horrible accident

About a month ago I was driving to work like any other day. Due to my job I half to leave to go to work at around 4 am. On the way to work a drunk driver ran into my car and had nearly flipped me over and caused me a serious head injury. An ambulance came and took me to the hospital i was there for nearly 3 months two of those i had been in a coma. After the injury rehab I went home. I have not used any laser in 3-4 months so I went to m room and took the first laser I saw on my counter out side it had been night time. The laser was my 500mw 635nm red laser or so I thought. I shined it in the sky and noticed the color was yellow. It looked like a bright yellow beam going through the sky. I was astonished and thought it was impossible me being very exited I called up my buddy who also liked laser and showed him. He said it was the same bright red color as usual. I didn't know what was happening and this happened with my other lasers to. My 445nm look a lot lighter like closer to 473nm. It turns out with the head drama my vision had been messed up and all my colors weren't correct. This was even more surprising because i didn't even know until I got my laser. I went back to the doctor and they said that when I was hit by the car my vision got messed up and not actually but basically its like your color blind now. So I thought I would share my crazy story and i guess from laser enthusiasts perspective this would be pretty cool but I find it more of a curse.

Wow! Well I'm just glad to hear you're still here to tell us about it.. the color thing is wild though.

Do you know if it is permanent?

I have a friend that passed out after some rock climbing due to dehydration. He hit his head pretty hard and apparently his sense of taste and smell were altered. I'm not sure if it's back to normal.

Oh wow. That's horrible to hear but I'm glad you're mostly back to normal.

I was involved in a head on a few years ago and was paralysed for 4 months. I couldn't imagine being in a coma though, that'd be more scary to me.

blakegriffin said:

I shined it in the sky and noticed the color was yellow.

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I don't mean any disrespect to your condition but hey, cheap yellow pointer for you

Lase

RA_pierce said:

Do you know if it is permanent?

I have a friend that passed out after some rock climbing due to dehydration. He hit his head pretty hard and apparently his sense of taste and smell were altered. I'm not sure if it's back to normal.

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I am going to meet with the doctor again friday to learn more about what happened but for now I don't know if it's permanent or not.

well look at all the money you will save by not having to buy a real yellow... baddah bing.. i'll be here all week!!


michael.

Lase said:

Oh wow. That's horrible to hear but I'm glad you're mostly back to normal.

I was involved in a head on a few years ago and was paralysed for 4 months. I couldn't imagine being in a coma though, that'd be more scary to me.



I don't mean any disrespect to your condition but hey, cheap yellow pointer for you

Lase

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Ya I have a 5mw 589nm laser which color hasn't been affected and when I shine them in the sky the color is almost identical just the 500mw 635nm laser is a lot brighter.

blakegriffin said:

Ya I have a 5mw 589nm laser which color hasn't been affected and when I shine them in the sky the color is almost identical just the 500mw 635nm laser is a lot brighter.

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So have you tried with all your lasers to see what colours may have been screwed up for you?

Having red seen as yellow will make traffic lights annoying....

Lase

Lase said:

So have you tried with all your lasers to see what colours may have been screwed up for you?

Having red seen as yellow will make traffic lights annoying....

Lase

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Ya I see red as a yellow blue as a bright blue very similar to 473nm and all the other colors just seem a little different not as drastic as the red to yellow and the blue to really bright blue but a little of. Also ya but im not aloud to drive for the next couple weeks anyways.

Hmmm I've read about this kind of thing.

Here's a couple of links that might help you get an understanding of what has actually happened.

Cerebral Achromatopsia
Aquired Colour Vision Deficiencies

Lase

Glad to hear youre okay! That's horibble, the collision!
If 445 looks like a 473 and a 635 looks like 589 and a 589 looks like 589 then maybe your vision perception is moving towards seeing 589nm?

Glad to hear you are alright for the most part. It would seem that your perception of red is most affected, of all the photoreceptors to not have work right, that is the best one. losing green means drastic color problems and losing blue means drastic low-light problems.

Tell me, do you have any deep red light sources? >650nm? Deep red should only stimulate the red photoreceptors, and it would be interesting to know if you can see it at all.

blakegriffin said:

I am going to meet with the doctor again friday to learn more about what happened but for now I don't know if it's permanent or not.

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Wow, that is a terrible story. I'll be thinking of you and will say a prayer or two for you as well. I'm glad you are still here, but that totally sucks that it happened to you! :-(

Glad to hear your still with us, hope you vision is a temp problem and returns to normal.

On the other hand 589nm is a pretty color to look at even if it's 635 you really looking at

Scary but still very interesting. Have you lose any sensitivity to either end of the spectrum? How does purple or deep red look?

Interesting stuff ! Here a beer for your trouble ! :beer: