I am not sure were/what forum to put this in, so I may double post it….
This morning, opening day of firearms deer, my weekend was ended before it began due to a stupid and avoidable mistake. I took every step I normally do in going out to my stand, and for the most part made the mile out with little issue, got a little wet, but big deal. So after a short scent drag I went to my stand, then disaster….
My safety harness was in my pack, so as I swung the pack off it snagged in a bit of brush. When that brush “snapped back” a stem jabbed me right in the left eye. “No big deal” I thought, and yea it hurt like h*ll, but it happens, move on. This was at 6:05am still “dark”. By 7:00am I knew I was in trouble. The pain was getting worse, my eye would not stop watering, and my sinuses were backing up. “Probably got something in it, it will self clean” I thought. At 9:00am I decided that with the lack of a mirror, maybe I could snap a picture close up and see if there was something in it. I felt like I was opening my eye and holding it open good enough to see. This was the reality….
…nearly swollen shut and weeping constantly. At this point, I knew I was done for the day. You can’t shoot a deer if you can’t see it. I figured best to head for the truck and attempt to wash it (the eye) out. Didn’t work, nothing in it, washing did not help. So with regret I called my dad in, hated to ruin his hunt to, but I needed a ride. Off to the ER.
“Corneal Abrasion” The worst the doc has seen in a long time. “They don’t get much closer to perforated than that”. “If you can imagine the surface of your eye as a tub of ice cream, it looks like you took a scoop, smacked it backwards onto the surface of it, and then took a deep long scoop.” The picture he drew on his note pad helped in the description. The branch hit me just above the center of the eye and scraped up and to the right. (When I pulled away from the hit I had to pull the stick out from under the lid) So I left out of the ER at 3:30pm with a tetnus shot, some antibacterial/antifungal eye drops that contain a pain killer, they also cloud your vision, a pain killer that makes you sleep(heavy narcotic), to keep your eyes shut, and the knowledge that I will not be driving, or handling a weapon for the next few days.
But it all could have been avoided if I would have had safety glasses on. I wear them constantly at work, as well as school (tech) but for whatever reason have never worn them in the woods. I will now….
Be careful everyone. It is not just the sharp knife, the gun, or the fall from the deer stand that can ruin your weekend, it can be as small as an errant piece of brush that gets you.
Not the post I was hoping to put up about my opening weekend, but one I felt needed to be shared....
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