DJ Hellfire
05-04-2007, 08:23 AM
First, let me say thanks to Barcoder/Todd for updating everyone on what happened and thanks to all the kind remarks you guys made in the other thread. It's much appreciated.
On that note, here is what happened. I'm replacing two front lug studs on a customers Corolla. I knock the old ones out and when I went to put the two new ones in, I grabbed my air hammer. What I do with the air hammmer is use it to knock them in place and get them properly aligned so I can just zip them on with my impact gun. And of course, my safety glasses were in my box instead of on my face. I ususally always where them when I use the air hammer, but I figured it'll been 2 seconds and that I would been fine. Anyway, so I start hittin it with the air hammer and it starts going in. I figured I'd hit it one small last time and then get it the rest of the way with the gun.
Well that last hit is when it happened. Something went right into my eyeball. I don't know if it was a piece of the hammer bit or the backing plate of the car. The story seems long, but it all happened in less than 10 seconds. Immediately, all I saw in my vision was spots of blood. It wasn't visible to anyone who looked at my eye, but it was what I actually saw. The only thing you could see when looking in my eye was a small spot of blood where the metal hit. I knew right then that I f'ed up! I didn't panic at all. I acted just as I would if I cut my finger or something. I immediatly took my contact out of that eye and told my boss I had to go. I didn't know that something was lodged in my eyeball because it felt like something just hit it. It wasn't painful at all.
I didn't know whether to go to the hospital or the eye doctor. So I went right to my eye doctor which was only 10 minutes away (and yes, the people at my job actually let me drive myself). They took me right in and the doctor looked in my eye and said I defintely had a piece of metal in there. He then sent me to a specialist/eye surgeon. And again, they let me drive myself. This time I had to drive 15 minutes up the Parkway.
So they get me in and this is where I find out how serious it is. The doctors asistant said I'll defintely need surgery. The metal was way in the bad of my eye and it was kind of hard for them to see it with there scopes. So the surgeon comes in when he's done digging in someone elses eye and he has a look at it. When he is don't looking, he sits back in his chair and puts his hand on his head. He looked freaked out. You could tell he was kinda freeked out but he kept it under control and very professional. But he said I had a very serious injury here and not to touch the eye at all. He sad there was some kind of detachment and retinal detachment and that I could possibly lose vision in that eye or lose the eye. He said I needed immediate surgery.
So I get down to the surgery wing, they get me all comfortable, IV me and numb the eye. I was awake during the surgery by the way because I ate breakfast. While they are doing the surgery, I couldn't feel a thing surprisingly. He had a hard time getting the metal out, but he eventually got it and it was slightly smaller than a fruity pebble. They say the surgery took an hour and 20 minutes, but the valium made it seem like a half hour to me.
All in all, the surgery was a success and I barely felt any pain throughtout the whole ordeal. I thought I was gonna be in a lot more pain. Doc says as long as there is no infection, I should fully recover with a small amount of vision loss, but I won't see 20/20 again even with my glasses.
About an hour after I am home laying in bed, the pain starts. It was mainly the eye patch that was irritating it but I couldn't take it off until the next morning. I took the pain meds a few hours later and it helped a bit. When I took the patch off the next day, it was like an instant relief. And since then, there has been very little pain which makes me happy. I can see very little out of the eye, but it has been getting beter everyday. Befor all I couldd see was light, now I can navigate through my house with just the bad eye.
My wife was the best in all of this. She has been there for me 100% and I am really thankful to have her; and our family as well. Below is a PS of what the accident looked like. Feel free to ask any questions.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b166/djhellfire/Eye%20Injury/EyaballDamage.jpg
On that note, here is what happened. I'm replacing two front lug studs on a customers Corolla. I knock the old ones out and when I went to put the two new ones in, I grabbed my air hammer. What I do with the air hammmer is use it to knock them in place and get them properly aligned so I can just zip them on with my impact gun. And of course, my safety glasses were in my box instead of on my face. I ususally always where them when I use the air hammer, but I figured it'll been 2 seconds and that I would been fine. Anyway, so I start hittin it with the air hammer and it starts going in. I figured I'd hit it one small last time and then get it the rest of the way with the gun.
Well that last hit is when it happened. Something went right into my eyeball. I don't know if it was a piece of the hammer bit or the backing plate of the car. The story seems long, but it all happened in less than 10 seconds. Immediately, all I saw in my vision was spots of blood. It wasn't visible to anyone who looked at my eye, but it was what I actually saw. The only thing you could see when looking in my eye was a small spot of blood where the metal hit. I knew right then that I f'ed up! I didn't panic at all. I acted just as I would if I cut my finger or something. I immediatly took my contact out of that eye and told my boss I had to go. I didn't know that something was lodged in my eyeball because it felt like something just hit it. It wasn't painful at all.
I didn't know whether to go to the hospital or the eye doctor. So I went right to my eye doctor which was only 10 minutes away (and yes, the people at my job actually let me drive myself). They took me right in and the doctor looked in my eye and said I defintely had a piece of metal in there. He then sent me to a specialist/eye surgeon. And again, they let me drive myself. This time I had to drive 15 minutes up the Parkway.
So they get me in and this is where I find out how serious it is. The doctors asistant said I'll defintely need surgery. The metal was way in the bad of my eye and it was kind of hard for them to see it with there scopes. So the surgeon comes in when he's done digging in someone elses eye and he has a look at it. When he is don't looking, he sits back in his chair and puts his hand on his head. He looked freaked out. You could tell he was kinda freeked out but he kept it under control and very professional. But he said I had a very serious injury here and not to touch the eye at all. He sad there was some kind of detachment and retinal detachment and that I could possibly lose vision in that eye or lose the eye. He said I needed immediate surgery.
So I get down to the surgery wing, they get me all comfortable, IV me and numb the eye. I was awake during the surgery by the way because I ate breakfast. While they are doing the surgery, I couldn't feel a thing surprisingly. He had a hard time getting the metal out, but he eventually got it and it was slightly smaller than a fruity pebble. They say the surgery took an hour and 20 minutes, but the valium made it seem like a half hour to me.
All in all, the surgery was a success and I barely felt any pain throughtout the whole ordeal. I thought I was gonna be in a lot more pain. Doc says as long as there is no infection, I should fully recover with a small amount of vision loss, but I won't see 20/20 again even with my glasses.
About an hour after I am home laying in bed, the pain starts. It was mainly the eye patch that was irritating it but I couldn't take it off until the next morning. I took the pain meds a few hours later and it helped a bit. When I took the patch off the next day, it was like an instant relief. And since then, there has been very little pain which makes me happy. I can see very little out of the eye, but it has been getting beter everyday. Befor all I couldd see was light, now I can navigate through my house with just the bad eye.
My wife was the best in all of this. She has been there for me 100% and I am really thankful to have her; and our family as well. Below is a PS of what the accident looked like. Feel free to ask any questions.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b166/djhellfire/Eye%20Injury/EyaballDamage.jpg