Eye protection

[fasteddie313]

Yeah lame subject I know, but I have never really paid attention to it until now..

I spent the first half of my day today getting a chunk of metal dug out of the cornea of my left eye, over the iris..

First doctor this morning tried getting it out with a Q tip, went for a metal poker tool and tried some more, he went and got a second doctor and tried some more.

After about a half hour of them trying they finally gave up and sent me immediately to a specialist that doesn't take my insurance ($$).

The specialist tried for a bit, got another tool, tried some more and got it out.. He said it was rusty metal and it was deep, gave me antibiotic eye drops that I have to use every 2 hours that sting more, nothing else.. No pain pills period, I don't like them..
My face is a constant waterfall, it sure feels worse than when they started.. Cant see too hot either..

Yes I wear glasses.. I guess it happened yesterday and I didn't really notice until I tried keeping my eyes closed to go to sleep.. This morning it was worse so I went in..

The specialist was in the next city next to my favorite auto parts store.
On the way back I stopped in and got plastigauges for my cam



I am in godawful pain and just have to suffer through it.. I don't want this to happen again.. Its hurt worse for the last 5 hours straight than it ever did before I went in..

I had a thought about using the individual eye swimmers goggles with prescription lenses.
Crazy I know but man that would give me awesome freedom to actually see what I'm doing sometimes..

What do you think?

 

[Fugio]

I got a sliver in my eye when I was 16 that stuck inside my eyelid and cut into my eye every time I blinked or moved my eye. The doc said it looked like a cat had attacked it with his claws. Recovered fine, but it was the most awful thing ever, until....

When I was about 35, a metal sliver blew into my eye in the HD parking lot. I was even wearing my glasses and it still found it's mark! It went in perpendicular like an arrow shot from a bow. So when they looked at the hospital, they couldn't see anything and said I was fine. 3 days later it hurt so much I went to an eye surgeon. He said he could see it because it was rusting in my eye. He got it out and then had to polish out the rust. Yes, it's as bad and painful as it sounds.

Wear eye protection and NEVER take your eyes for granted! Take it from someone with experience!

I wear safety glasses or my polycarbonate prescription glasses at a minimum now. But I also wear a full face guard or wrap-around glasses/goggles when I can.

 

[fasteddie313]

I mean for working under cars on your back, my daily wear prescription glasses are safety lenses, not enough obviously..

 

[PMD1966]

I was told by an old machinist that if you can get your finger between your glasses and your cheek, they aren't giving you much protection.

 

[Fugio]

I mean for working under cars on your back, my daily wear prescription glasses are safety lenses, not enough obviously..

The one I mentioned above when I was 16, I was laying on my back while taking off an exhaust bracket on my Cutlass. No yeah, it's not enough.

 

[neophyte]

I prefer the Chemical splash type safety goggles. They seem to have better coverage to prevent stuff from getting in your eyes.

 

[stonesfan68]

It sounds like you dodged a bullet! Eye injuries are no fun. You should look at getting "cheater" safety glasses that both protect your eye site as well as have built-in magnifying lens just like a pair of bi-foals. I can't see anything much up close anymore and those cheaters are great. Good luck in your recovery.


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[Marc Benjamin]

I'm not even in the trades yet my safety glasses have blocked at least two sockets coming at my eye. One time I was just standing there looking at what my friend was doing.

 

[APEowner]

I hate eye stuff. I particularly hate the eyeball die grinder that they use when they really have to dig. I don't wear the full goggles in the shop all the time but if I'm doing any grinding under a vehicle I sure as heck do. The rest of the time I wear perscription safety glass. Usually without the side shields but I keep them around and snap then on when it seems like a good idea.

 

[MattVette89]

When I'm working under a car or with a lot of sparks flying I wear the cheesy HS chemistry style glasses. Now they make some nice safety glasses with foam all around that presses against your face and gives a nice seal. I need to pick some up.

 

[RedneckWelder]

Forget the swim goggles, you want something with vents to counteract fogging. There are plenty of goggles out there that you can get prescription lens or inserts for. Check out Revision, ESS, WileyX, Oakley.

You'll have to spend some money but it will be a lot less painful than metal slivers.

Also I like faceshields a lot for grinding work, I even wear one while weedeating (since the amount of debris thrown up at you is extreme and always finds a way around the glasses)

 

[Stooge]

at last count, ive had my eyes drilled out 3 times for having chunks of metal in my them and everytime i manage to do it on a saturday morning where i get to wait it out until monday sometime to get it taken care of. Ive found a few flavors of safety glasses that are comfortable and are close fitting that i wear general mechanic work and ANY metal work, gets either a Uvex Bionic facemask for light use or a sealed 3m mask i believe, with a rubbery strip that seals against the face for when i get that 'this could end up in my eye' feeling although it can get unbearably stuffy.
my eye doctor's pointed out a few times that although you may not feel something end up in your eye, theres alot of places for debris to get caught and wind up there, eye brows, hair , clothing,etc, so i try and shake off before uncovering the eyes just to be on the safe side.

without trying to sound ignorant, i think i would mind having to go to the eye surgeon alot more if she wasnt completely gorgeous!

 

[rdog422]

I generally wear goggles when working overhead, especially when rusty or dirty components are involved. I had a die grinder make I pretty good gash in my face one night (had to get stitches). So now I like to pull out a face shield. Some welding helmets have a setting that allows you to use them as a shield as well.

 

[DenisG]

Let them know what's going on with the pain. There might be anti-inflammation eye drops that might help with that, but it's important to make sure any infection is under control.

 

[RedneckWelder]

my eye doctor's pointed out a few times that although you may not feel something end up in your eye, theres alot of places for debris to get caught and wind up there, eye brows, hair , clothing,etc, so i try and shake off before uncovering the eyes just to be on the safe side.

Die grinder burrs are the worst for creating those tiny slivers of metal

 

[GRX]

May not feel like it now. You got lucky for sure. I know a guy who had his cornea split in two by a wood sliver. Nicknamed "Patchy" now. As a machinist I have pieces of metal in various places in my body. Not my eyes thankfully. Once I was machining a pretty old cylinder head & hit a hard spot of nickle. The core drill seized and exploded. A large piece hit directly in front of my eye hard enough to knock my head back violently, and almost split the lens in two. The old school thick lens glasses too. Surely would have killed me otherwise.

One mistake I see far too often is people wearing a face shield without glasses. It is called a face shield for a reason. Tight fitting glasses are a necessary addition.

 

[K-Dog]

There was a stubborn clip on a wire harness on a Taurus door. I was pulling and pulling, damn that thing is stubborn. Suddenly it gave, and I do mean suddenly. My hand and my clip tool came right for my face.

Sometimes you can pop a balloon with a pin. Some times if you punch a balloon hard enough you can pop it that way too.
Well that is what I did. I literally exploded my eyeball.
Looking through my left eye, was like looking through an opaque bathroom window. Everything was super bright and blurry. I saw blob like shapes at best. Only a few colors, but everything was excessively bright.

A ambulance ride to the hospital, I was too bad for them. They sent me to Wilmer Eye Clinic at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.
Long story short, I am sent in for emergency surgery. 21 stitches in my left eye. Two days later another surgery 18 stitches. Another surgery a week after that.
Three months later got the stitches removed. It was glorious to see out of my left eye again. About a week after that some laser correction to remove the sacring.
Right now my left eye is about 80% of what it was. ( some damn good numbers all things considered ) There is a permanent "ghost" in my field of vision. I only see it if I think about it. ( like right now ) My depth perception is hit and miss ( sorry for the pun ) and I cant read without my left eye shut. But I can see. Which is pretty damn amazing.

It was after that I earned the nickname " captain safety "

 

[fasteddie313]

I can't pinpoint when something went in my eye but my work that afternoon involved grinding out these 2 protrusions to make more room for straighter intercooler piping..

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And I wrapped my exhaust manifold, I really thought it was some itchy stuff off the exhaust wrap in my eye but the specialist said it was rusty metal..

I also reinstalled my oil pan after checking my bottom end, including the crossmember.

And fixed the block to intake manifold support mount that's under there too..

A whole lot of work on my back..

I reinstalled the (very clean now) oil pan, intake manifold mount, dipstick tube, grinding, and exhaust wrap in that order.

 

[2oolhound]

What's everyone use while wire wheeling rusty steel etc and buffing. I use regular safety glasses, a face shield and safety googles but I'm convinced the air is thick with a cloud of dust coming at you that coats your eyes and if you're doing it long enough it gets under your eye lids. I remember buffing for 3 hours in a row off and on for a couple days and the cotton fibres coming off mixed with the abrasive paste did the same thing. I had a ton of build up in the corners of my eyes but I'm sure some made it under the eye lids. From now on I'm going to use some kind of sealed mask. It's not just projectiles we have to worry about.

 

[stearn786]

There was a stubborn clip on a wire harness on a Taurus door. I was pulling and pulling, damn that thing is stubborn. Suddenly it gave, and I do mean suddenly. My hand and my clip tool came right for my face.

Sometimes you can pop a balloon with a pin. Some times if you punch a balloon hard enough you can pop it that way too.
Well that is what I did. I literally exploded my eyeball.
Looking through my left eye, was like looking through an opaque bathroom window. Everything was super bright and blurry. I saw blob like shapes at best. Only a few colors, but everything was excessively bright.

A ambulance ride to the hospital, I was too bad for them. They sent me to Wilmer Eye Clinic at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.
Long story short, I am sent in for emergency surgery. 21 stitches in my left eye. Two days later another surgery 18 stitches. Another surgery a week after that.
Three months later got the stitches removed. It was glorious to see out of my left eye again. About a week after that some laser correction to remove the sacring.
Right now my left eye is about 80% of what it was. ( some damn good numbers all things considered ) There is a permanent "ghost" in my field of vision. I only see it if I think about it. ( like right now ) My depth perception is hit and miss ( sorry for the pun ) and I cant read without my left eye shut. But I can see. Which is pretty damn amazing.

It was after that I earned the nickname " captain safety "

One of my coworkers is coming back to work this Monday after being out since March for a similar injury. He was doing parking brakes on a Kia when the hold down spring popped out and sliced his left eye so bad the surgeon didnt think he would ever see again. He has at least partial vision back now though.

I bought a new pair of safety glasses the next day and I wear them constantly now.

 

[DekeT]

I always wear my prescription safety lenses in the shop, it's a requirement. Oddly enough the worst eye injury I ever had was hitting a golf ball out of a sand trap. Blasted the sand right into my eyes. A golf course is not the place you would expect to need safety glasses. You never know.

 

[Dave455]

It happens.

Surprised to hear about all the digging around to get it out. Last time I heard about someone with a similar problem his doctor said 'don't touch it'. They whisked him straight to hospital and removed the splinter painlessly with some sort of uber powerful magnet!

Perhaps there is something to be said for the British National Health Service after all!

I don't do anything without eye protection now, and if it's something like grinding it'll be goggles that seal up round the edges too!

I don't get on with the cheapo protective glasses, but the better quality ones are generally much better shaped, and don't scratch so easily!

 

[Kielbasavw]

I too have gotten a metal sliver in my eye while wearing wrap around safety glasses. It took me about an hour to actually find the piece that wad bothering me it was a piece about 1/16 long that darted it's way into the color part of my eye. I was able to get it out myself, but it started to bother me even more afterwards. Went to the clinic and they dug at my eye for another hour with a q tip. They said there wasn't any else except a little cut on my eyeball and sent me out with special eye drops. Once I left I was in tremendous amount of pain. Eye Dr made it worse. Went back the next day to *****. Had a different guy take a look and told me it all looked fine. Took 2 weeks to feel okay again.

 

[fasteddie313]

I too have gotten a metal sliver in my eye while wearing wrap around safety glasses. It took me about an hour to actually find the piece that wad bothering me it was a piece about 1/16 long that darted it's way into the color part of my eye. I was able to get it out myself, but it started to bother me even more afterwards. Went to the clinic and they dug at my eye for another hour with a q tip. They said there wasn't any else except a little cut on my eyeball and sent me out with special eye drops. Once I left I was in tremendous amount of pain. Eye Dr made it worse. Went back the next day to *****. Had a different guy take a look and told me it all looked fine. Took 2 weeks to feel okay again.

Exactly!!!

I was in "tremendous pain" as you say after the eye doctor got done with me (after there numbing drops wore off), 10X worse than when I went in.. Still feels like there's an eyelash in my eye at all times now 2.5 days later..

I've had a masseuse tell me I have a very high pain tolerance, that first days eye pain after I got home was probably the worst pain of my life, wanted to pull my hair out..

I bumped my eye wrong once wiping drops off and it almost made me puke, instant ******** nausea..

But in my case they had to get the piece out, so it had to be done..

I sound like a total ***** but that was ********, and still *****...

 

[fivespdcat]

I use a plethora of eye protection depending on what I'm doing but really like the Kimberly Clark/Jackson branded ones. You can get them in bulk in Amazon for a fair price ($2-3 a piece). Anything from clear to tinted to yellow and in between worth differing levels of facial protection.

For example
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00I4L7BUY/ref=mp_s_a_1_29?qid=1438462782&sr=1-29&refinements=p_85%3A2470955011%2Cp_8%3A2229036011&pi=AC_SY200_QL40&keywords=jackson+safety+glasses&dpPl=1&dpID=41DhfmWygOL&ref=plSrch

 

[Kielbasavw]

I'm confused... you were staring at a weld with no helmet?

 

[maxpower_hd]

I use different things too. I have prescription safety glasses but rarely wear them to be honest. They are heavy and uncomfortable compared to my regular ones when wearing for a long time. I have a pair of safety glasses that fit over the regular ones which is better for short term stuff. I use a full face shield when cutting and grinding. I have a green pair that also go over the regular ones for plasma and torch cutting.

You gotta protect the peepers!

 

[fasteddie313]

I'm confused... you were staring at a weld with no helmet?

Me? No..

 

[bonneyman]

I wear glasses, so, making sure they're polycarbonate impact resistant when I buy them offers me some protection.

Was trying to spread a meta belt buckle attachment lug, tapping on it with a screwdriver and hammer. A piece unexpectantly shot off and bounced off my one eyeglass lens. And took a chip out!!!
So thankful it wasn't my eyeball!

 

[Negen]

This is what my work provides us. Our insurance will cover Rx if needed on case by case basis. But one set is given to each of us working in my department.

 

[1950mercury]

I Always wear a face shield when I can

 

[Leoruiz]

Uvex Bionic