Firestick Plants Are No Joke….

Jared was outside doing yard work and he was trimming our firestick plant. He’s done it for several years without any issues. But today was another story…..

Somehow he got some of the sap in his eyes and I’ve never seen him in so much pain. We flushed his eyes for a long time, put eye drops in, put cold packs on and nothing seemed to help. We decided we better take him to urgent care to make sure there was no permanent damage done and to get some medication that could help with the pain.

He said his eyes felt like they had the worst sunburn he’s ever had!!! Poor guy was in agony and absolutely MISERABLE!!

These pictures were taken about 30-45 min after it happened. Even though he looks terrible this was a BIG improvement from what it looked like and felt before.

The evil plant…It still needs to be trimmed. I don’t think he’s in any hurry to go out there to finish the job! LOL!!

They gave him some Benadryl just to make sure some of what he was experiencing wasn’t an allergic reaction and gave him an RX for a pain eye drop and an antibacterial eye drop. He slept all afternoon. He woke up feeling a bit better. His eyes were still sensitive and a little blurry and he had a really bad headache. He was grateful for the marked improvement!

He looked it up online to see what it says about this plant. “The excruciating disability caused by the milky sap of the “sticks on fire” plant when it gets into the eye is usually a painful lesson that teaches one quickly that it should never be repeated.”
He said, “Thanks a lot!” Haha!!!

This the color it takes on as it warms up in the summer and where it gets its name from. Ours isn’t quite to that bright color yet this year.

He’s definitely learned a hard lesson he won’t repeat. I think we’re going to buy him goggles before he attempts to trim it again! Hahaha!!