olson caught me without my saftey galsses and cussed me out, told me to wear them or get fired. Just as he walked away(After I put my Saftey Galsses on) a small piece of wire hit the lense and cracked it, they where the thin plastic type. He then continued to explain why I needed to always wear my Saftey Glasses as I stood there in a cold swet. I always wear them to this day, I have 2 pair of prescription Saftey Glasses so I can have 1 at home and 1 at work.

 

Im so sorry to hear about your tragic event, one can only imagine. I give you much respect for telling your story which i know has changed all who have read it.....it has for me thank you Sir...