[marlboro180]

Just a reminder as some of us elves head of to the workshop to make some presents for the holidays- Wear your eye protection!

I bring this up because just two days ago I was working on some things in the shop that involved metalwork and something went wrong.

Having had an eye injury or two in the past, even though I have always been real careful about welding / grinding and wearing the right hood/ glasses/ eyewear. I even made a hood that attaches to the back of my welding helmet that should protect the errant welding BB from getting behind the helmet and to my face, but alas , it did not....

While welding up some parts, I ended up with a hot BB bouncing into my hood from the side , off the back of my glasses and then burned itself right into my eyeball. It actually was not that painful , it really just felt like a bit of dust in there initially, and I kept right on working.... That changed as the night progressed and I noticed my vision in the dominant eye beginning to get " swimmy" , and I could no longer see all that well. After yet another look in the mirror, I saw the little fleck of metal, stuck at the 4 o'clock postion on the cornea. My attempts to relieve that little sucker from my eyeball failed, Mrs' M tried and failed too and she's pretty good at this kinda stuff ( she's an NP) so I thought I would just tough it out for the night. I hate the ER at 11PM, I know the drill there....It would be 4-6 hours before the eye guy could be there....

A restless night, the eye swelling, and the pain in the AM was enough to send me in. I was lucky enough to find a referral ( from the eye trauma place) to a bit more "local" optometrist , who had the misfortune of me in her chair .

After just 5 minutes, she had BB # 1 outta there, then burred out the rust ring surrounding it. As she was "dremeling" out the ring, she ran into BB #2 that was previously missed, and even deeper. The pit and rust ring that one left behind was even deeper , she said , the worst she'd encountered in quite a while.

As we talked ( I think she was trying to keep me from being such a "Nancy " about grinding on my eye ) she asked about my use of protection. Well, trying to keep a straight face, I assured her that I protect my eyes as well as I can, and sometimes these things happen. Her response was that at this time of year, people get rushed , and forget to use the right eye protection . Me, I was wearing my prescription glasses w/ impact lenses, and a welding hood with additional hood over the top of that- that's my norm.

On my way out out of their friendly office, I added a geeky pair of over the glasses kind of polycarb driving glasses ( you know , the kind really old people wear ) to wear under my helmet in addition to my regular glasses , they seem to offer some additional side protection which I clearly needed. The bright yellow tint of the new geeky glasses actually turns the green welding hood tint back to regular daylight colors when you look through both of them at the same time, kinda funky actually. :fing32:

The monetary cost of it all was not out of this world- but still I am looking at new lenses for my regular glasses ( they have burned in craters from the BB's) , the office visit , the new geeky glasses, and the loss of production for a day in the shop, and reduced work for a spell. Add it all up, and it's quite a few bucks....


All in all, my misfortune was not anywhere near as bad as it could have been, and I am happy to still have my vision in my dominant eye. Mine will heal, hopefully with no bad scarring in the cornea . raying:

Not to sound preachy , but please, please , please wear anything you can to protect yours eyes. :thanku:

 

[LilysDad]

Grriinnnnding on your eye???

Hey! Staying in bed with a pillow over your head will keep out most
BBs!

 

[marlboro180]

Grinding? ^^^ Yeah- it was a little precision battery operated Dremel looking thing. She and I joked that at least power tools were involved in fixing my eye. .:duh:

 

[Aksarben96]

So glad for you that your eye will heal , very scary to think how quickly it could have resulted in far more damage .

 

[Yamaguy]

Your story is goning to make me rethink my eye protection in the future. I wear glasses all the time, and have always feet confident that just my glasses were enough to protect my eyes. I do a bit of welding and grinding, and have laways been safe, but that can change at anytime. Thanks for the post, and I hope you are healed soon.

 

[sanfordanddaughters]

Good to hear you got your eye fixed up without permanent damage. You mentioned you bought the over the glasses style to add side protection. Depending on the style of the arms on your prescription safety glasses you may be able to get clip on side shields to fit. That is what I did when I finally went the prescription safety glasses route.

 

[marlboro180]

Thanks for the well wishes guys, and things are getting better. Kinda sensitive to the light, but I did continue welding for just a few hours today. ( Doc said it was okay if I was real careful) Kept a stronger than normal fan crusin' to keep the smoke even further away from the eyes than normal, though sometimes that can be hard to do. Lots 'o eye antibiotic eye drops , some sort of soothing one's too.... and the swelling and pain is way down. Though looking at a computer screen is kinda hard right now...:dunno:

Yamaguy, I have always worn polycarbs for impact protection, and they have worked for that in the past. A lot of what I do involves sawing materials, or is just dusty/ grimy etc. in general, so I always have my glasses on. Seems like this hot little BB had a bank shot all planned out, and he made it right in the pocket..... I am rethinking a few things as well.:fing32:


Sanford- I'll be looking into those with the built in side protection for sure, thanks for the tip. I like the one's I got, because they really hug my forehead too, and there is just a slight gap at the lower part of the frame at the cheekbone. Ever seen anything like that in a script? - The "over the glasses" ones were kinda a stop - gap measure. I even went over to another welding shop to see if they had even better stuff, but nope. :dunno:

I gotta say though, the white light is nice through the yellow geek glasses. I'll see if I can get a pic of that.:fing32:

 

[ford 8401]

after reading this
im getting some clear safety goggles to wear under my welding helmet
i have stuff bonce around in my safety glasses all the time

 

[marlboro180]

Here's a couple pics for 'ya , I'll leave out the eye grinder tool shot, it makes me squeemish!

First one is of the crater(s) in the eyeglass lens, second one shows my little red hood that is attached to the welding helmet , along with the super cool glasses .

I was welding and grinding a bit today with a lot more confidence knowing that the 'ole eyes were better protected..:fing32:

 

[TAHOE99]

I'm in the same boat with the glasses thing, you would think everything is good having the hood on and all. Back years ago at work when they made us all start wearing safety glasses in the lab, I actually got more chemicals in my eye than before, I think they were bouncing off my glass and more into my eye, I dunno.
I also had a trip to the local urgent care, was using a fiber cut off disc to work on something under my car, got some "dust" in my eye I thought, just had my regular glasses on. Ended up next day in the office, Doc had to pick out 4 pieces of fiber from my cornea that got imbedded. Luckily no rust, but now I wear a full face shield anytime I'm grinding or cutting.

 

[Vonrow]

This brings up memories of all the work I've had done on my own eyes. Sometimes you just get hit. Even if you ARE wearing protective gear and being "safe." I know exzactly what eye-drilling work feels like. Spotting that rust-ring on your lense, the headaches & wonky vision when crap gets in the eye.... ya. My worst case was a 1/4" piece of concrete floor that they had to remove. It involved sliceing the lense & "fliping it outta the way" so they could get it out. To this day it's left a perfectly visible scar in my left eye--a red line of bloodvessels about 3/8" long. And you can easily see it from a distance. Kinda looks like my left eye is alway bloodshot. Credit to all the doctors who've done their work--as I can still see out of both eyes.

 

[marlboro180]

Fiber disc chunks, concrete chunks in the eyes- Ouch! Glad you guys are still good to go as well, and those docs know their stuff.

Tahoe- a full face shield is a great idea to wear.

Vonrow- My right eye got twitchy just thinking about your ordeal with cutting back the lens. Yep, I'm a nancy .:ROF

Amazing how quickly the eye heals- mine is getting better and better, and as of this morning it only feels like I have a soft pebble in there, not an abrasive rock.:fing32:

 

[Vonrow]

ya, the worst part about "most" eye work like that...... is that you are wide awake while the whole time. as if haveing the junk in your eye wasn't bad enough... you get to blurrily "watch" them work.... and hear the "drill" as it feeds on the rust...

and you can 't help but hope the doctor has had a breath mint....

 

[ford 8401]

ya, the worst part about "most" eye work like that...... is that you are wide awake while the whole time. as if haveing the junk in your eye wasn't bad enough... you get to blurrily "watch" them work.... and hear the "drill" as it feeds on the rust...

and you can 't help but hope the doctor has had a breath mint....

and hope they can concentrate with the smell of your own breath :maddd:

 

[TAHOE99]

....Amazing how quickly the eye heals- mine is getting better and better, and as of this morning it only feels like I have a soft pebble in there, not an abrasive rock.:fing32:

Yea, my wife had laser surgery, they cut back the outer flap then just laid it back over, no stiches, glue or anytihng, it healed back within hours.

I forgot about concrete, had that crap in there too. Between dust of mixing it and using a chisel to break it out of something.
How careless we can be sometimes.

 

[marlboro180]

How careless we can be sometimes.

Yeah, I guess that what I'm getting at, as some of us , myself included, kinda hurry along to get the regular work done, then rush into the shop/ garage/ mancave to do some secret elf- like work . Making gifts for me is a lot of fun, but sometimes the safety gear just seems like it's taking extra time. Slowing down, paying attention....even more so. 'Course, it's hard to move slower than dirt ...:ROF

p.s how did your wife's laser surgery turn out? Looking into that for Mr's M....:dunno:

 

[PigBear]

I just thought of this thread over the weekend. I couldn't find my safety glasses so I was wearing my full face flip down shield making some Xmass presents on the table saw.

A small piece of wood shot up, bounced off the shield, and flew out into the driveway. Glad I was wearing it and not the glasses, that would have hurt!