Eye Protection FTW! Learning The Hard Way....

[EPIC SRT]

This is just a cautionary tale to remind people of the importance of wearing eye protection.

I have eye protection, but go figure....I very rarely wear it while working on my ride. Well, after what I have had to go through the last 4 days, I can honestly say that I will now always use eye protection when working, not just on the car, but with anything that warrants.

When I was working on the rear of the car, with no eye protection (mistake #1), and fabricating my resonator pocket covers etc, I ended up getting a little debris in my left eye from under the car. I was not sure what it was, but it felt like something was in my eye. I finished what I was doing, got up, went inside to check out my eye and flush it with water. It felt better when I was done. Working under the car again my eye started to bother me again, not as bad, but still felt like something was in the corner of my eye near the tear duct. After I was done for the day, I put some Visine in and called it a day (mistake #2).

The next day, Saturday, my eye had some discomfort, but was generally feeling okay, and nothing a little Visine could take care of. On that evening I did notice upon looking in th mirror that it appeared as though I had a dot on the surface of my eye right in front of the pupil. I flushed my eye with water. It was still there. I decided to just ignore it since it wasn't bothering me (mistake #3).

Got up on Sunday, my eye was feeling fine. Looked in the mirror and the dot was still there, but now it looked like I had pitting on the surface of the eye in front of the pupil. I flushed my eye again, checked it again, the dot was gone. As the day progressed, it kept feeling more and more like something was in the corner of my eye. I searched periodically and could not find anything. I should have gone to urgent care, but didn't (mistake #4). Note that the corner of my eye was getting redder and redder.

Sunday night I could not get my eye to stop watering and it kept waking me up. By 5am, I knew I had to go to the doctor (duh, you think! Damn I'm dumb). Here Is where the real fun begins:

So I get up, tell the wife she's going to have to take me to urgent care as my left eye is hurting and watery, so sensitive to light that I get a shooting pain into my forehead when my eye is exposed to light and I can't keep both eyes open because the left one would start burning even if only the right eye was open. Doctor looks at my eye and says he can see what looks to be a piece of black debris in my eye. He and another can remove it...........IF I can cooperate! It's not that I didn't want to cooperate, but they had to use a thin flexible needle to scrape the surface of my eye. Now, I have to tell you, the feeling was not a pleasant one (as if you thought it would be). The only thing I can equate it to is like having your teath cleaned by a dentist - you know, when they use a pick and scrape along your teath and you feel the pick snag on something the is still stuck on your tooth - oh yeah, nothing like that feeling on your eye!! After a few rounds of this, each followed by removing the debris with a q-tip, I ended up with no less than 7 tiny metal and dirt pieces removed from the center of my eye.

Yeah!! I'm done!!!! ...........if only that where true at this point!

At this point, I am informed that there appears to be rust on my eye from the metal fragments and I would have to go see an opthamologist to have them remove it. So I go to the eye doctor and he puts dye in my eye looks at it and says that he has to use a de-budding tool to remove the rust. Now, some of you know what it means to de-burr something. This was really no different. The tool use was a very small tool, that if magnified, might look like a stirring straw with a raspberry on one of it's ends. After several minutes (seemed like hours) later of him scraping my eye (did I mention it was on the pupil) he said we were done! He was able to remove the rust; however, I have pitting on the eye surface that may heal itself, but I would have to be under observation for the next few days to see if it is healing on it's own and to make sure there is no infection.

So, now we are to today (day 4 if you lost track) this mornings visit was good (no poking or scraping). My eye appears to be healing but I do have fluid build up in the eye that should go away as the eye heals. I hope it does, because everything is cloudy white when only using my left eye.

I have another visit tomorrow!

The tally so far:
Wife- 1 missed day of work (she had drive my dumb ass around yesterday because I couldn't really keep my eyes open)
Me- 3 missed days of work (including tomorrow)
Medical bills- $300 (that's a waist of money that could've been used for mods)

Today, my eye is much better, but is sore. I am just hoping I did no permanent damage.

Again, this could all been avoided if I would have just gotten off my lazy ass and put on some eye protection!

YOU can do what you want with my story ---- I'm just saying....

[SMosher]

ew. Hang in there man!

[Red Dog]

Glad you're ok buddy. That's why you should have went to Monterery. Just kidding of course. We would have loved for you and the family to be there.

Good lesson for all of us to remember.

[EPIC SRT]

[elee07SE]

Ouch, glad you are feeling better. that pic reminds me of navy posters warning about proper PPE (Personal Protection Equipment). don't feel too bad there are several times at work and home that I don't always do what I should. Some of us just have to learn the hard way, LOL.

[GO-SRT-GO]

OK, you sold me. I'll be wearing eye protection when I work on my Charger. I don't want to go through your experience.

[TxTwiStr09]

Originally Posted by EPIC SRT

I hear that's what your eyes can look like if you watch too much porn too!!





OK, excuse my poor attempt at humor in the midst of a very serious subject. I truly hope that there is no lasting damage, John! And, I hope all will take heed of your important message!

[bruno]

An absolute horror story for you, John, and a lesson for all the rest of us! I can't even imagine the thought of doing something to my eye that could lead to possible blindness.

I'm sure you will never forget this whole incident. We need to trust our instincts when we since something isn't right because it can all do a 180 in a short matter of time.

Sounds like you had some very good specialists to assist with the problem. Do everything you're supposed to do to ensure 100% healing and full, clear sight restored.
That photo speaks for itself....

[LUVMYRT]

I know exactly how you feel. Over the years at NUMMI I had to have rust removed from my eye on several occasions.

[Shad Did It]

As a contact lens wearer, I am pretty good about protecting my eyes, but after your story I will now be very good at it. Thanx for the heads up, John. And get well soon.