Anyone else having a rubbish week?

[owen]

I'm having a pretty crap week so far, Monday afternoon I was in work fitting some new joists ( I'm a joiner/supervisor on a large property refurbishment in buxton). I was breaking some slate with a hammer as you do and a piece of slate broke off and hit me in the eye. I went downstairs to the bathroom and washed it out and thought "oh **** I can't see" to cut a long story short I went to hospital, had to be transferred to stepping hill in an ambulance under blue lights, because it was a "sight threatening injury". Had an operation first thing Tuesday morning to sew my eyeball back together in front of my pupil. Now I've got 3 lots of eye drops to take 6 times a day and I'm waiting to see if my sight comes back. Currently all I can see is very blurry outlines within about a foot of my face. It's pretty scary as a 25 year old thinking what happens if I can't see out of my right eye again. Anyone else having a rubbish week??
Also if anyone is keen on woodwork and looking for work near Buxton I might be able to arrange for some temp work with a chance of a permanent job if things go well.

 

[TrimTheKing]

That's rubbish Owen! Hope you get some better news next week!

All the best

Cheers
Mark

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Not as bad a week as that by some margin. It is amazing how things manage to find the eyes - one of my fellow green woodworkers was doing some roughing out with an axe, and a flying chip of wood managed to find his eye. Fortunately for him wood is not so hard as slate. One of the very few advantages of getting older is that your eyes are behind glasses more often !

Best wishes for a good recovery.

 

[Jamesc]

Wow my week seems positively good compared to yours.

I hope your eye recovers quickly and completly. I too had an injury to my eye at about your age and was sightless for 4 days. I know how scary it can be.

James

 

[owen]

Thanks guys, it's a worse feeling not knowing wether I'm going to see out of that eye again. If the doctors said I just need to heal and my sight will come back I would be happy. But basically all they have said is wait and see. I'm normally a really busy person too so sitting down all day is doing my head in!

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

You have my sympathy Owen, that must be awful mate. I went deaf in my right ear a couple weeks back and they did all sorts of tests all to no diagnosis so it was suck it and see. Luckily after about a week it magically returned. But I really appreciate how dam scary the not knowing is when its a sense you depend on and take for granted. I'm sure it will come good for you as the body has an amazing knack of healing so chin up old son.....time to watch another Judge Judy eh

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Owen, all the very best and I hope that your sight comes back quickly.

You've certainly put my week into perspective.

Neil

 

[johnny]

bad luck owen

Guess you'll be investing in some nice Oakley safety glasses soon then eh ? :roll:

I had a similar incident at your age when working at Tate & Lyles . I was de-soldering a fitting above my head and whacked the pipe with a hammer to remove it from the fitting and got showered with molten droplets of hot solder which stuck to my eyeballs :shock:

Rushed off to Moorfields to have the solder scraped off my eyes ....not pleasant.

I'm sure your eye will be fine . I expect once the swelling and inflamation has reduced your sight will return to normal

 

[owen]

Solder in the eye sounds pretty nasty! I'm so inpatient I hate waiting to know. I've got my chin up a bit a just bought a few woodworking and fishing mags to pass the time. Better than daytime TV.

 

[DennisCA]

So this seems like the time to raise the question as to what's some good eye protection? That doesn't fog over and you can wear for long times without being encumbered.

 

[Racers]

I bent an old length of plastic trunking it snapped and a bit hit me in on the white of my eye and made a small cut it bled slightly, 'kin scary.
I was bending it away from my self! shows that things can happen when you don't expect it.

Pete

 

[johnny]

I bent an old length of plastic trunking it snapped and a bit hit me in on the white of my eye and made a small cut it bled slightly, 'kin scary.
I was bending it away from my self! shows that things can happen when you don't expect it.

Pete

exactly right Pete. problem is we don't really think about that until an incident happens to us

I like using the light yellow safety glasses that look like the cycling/ski sunglasses. They make everything look bright and cheerfull and don't look too industrial .

 

[owen]

The trouble I get with safety glasses is most of the time I'm wearing a dust mask and they steam up easily, are there any options for wearing with dust masks?

 

[johnny]

yes thats always the problem isn't it.
The reason I think is due to the mask having a good seal around the mouth and cheek but a poor seal around the nose area.
Moist warm air from our breathing seeps out around our noses and fogs our glasses.
The answer icould be to use a larger filter type mask that allows you to breathe air out of the filter area like the paint sprayers use.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I strongly recommend the 3M 7500 dust mask. It has an exhaust port at the base so the vapour you exhale goes down and doesn't fog your specs. I use it all the time for power sanding wood turned bowls and they never fog. I have a Trend airshield pro as well but find it a little heavy and cumbersome compared to the 3M half mask.

 

[dm65]

Bad luck Owen - sometimes it's just going to happen !

FWIW, I developed an abscess on Sunday - by Tuesday night it looks like I've got half a tennis ball in my mouth but is going down now finally - I'm sure you're all familiar with this sort of tooth ache ....

 

[Steve Maskery]

I have a Turbovisor which hinges up and a JSP one that is built on to a baseball cap. It is lighter but doesn't flip up.
Neither fogs because it is powered and both are comfortable to wear.

Owen, I really hope things go well for you. When I was 16 I was diagnosed with keritaconus and was told I would go blind. Well, 40 years later I am still reading and driving, although it has not been an easy journey. I've had two cornea grafts. Even now, when I'm not wearing my contact lenses I can see clearly for only a very few inches in front of my face, the rest is just colour and movement.

But the body is very good at healing itself, so the worst is not inevitable, not by a log way.

Keep us posted.
S

 

[owen]

Well I went back to the hospital today and everything is healing well, I have however got a cataract caused by damage the slate inflicted.Ive got to wait for my wound to heal (approx 3 weeks the doc thought) then go back in for an operation to change the lens in my eye. I had an ultrasound done on my eye and everything from the lens back seems ok so hopefully I won't lose too much of my sight.
Just don't know how I'm gonna cope with 3 weeks at least off work, the longest I've had off is 2 weeks since I left school!
Thanks for the support everyone, im not a regular poster on here but I do read a lot of the threads.

 

[RobinBHM]

Well 3 weeks off work should change that.....we will expect more posts from you then any body else

Im glad to hear the news, whilst not without further surgery, is good news for your sight.

 

[owen]

Haha yeah, I will try and contribute a bit more.