77GreenMachine
Phillip Talton
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2010
- Location
- Trinity, NC
I'm Pretty sure there is similar threads on here but I figured I'd remind everyone how important this is again. Saturday I was using a Saw-Zall to cut off a leaf spring bracket on my YJ. I was laying on my back under the jeep, with safety glasses on but I still managed to get a piece of metal in my eye. It hit my cheek and bounced behind my glasses into my eye, and was quite hot. @adamk was there helping me and we stopped right away, and I went inside and managed to get the tiniest piece of metal out of my eye. Seriously it was the size of a spec of dust. It hurt like hell and felt like there was more in it, but I carried on and felt better within 20 minutes. That night I made dinner, and right before we went back to the garage it flared up and began bothering me again. I looked at it again, ran a Q-Tip thru my eye lid with no luck, applied some eye drops and went back to the garage where it felt okay again.
Sunday morning I woke up fine. Made breakfast for the kids and chilled out but within an hour of being up it flared up again. This time much worse, and it never went away. Eyeball constantly leaking tears and felt like I had sand in my eye. My buddies urged me to go to the doctor right away. I did not want to go to the ER, and I didn't want my wife to have to sit in the van with the kids for who knows how long at the urgent care. So my #1 Knee Grow @CasterTroy came to the rescue and hauled me and my leaking eyeball to the Urgent Care in Randleman. Me and Troy both celebrated 2 birthdays while we waited there. A couple years older, I was finally called back and by this time I could no longer open my left eye. Doc put some numbing drops in my eye and within 30 seconds I could have kissed him. First time I felt relief in hours. He prodded around and didn't see anything still in my eye, but then put dye in it and looked with a black light. Once he done that, his whole demeanor changed and he said "Holy cow! You have a huge, deep abrasion"
He put some goop in my eye ball and told me not to work, go home and rest, don't open my eyes as much as I could help it. No TV, no phone, no reading, etc. and told me to come back around 4-5 the next day. So Troy hauled me up to CVS to drop off my prescription for antibiotic ointment and some Cook-Out. I could at least feed the man for ruining his day with my cry for help. I was feeling much better, but about 15 minutes after leaving the numbing stuff started to wear off and I felt worse than before. And riding in a car with my eyes closed is a fantastic way to get car sick. If that ride had been about 5 minutes longer I probably would have hurled. By now my left eye lid was swollen shut.
By the time Troy got me home I was in more pain than any other point since this happened. I waited a while before I could eat. By now, it hurt unexplainably bad to open the eye that wasn't even affected, since it caused my left eye to move as well it would rub and cause awful pain that would make me cringe and want to crawl out of my skin. I took Benadryl to sleep the day away. Once I couldn't sleep anymore I just sat in bed, bored, wore out all the music on my phone, and thought about how people must feel when they lose their sight completely forever. I can't imagine dealing with that.
Monday morning rolled around to be no better really. It still hurt awfully bad to open my good eye, so I was forced to leave them shut all day. My wife did not trust the Urgent Care place and wanted me to see a real eye Doctor so she got me an appointment around 2pm. Once there my wife lead me in like a blind man (cause I basically was) I got in to see the Doc and he looked me over good. He confirmed the same, deep cut, but in more detail. I had a deep gash, as he described, right on my cornea. Had in been just a little deeper it could have been much worse. He also said there was basically a flap of skin in there from the cut and that's why I had so much discomfort. So he removed that and put a contact in my eye. The contact acts like a band-aid covering the cut. He'd also given me numbing drops as well as dilated that eye.. I left there feeling amazing, able to see pretty good without excruciating pain for the first time in over 24 hours. An hour later that all wore off again and it felt bad, but nothing like before.
This morning I awoke to a crusted shut eye. Once showered up and clean, most of the swelling in my eye lid had gone down and feels wayyyy better. I am working from home today, able to see just fine with only minor discomfort that feels like I have an eye lash in my eye. Things are a touch blurry from my left eye and I'm still sensitive to bright light. I go back to the eye Doc today at 3, and feel good enough to drive myself. I expect to be back to normal tomorrow. While short lived, that was an awful experience, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. My 2 knee surgeries weren't as bad it seemed.
I share all of that with you to encourage you to ALWAYS wear safety glasses. Again, I was wearing them but it happened anyway. I will be ordering safety goggles today, along with a face shield, and more glasses with the foam gasket. I know the face shields get scratched and you can't see good, but they're cheap to replace over and over again. I'm several hundred dollars into doctor visits now, that would have bought a lot of protection, and I'd spend thousands not to feel that pain and discomfort again!
Huge shout out to all my homies that were checking on me, praying for me, and called to chat and help pass the time.
Sunday morning I woke up fine. Made breakfast for the kids and chilled out but within an hour of being up it flared up again. This time much worse, and it never went away. Eyeball constantly leaking tears and felt like I had sand in my eye. My buddies urged me to go to the doctor right away. I did not want to go to the ER, and I didn't want my wife to have to sit in the van with the kids for who knows how long at the urgent care. So my #1 Knee Grow @CasterTroy came to the rescue and hauled me and my leaking eyeball to the Urgent Care in Randleman. Me and Troy both celebrated 2 birthdays while we waited there. A couple years older, I was finally called back and by this time I could no longer open my left eye. Doc put some numbing drops in my eye and within 30 seconds I could have kissed him. First time I felt relief in hours. He prodded around and didn't see anything still in my eye, but then put dye in it and looked with a black light. Once he done that, his whole demeanor changed and he said "Holy cow! You have a huge, deep abrasion"
He put some goop in my eye ball and told me not to work, go home and rest, don't open my eyes as much as I could help it. No TV, no phone, no reading, etc. and told me to come back around 4-5 the next day. So Troy hauled me up to CVS to drop off my prescription for antibiotic ointment and some Cook-Out. I could at least feed the man for ruining his day with my cry for help. I was feeling much better, but about 15 minutes after leaving the numbing stuff started to wear off and I felt worse than before. And riding in a car with my eyes closed is a fantastic way to get car sick. If that ride had been about 5 minutes longer I probably would have hurled. By now my left eye lid was swollen shut.
By the time Troy got me home I was in more pain than any other point since this happened. I waited a while before I could eat. By now, it hurt unexplainably bad to open the eye that wasn't even affected, since it caused my left eye to move as well it would rub and cause awful pain that would make me cringe and want to crawl out of my skin. I took Benadryl to sleep the day away. Once I couldn't sleep anymore I just sat in bed, bored, wore out all the music on my phone, and thought about how people must feel when they lose their sight completely forever. I can't imagine dealing with that.
Monday morning rolled around to be no better really. It still hurt awfully bad to open my good eye, so I was forced to leave them shut all day. My wife did not trust the Urgent Care place and wanted me to see a real eye Doctor so she got me an appointment around 2pm. Once there my wife lead me in like a blind man (cause I basically was) I got in to see the Doc and he looked me over good. He confirmed the same, deep cut, but in more detail. I had a deep gash, as he described, right on my cornea. Had in been just a little deeper it could have been much worse. He also said there was basically a flap of skin in there from the cut and that's why I had so much discomfort. So he removed that and put a contact in my eye. The contact acts like a band-aid covering the cut. He'd also given me numbing drops as well as dilated that eye.. I left there feeling amazing, able to see pretty good without excruciating pain for the first time in over 24 hours. An hour later that all wore off again and it felt bad, but nothing like before.
This morning I awoke to a crusted shut eye. Once showered up and clean, most of the swelling in my eye lid had gone down and feels wayyyy better. I am working from home today, able to see just fine with only minor discomfort that feels like I have an eye lash in my eye. Things are a touch blurry from my left eye and I'm still sensitive to bright light. I go back to the eye Doc today at 3, and feel good enough to drive myself. I expect to be back to normal tomorrow. While short lived, that was an awful experience, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. My 2 knee surgeries weren't as bad it seemed.
I share all of that with you to encourage you to ALWAYS wear safety glasses. Again, I was wearing them but it happened anyway. I will be ordering safety goggles today, along with a face shield, and more glasses with the foam gasket. I know the face shields get scratched and you can't see good, but they're cheap to replace over and over again. I'm several hundred dollars into doctor visits now, that would have bought a lot of protection, and I'd spend thousands not to feel that pain and discomfort again!
Huge shout out to all my homies that were checking on me, praying for me, and called to chat and help pass the time.
