On Thursday I was repairing a '46 Chevy pickup grille for the chrome plate shop. It is very tedious work and has to be perfect, I was filling holes with silicon bronze then metal finishing. When I got home I felt some irritation in my eye (I have only one eye to begin with) and swabbed it out with Qtip. Friday the irritation got worse so I bought that eyewash in the cup stuff and washed it repeadly with only temporary relief. By Saturday (yesterday) I knew I was in trouble and needed a doctor, he saw me immediatly and found a piece of metal in my cornea that he removed with a needle. Rust had started to form so he used his equivalent of a die grinder to clean the edges and then packed the hole with a specail membrane (Ovarian?) to promote growth & healing. He covered it with a temporary lemse to act like a bandaid. I am waiting now to see him this morning at 11:30, I hope the lense can come off because I can't see anything up close. The keyboard is a blurr. My eye is working better today, the bright lights physically hurt yesterday and I couldn't see anything. Today is overcast so I am able to drive but it's only because I know th eroads, signs etc. I'm not venturing out anywhere. I'm at the shop now - I had let it yesterday with lights on and furnace running - and after I leave the doctor it is a short trip to the open pit barbque for a set of babyback ribs then to home to watch football - I hope. The first thing I buy tomorrow is a set of magnified goggles, I've learned my lesson.
I had the same thing happen when working on my 29 roadster many years ago.That process with the Dremal type tool and the rust was the same for me.....no fun. I healed just fine, hope you do too.
Word. Been there. Not fun. Eye protection & face shields are part of the territory at my place. Zero tolerance. Only took me one trip to the ER many years ago. It ain't no picnic, and second chances aren't guaranteed. I was preached PPE for 40yrs on my job. Seen it work numerous times. Turned me into a champion of it. Glad you're on the mend. Rust in the peeper's a bitch.
I have had this happen to me twice. I think I finally learned the last time. Regular eyeglasses only seem to attract crap to your eye, not help prevent it. I sure hope you come through it fine and get back to normal. Eyesight is something no one wants to lose.
Been there too. Was doing exhaust work on a school bus, had safety glasses on. Job was done and was cleaning up. Washed my face and rust fell into my eye as I was washing. Did everything right and still got hurt. Eye healed up pretty quick and working as good as ever. Now I brush off first with eyes closed!
When I think of how I worked on cars 30 years ago (as a hobbyist), I'm amazed I didn't hurt myself. I totally agree that eye protection is a must, but also respiratory protection. I'm not just talking about when painting, but I wear a respirator with any dust generating activity where I could be breathing grinder wheel particles, or wire wheel waste such as old seam sealer, insulation, rust, etc. The lesson I learned this summer was that with my unventilated garage, these particles would stay airborne for some period of time. When removing my respirator after the "event", the air was still filled with dust. I hope your eye fully heals, oj.
Eyes, ears, respirator, and gloves when dealing with chemicals. Yeah, it's not the old way, but I'd like to live to enjoy being old without going blind,or deaf, or ending up with cancer of the something or another that could have been prevented with a twenty cent pair of gloves. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Hope your recovery is quick, and you can get back to work on your project. Has anyone else noticed the face masks used on some of the car TV shows, they look like a crash helmet, have to look them up and see what the deal is. Bob
Eye accidents are serious business! I had a gutter come down from a house, missed my actual eyeball but ripped my lower eye lid from the inside corner and down across my soft tissue. I was rushed to Mass Eye and ear, spent over ten hours is surgery where they re tucked my eye fat and stitched me up. All in all it was 68 tiny stitches. I do have a pic... lol
After a lifetime of work as a professional welder fabricator, I know the value of PPE. I never do anything in my garage without a respirator and safety glasses, ear plugs and a clear face shield. Different combinations of all of these depending on what I am doing. You are very lucky, with only one eye, I am glad that we were not being told that you were going to have to learn how to use the white cane to get around.
I've had at least a dozen slivers removed from my eyes over the years. I used to think my eyes were magnetic. I always wore goggles or a face shield too. The doc thought maybe the slivers were sticking in my hair and fell off at the end of the day when I pulled my shirt off. I don't have to worry about that anymore since there's no hair left. I only had a rust spot once and I remember getting that ground off as well. The cornea grew back just fine.
I am glad you are ok and hope your vision returns soon. The standards in the last companies where I worked for grinding, zipcuts, and wire wheel is a face shield over safety glasses. The face shield is protection from a wire wheel or a zip cut flying apart or if it kicks. The face shield deflects any crud flying off the work. We had a welder catch a zip cut across the nose for a couple stitches. A pipefitter had a wire wheel explode and part of his face was a wire porcupine. Lucky it was low and away from his eyes. No face shields. It is safer to have the double protection. Many guys don't like wearing goggles because of fogging but there are go over safety glasses for prescription glasses. I use a pair of magnifier cheaters so I have the same up close vision looking up or down with the go overs. I can put them over my bifocals when I want to use my regular glasses. The bifocals drive me nuts. The safety go overs are cheap and so are the reading cheaters. I have cheaters of different powers everywhere. On my last couple jobs we were taught after doing dirty work how to stay safe. Go to a safe place. The process is bend over while looking down, eyes closed and remove the hard hat or any hat so dirt falls down away from the eyes. Keep looking down, eyes closed and remove the safety glasses then dust the face. Good to go.
Been there done that. I made my own set with some cheep reading glasses. I traced the lens pattern and cut that out and popped the lens in.
would have thought that with only one good eye you would be the most cautious guy in the world and use eye protection for most everything - take care, and enjoy the sights of Christmas
Re must be a hell of a lot of guys around Vancouver that have suffered the same type of injury and never fully recovered judging by how some these knuckleheads drive!
Amazing you are doing as well as you are,with only one eye and you didn't seek medical treatment sooner. As a teenager I was employed by Singer Corporation and was running a pneumatic screw gun and one broke with so much force that a sliver shattered my safety shield and I was in a great deal of pain and discomfort.. I was immediately led to the eye wash station and then to the plant nurse who made arrangement for a trip to the emergency room. My cornea had a sliver of metal and a piece of plastic from my safety shield was in-bedded in the corner of my eye. I wore a patch for a week and to this day I am almost anal when it comes to protecting my eyes. HRP
. Been down that road more than once, that was my first experience when a Doctor said, " you might have mild discomfort" that means, Hurts like Hell ! I always did and do wear safety glasses, yet the crap can find its way into your eyes. Best wishes for a Complete recovery !
Yikes! Worst eye injury I ever had wasn't car related. I was running an excavator on a tree farm, started lifting a tree up and noticed the top was stuck under another tree. I didn't want to break the top off, so I jumped out of the machine and went to move the other tree. I didn't realize the first tree was under tension, as soon as I moved the tree on top of it, it sprang up and caught me in the face, full force, knocked me on my ass. Got up, my eye hurt a little bit, but not too bad, went back to what I was doing. Within about 5 minutes, my eye was watering profusely, and I wasn't safe operating equipment, so I went into the office, and told them what had happened, and I was going home for the day. Rinsed my eye at the eye wash station and drove home, laid down on the couch. I was figuring I would sleep on it, and if it was bad in the morning, I would call in sick and go to the DR.Within an hour I was in AGONY. Called my doctor, and took a cab, I couldn't drive. Got to the Dr., I had cut the cornea, and there was pine pitch in the cut. He told me that if I had waited till morning I almost certainly would have lost my eye.
Same here, very uncomfortable, healed good, hopefully you will as well! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Not as careful as I should be but the older I get the more I think about it. Getting much better at wearing safety glasses. Got some metal in my eye a few years ago, finally couldn't take it anymore and went to the ER, doc there scrapped it and the rust out with a scalpel. Year or two later I was having my eyes checked, that doctor wanted to know what hack had been scrapping my eye, turned out now I have permanent scar tissue. He told me to never go to an ER with an eye problem, the ER docs don't have the experience to deal with eyes properly. For what it's worth, I joke I wear safety contact lenses. I wear the soft ones, every once in a while I'll get a piece of metal stuck on one, usually never notice them till they start to rust. Throw the contact away, pop in a fresh one and good to go, I'd rather have it stuck in the contact then the eye.
Hope your eye gets better. It sounds like it is. I have four sets of eye protection hanging in plain sight in my garage. I even make others wear them when I am grinding or doing something that requires the wear. I believe in eye protection. I also have a couple pair of military grade ballistic glasses that I wear in my garage. They were issued for this war and they work! We had troops taking blasts and while they were peppered the glasses saved their sight. Man! There would be shrapnel and garbage all over their faces but when we would take those glasses off, the eye area was clear and clean. You can buy them on the market now. Best things ever. I know that I never want to be called a pirate....
Mine was an aluminum sliver...thought I got it out. Two days later, shapes were getting fuzzy...third day, I went to the eye doc, because all I could see was gray. NO SHAPES, just a gray color... Eye doc called two guys from Stanford, they 'looked' into the center, scar tissue had nearly filled the cornea. The main doctor said he was going to give me a pair of injections in the eye... This doctor was a 'ringer' for Bill Murray, (we had just seen 'Stars & Stripes' the week before) so I said something like "You're kidding, of course..." He almost jumped down my throat...my young wife said, "Sit there and bite the bullet, Michael..." She never calls me that, so I knew she was serious. Injections were painless, but the eye drops that wife Joey administered? She said, "These might sting..." I went over backwards, overstuffed easy chair and all! Really. Stung worse than the damned yellow jacket that got me under my '47...YEOW! ...and kept on 'giving'! But after the quick sale of my mild custom '53 Vicky and no-rust '40 Merc Coupe, I regained my eyesight after a couple of weeks of wearing my groovy black eye patch... Great conversation starter...but HELL to drive with! Nearly rear ended 2 different cars with my F100, depth perception was ZILCH without both of these Baby Browns... Thanks, Dr. Murray.
This thread and the stories here are a great reminder! Worn glasses since grade school, and when I first started messing with cars, grinders, power tools and the like I saw how the lenses in my glasses got pitted up and scratched. That turned me into an early adopter of face shields and safety goggles. So far, so good. Hope everything turns out okay for you, oj.
First of all, I hope you are going to be OK. I have had eye surgeries not from accidents but from ???. Very scary to not know if your vision is going to be OK. Now, my point. For many years I managed shops and service technicians. I had a safety rule that goggles be worn at all times inside the shop. Also when doing drilling or grinding type of work they had to wear a face shield too. Oh they pissed and moaned but did it. I NEVER had an eye injury on my watch. Luck? maybe but I think the safety rules helped. Be safe out there guys. Too much at stake.
At work 10 years ago I was standing by a press brake when the forming tooling shifted and shot a sliver 1 1/2" long the size of a needle through my eye lid and through my eye. I had 5 hours of laser surgery to get it removed. I use PPE in my shop at all times.
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