Wear Protection
At the risk of fear-mongering, I share the following cautionary tale.
Sometime between 6-6:30 pm on Sunday September, 25th, while biking through the U of M Campus along the Row of Scholars, I felt my face pummeled with lots of tiny objects. Nothing I could see, but could definitely feel hitting my face, entering my nose and even my mouth, as I gasped in surprise. It was as if someone had hurled something at me, though there was no one around who could have done so.
About 15 minutes later, as I approached home, I began to feel a tickle in my throat. This quickly escalated into a hacking cough, as my body tried to expel whatever it was I’d inhaled. By the time I got home, I was coughing so hard that my head pounded with each cough.
Once inside, I drank some juice, and the coughing subsided.
Not long after, my left eye began to bother me. First a slight itch, then full on irritation…as if something were in my eye. I went to the sink and rinsed my eye. The irritation only increased.
Finding this similar to allergic reactions I’d had in the past, I decided to take a nap and give my body the chance to heal itself.
When I woke three hours later, the pain in my eye was excruciating. I looked in the mirror and saw that my eye … my EYE BALL was red, swollen, puffy and leaking. So, I walked to the emergency room.
They pretty much saw me immediately.
Three hours and three doctors later, it was concluded that I had keratitis of the cornea… microscopic abrasions and lacerations. Describing what she saw in my eye, one doctor said “it looks like crumpled up pieces of aluminum”. They surmised that I must have encountered a cloud of “toxic dust”.
The cornea is self-healing. It, however, is also one of the main shields against eye infection… and my ‘shield’ has all sorts of cuts in it. So, I must take antibiotic drops for the next 7 days. I was also prescribed Percocet to deal with the pain and subsequent itching, should either become severe (the pain has subsided, though the itching has begun). I have a follow-up appointment tomorrow morning.
The cautionary part of this tale? When cycling, if at all feasible, where eye-protection. Normally, I would have had my sunglasses on. But it was overcast and the sun was setting. I had taken to wearing clear or yellow goggles in the winter. I think I will be expanding that to whenever I’m cycling.
I realize the odds of this occurring at all, much less again, are likely very low. But having been through this, I don’t want to gamble against lightning striking twice.
Additionally, there is currently quite a bit of construction going on in the region. All sorts of things are floating about in the air. Extra precautions are warranted.
For the record, I was not biking through a construction zone when this occurred. Though, I am now suspicious of what activities are conducted in that stretch of the Row of Scholars.
jamezicarius 