Crap in your eye ....

[Conor Wright]

There's something about the eyes.. makes me squeamish! The ould fella was pricking about in the shed one day and somehow managed to stick a piece of wire into his eye.. he's not even sure exactly how it happened! but in it went. it looked rough.. no blood but trying to blink and this two foot long piece of wire hanging down.. hospital, pirate costume for a few weeks, much discomfort and swelling and luckily only minor loss of vision, had he pulled it out in the shed the jelly squirty thing openspaceman mentioned could well have been a reality. 

[wicklamulla]

On 04/03/2015 at 11:29, wicklamulla said:

People please wear appropiate PPE. I've had various (non serious) eye injuries, foreign bodies, saw dust grit etc over the years and it is quite painful and stressful. I now tend to wear safety specs along with my chainsaw helmet visor when cross cutting, climbing, feeding a chipper etc. I wear safety specs if i'm out in the garage painting wood, doing DIY or tinkering with a saw etc. Ever tried to walk across the top of a previously topped conifer hedge/tight stand of trees with all those sharp small diameter twigs/branches/pegs ready to poke yer eye out shud you slip and fall off a foot hold ? It something i take seriously as my wife lost 85% of the vision in one of her eyes after a simple garden accident about 7 years ago. Basically it was a large shrub with long thorny spikes on it, it caught/snagged in my jumper as i pushed past it and released under tension and smacked her in the face. The eye specialists had their work cut out for them as they don't see many serious eye injuries due to increased H&S and wearing of facial PPE but after 4 bouts of surgery her eye is nigh on useless. Please be careful out there.

well following on from my original post, my wife has had 2 more bouts of surgery in 2018 making that a total of 6 procedures in less than 11 years. It will never get any better and the impact it can have on your live is a lot more than we realise as you assume you will recover or adapt and move forwards.  Not so in some cases as a form of PTSD can kick in at any time after the event. 

Edited January 5, 2019 by wicklamulla

[Stephen Blair]

Stuff in your eyes is awful!  Worse I’ve had was a metal filing on a windy day go into my eye and get stuff, usuall guy thing and left it for a few days until I couldn’t open both eyes 1 morning, got it fished out and spent nearly a week on the couch in the dark feeling sorry for myself.

  Had a few other bits of sawdust over th eyears but lads on site have managed to wash it out.

  You have my sympathy J, so easily done.  Grab a handful of the safety specs next time your in a tool shop, they are only a couple of pounds each.

[oldwoodcutter]

Somehow, few weeks ago, even with safety specs and my visor down a bit of something went in. You know how it is , it’ll be out in a minute, but not this time.

I went to truck and got through several phials of sterilised and by then my guys where trying to look at it and helping me with the cotton buds. They could see it but it refused to budge.

After 20 minutes, and things getting worse my foreman drives me to the next village which has a surgery, they’re shut for lunch, I’m first in the queue and wait , go in to be told by receptionist “we don’t do eyes, go to a&e”.

Now this means stopping the whole job, loading truck back up, and everybody on the team that day coming along as we only had the one vehicle and a&e is halfway home from the coast.

Don’t ask me how, but as they are halfway through packing up to take me, it comes out, a small innocent looking piece of barbed woodchip , but enough to incapacitate me for a while.

 

[Mick Dempsey]

It’s a nightmare.

 

These days I get a bottle of water and rinse and rinse and rinse until I hope it’s gone.

 

Biggest error you can make is panic and rub it with you fingers, you run the risk of scratching the eyeball with the piece of dust or whatever and spending the next two days in discomfort.

[billpierce]

It’s a nightmare.
 
These days I get a bottle of water and rinse and rinse and rinse until I hope it’s gone.
 
Biggest error you can make is panic and rub it with you fingers, you run the risk of scratching the eyeball with the piece of dust or whatever and spending the next two days in discomfort.

Correct.

Heard somewhere that milk in the eye is good if you have scratched it. I've tried it and seems to sooth one of those horrible scratches which hurt everytime you move your eye slightly to blink

[Mr. Squirrel]

I ended up in a&e one evening with a bit of crap stuck to my eye ball. Just couldn't get it out myself.

The doc had it out no problem, and put in some anaesthetic eye drops.

"if you're getting scratched eyes from bits of saw dust then the anaesthetic drops are a lifesaver" he said "we can't even prescribe them, but they do go missing quite often. I'll go fetch you some anti biotic drops, back in 5"

Placed a hand full of them on the table and left.

I'm now able to buy them. They're amazing. 

[Mesterh]

19 minutes ago, Mr. Squirrel said:

I ended up in a&e one evening with a bit of crap stuck to my eye ball. Just couldn't get it out myself.

The doc had it out no problem, and put in some anaesthetic eye drops.

"if you're getting scratched eyes from bits of saw dust then the anaesthetic drops are a lifesaver" he said "we can't even prescribe them, but they do go missing quite often. I'll go fetch you some anti biotic drops, back in 5"

Placed a hand full of them on the table and left.

I'm now able to buy them. They're amazing. 

HA, I asked if I could have some (last time I scratched my eye) no chance was the answer  They are indeed amazing!

 

Had a few badly scratched eyes and arc eye more than once (you would think once would be enough of a warning!) , both horrible and have no doubt had a negative effect on my eyesight. You can understand why HSE are fairly hot on eye protection.

 

 

 

 

 

[wicklamulla]

it amazes me that even when wearing close fitting safety specs  the Petzl  Vizir and mesh visor that long thin twigs can literally bypass all the eye protection somehow and touch up against your eyeball!  3 defensive layers breached! I have since removed the Pezl Vizir as i don't like it / get on with it.

[Rough Hewn]

For some reason my eyes are stupidly sensitive.
When working as a welder, My colleagues kept asking if I was stoned?
I had a permanent fuzzy headache and bright red eyes.
After 6 weeks doctors told me never use a welder again.
Cement/lime in the eye is nasty too. Had that removed by eye surgeon. Told me go straight home, as the anaesthetic will wear off shortly.
No I said, I feel fine now it's out. I can go back to work?
1 hour later I'm at home eyes streaming tears.
Burning eye socket.
Yesterday cutting wood, wind blown sawdust caught me.
Eyes were so red I thought they were bleeding.
[emoji51][emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]