[SwirlyThing]

I debated over whether this belongs in health or in home environment, but I settled on here.

Had a little mishap today. I was cleaning my house to host a holiday cookie exchange with my girlfriends this evening. I was about to clean the toilet. I took out my toilet bowl cleaner and applied it to the interior of the bowl and set the container on the back of the toilet. It promptly fell off, hitting the toilet rim on the way down. As it did, it spewed its hydrochloric acid out of the bottle and into BOTH of my eyes! Wow, the pain!

Had DD call poison control while I tried to rinse out my eyes, who told me to flush with water for 30 minutes then lay down with eyes closed for 30, and she would call me back at that point. So into the shower, fully clothed, I go for half an hour. When she called back, my eyes still burned and my vision was blurry... so a trip to the ER. UGH.

Had to cancel my party. They flushed the eyes too.. really wierd to have tubes connected to contact lenses protruding from my eyes! DD took pics to put on facebook LOL!

Luckily the damage is minimal and will heal. Distance vision still blurry, but can see crystal -clear up close. The burning is mostly gone too now. They say I was lucky it was an acid and not an alkaline cleaner... that would have been much worse.

Thank heaven I have good insurance and this little mishap is only a $100 copay! Not that I need an extra $100 bill this time of year. I think it would have been cheaper to hire a maid.

 

[nuisance26]

~Oh my that is so scary! I am so glad you are going to be alright!
Makes me think we should be doing all our housework with goggles on. Or maybe switch to vinegar to clean everything?~

 

[dcompton]

That's terrible. Eye pain is horrible. At least it had as good an outcome as could be expected. I hope it all heals quickly.

 

[oheoh's momma]

ouch so sorry please feel better. could have been much worse.

 

[Palooka]

Oh my goodness, what a freak thing to happen. So glad you are fine though!!

 

[Birdie]

Goodness, you are fortunate that it wasn't worse. I hope you get back to normal quickly.

 

[Debbie-cat]

Wow, that's scary and so freaky how it happened!! I am glad you are okay!

 

[mauimagic]

What a scary accident!! I am so glad that it will all heal for you. And I really appreciate your telling us about it as a warning to all!! Take care and please let us know how you are doing.

 

[MTS04]

This is why I say, when dealing with chemicals, eye protection and skin protection is a must, even in the household.

I hope your eyes feel better quickly.

 

[SwirlyThing]

DD says that the lesson here is to either cap the bottle before setting it down, or place it on the floor. After talking to poison control and the doctors, I would add that working with acids is safer than working with bases. If it had been an alkaline burn, I would still be in the hospital on continuous irrigation.

Fortunately, it's been about 15 hours now since the accident and my vision is almost normal.

 

[Labontet]

I am glad you are getting better. Surely that is an accident that could have been far worse. Thank goodness no children got in the way.

 

[VanVivCam]

Hope your vision comes back clearly soon.

 

[Ceashels]

How incredibly frightening. I'm glad it wasn't worse. Feel better soon and reschedule that cookie fest!

 

[low-1]

Regarding alkalines in the eyes...

About 10 years ago, my friends were just moving into a new house, and we were helping them with cleaning and painting. We were washing down the walls with TSP (trisodium phosphate, that "general cleaner" that comes in the little milk-carton looking package).

I was in the closet wiping down the walls with a sponge soaked in the solution. I was wiping over the trim above the door, and the sponge caught a small finishing nail. A couple of drops of solution landed squarely in my eye.

I went to the sink immediately and washed my eye out with lukewarm water for about 15-20 minutes. It felt like I had a piece of sand in my eye, just off to the side of my cornia. Not overly painful, but very very irritating. My wife drove me to the hospital, and we sat in the emergency waiting room. They were nice enough to give me a damp cloth to put over my eye, but I waited for about 2 hours to see someone.

They put a few drops of atropine in my one eye to dialate the pupil, then they put in a few drops of a yellowish dye that would show the damage under a UV light. The doctor at the time had mentioned that it could have been worse, right on the cornia, but that I might have to just get used to the discomfort for the rest of my life. They gave me a perscription for some eye drops and told me to come back in a week or so.

So, we left the hospital and it was just about supper time. My wife and I were just a young couple at the time, and all we had in the cupboards at home was kraft dinner. We needed to pick up some ketchup, so we went to the convenience store by our place and I went in to get the ketchup. Of course at the time, my one eye was still normal, but the other was completely dialated and had an orange tinge to it.

When I went up to the counter and paid for the ketchup, the clerk must have thought I was on some sort of crazy drugs, by the way he backed away from the counter, looked sideways at me and cautiously handed me the change. I can still remember the look on his face. lol

Anyway, I spent the week at home with the curtains drawn, wearing sunglasses in the dark apartment, and did the eyedrop routine. I went back to the hospital, and the lady who saw me (the first one who originally saw me) couldn't believe how quickly it had healed. I went back a week later and it was like it never happened.

 

[dinah]

oh my! how scary! i'm glad it won't affect your vision.

 

[SwirlyThing]

Thanks everyone. Seems like my vision has fully recovered at this point.

Low-1... I'm glad yours healed up without any long-term damage!

 

[low-1]

Thanks, me too!

I'm sure you'll be fine as well, the body is very resilient!

 

[Uniwolf]

I am so very glad that you are apparently doing well. Although it makes me wonder what I would need to do, I use homemade cleaners. So I guess my best bet would be to put a data sheet together for them so that in an emergency such as this there would not be additional issues.

Thank you so much for posting.