Lost site in left eye due to 9mm accident, Huge blind spot!

Hello All,
I have wanted a Toyota Tundra on and off for my entire life. I am 56 years old and finally kids out of house. Life (Wife) allowed me too get the one I thought would best for me. An SR5 to add all the necessary and options that I wanted. Did not want any nannies or robots, that would interfere with my pure enjoyment of my rig. Settled for a 2015, put Katzkin black leather with red stitching, 2 inch front leveling kit, Method Rims with 285/75/17 Toyo AT tires. Tonnua Bed Cover. I have plans for much, much more. New Stereo Head Unit, Winch Bumper, Winch, and much much more.
All of this has been placed in Jeopardy on September 10th with the ricochet of a 9mm full metal jacketed slug entering right above my left eye and buried itself in my skull, rupturing my optic nerve and detaching my retina.
I have always been a careful, albeit confidant driver in city traffic, country roads, or in the woods. I have to admit my confidence is shattered and non existent at this point and I now understand the need for blind spot monitoring, sonar cruise, etc. I have a HUGE blind spot on my left side. I am afraid this truck is too big. Its size seems huge to me now.
I guess I just wanted to vent and see if any suggestions on how I could regain my confidence in my big beautiful silver sky mantellic War Wagon.....
P.S. I do realize I am the luckiest human on the face of the earth. I was shot in the head with a 12 gauge shotgun with bird shot at a organized dove hunt when I was 12. My dad made me promise not to tell mom. I still have the bird shot pellets in my head. About a decade ago I was run over by a Ford F-450 while sitting at a stop sign on my Harley Davidson. Lost my Left leg on that one after 7 surgeries and weeks in the hospital trying to save the leg. they finally amputated. January of 2021 I had a wild dog knocked me down and rupturing my quad muscle in the right leg. If you look up "freak accidents" in the dictionary, there is my picture.
Thanks in advance for reading and responding!!

 

Dude you have some bad luck, holy shit. Way to persevere and stay alive

 

Do you want to tell the story behind the 9mm or not comfortable with that? My only suggestion is a truck from the last couple years with a 360 camera system and full battery of sensors becomes surprisingly manageable. I can maneuver a long wb crew cab f150 in tight quarters like it's nothing. If the space is physically there I can fit it.

 

Wow, what a story! Clearly the man upstairs isn’t done with you yet. You have something great left to do.

Take a look at this post for a possible solution: https://www.tundras.com/threads/aftermarket-hu-frac-harness-blindspot-cameras.133035/

 

You are a f-ing bad ass. Like that dude from the Monty Python that says tis but a scratch. Hopefully someone smarter than me can chime in and help. Just thinking about closing one eye and driving in my truck is overwhelming. Hope your recovery is progressing well.

 

Holy SHIT!! I'm not sure if you have really bad luck, or you're the luckiest dude on the planet to still be kickin!

I agree with ^^^ @eharri3 that some cameras and the BSM will help. Also since this is a pretty new situation, your senses and brain will almost assuredly adapt and compensate as it becomes more accustomed to the new inputs, or lack thereof.

Keep plugging and you'll figure it out. If you decide you're unsafe then you can adjust accordingly, until then just hang in there.

 

The BSM work for the most part, but are not fail safe. You might want to look into something like a new F-150 with 360 cameras, more intelligent monitoring systems, self driving and braking capabilities. Their systems are much more advanced.

 

Good golly Miss Molly. What an incredible story of luck and never-say-die.

 

HOLY MOLY!!!! WOW!!!!! You are lucky to be alive!!! And man am I sorry you had all that crap happen to you!! I Wish you all the best and sure hope you will always be in the SAFE ZONE from now on!!! All the best man!

 

Man oh man, and I thought Murphy like to follow me around…

I have a friend who lost sight in one eye - well, lost the eye entirely. He is able to drive around without much issue, just a lot of head turning. I’m not saying it’s easy or I that I would be up to the task, but he’s been able to manage living in a high traffic area without much issues (not NYC by any means, but lots of big roads, high speeds, and idiot drivers).

I suspect the full suite of Nannie’s, monitors, and warning bells might well be useful to you. Personally, I they distract me more than they help - but I’m not in the same shoes… errrr… shoe…?… as you. I did temporarily lose most of the vision in one eye due to an ocular migraine while operating machinery that would easily sever limbs without slowing down. I couldn’t see/tell where my arm was for a while and didn’t know if I was going to stick in the machine by accident. Scared the crap out of me so I shut it down until the migraine passed. I can see.. errr… understand to a very small degree how disgruntling that situation can be.

Anyways, welcome to forum.

 

I was shot in the face through the front window of a car with a 12 ga.

Total vision loss in left eye.

I bought a 1989 Toyota pickup when I was in high school as my first car. As an adult, I have ALWAYS wanted a Tundra.

I just bought a 2021 SR5 after years of looking. The one thing I wanted was blind spot monitoring. I was told this truck had it, but it didn't. My fault obviously for not confirming. I was worried about other things when test driving and there was no traffic.

Basically, even if you don't believe me, I promise you that life goes on and you and your body will adapt and overcome and before you know it, not having vision in your left eye won't be the only thing you think about.... It will just be a way of life.

I drive for 12 hrs a day at work and life has become life again. It didn't happen right away, but it did happen. It has to happen. I'm not saying I didn't hit a few pedestrians that were crossing left to right (totally kidding)...

If you have always wanted this truck, then you deserve it, keep it, live life to the fullest and don't let this ever cheat you out of something you want to do or own.

If you feel like you need a little extra help, the towing mirrors with the smaller mirror - showing the blindspot - under the main mirror are a really nice assistance.

Don't live less... Just live differently if you need. Adapt and overcome. And now, you only have 1 left, so ballistic sunglass/regular glasses ALWAYS from now on.

Good luck, man. You got this.

 

Wow, those are some incredible situations you have been through and it is great that you are working them. Best of luck to you for the future and I hope you find the truck that will work for you. You are overdue for some incredible good things to happen.

 

Some of the newer vehicles with 360 cameras are also able to display the image on the dash display when the turn signal on that side is activated. That feature seems like it could be invaluable to you. Some of the Hyundai SUVs I’ve rented lately for work have them. Not sure if the 2022+ Tundra is capable of this?

 

Depending on the blind spot you are trying to mitigate, tow mirrors may help (larger main glass, plus lower fish-eye really shows you the whole side/rear corner) or hurt (greater size blocks visibility toward the front corner/A-pillar).

Factory BSM can be added without TOO much additional work, though I don’t have direct experience with the 2015’s, and the SR5 trim may have more things required (won’t work on chrome bumpers without replacing them with the plastic ones, and that gets expensive too).

Blind spot cameras set up like the post linked earlier might be a good choice (and less expensive than trying to add factory BSM). I would combine that setup with a larger screen aftermarket radio like the Kenwood 10” or Alpine 11” units to give a larger picture of the camera image - given that your left eye is the one affected, having a view on the screen that you can catch with your right eye might work well. Or it might be distracting focusing on that screen instead of the road ahead - I don’t know.

Other options are finding a used 2018-2021 limited that does have the factory “nannies” and seeing what you can do for trade-in. Might even be able to swap tires/wheels/leveling kit across if you find the right dealer willing to do it.

 

This is a way to apply BSM cameras to the 2.5G Tundra. Not sure it’s the best solution, but it’s something?

https://youtu.be/-6TWu4hVgEQ?si=te_81wvfcyj65Xjg

 

WTF...knarly story

 

How on earth are you still alive to tell the tale?!
Get shot in the head and not tell mom? Like, how?!
You Sir, are made of something different than all of us are.....

 

OP please consider changing your profile picture, at least through the month of December.

 

Dude thats what everyone has been saying. I was able to snap a photo of the screen. As you can see the top is the shotgun shot and the 9mm is in the skull went in above my eye and rode the sinus cavity down to stop behind the eye on the optic nerve....
No pics didnot happen right. lol

 

Amazing! What a story to tell. I know you'll get things sorted out. Patience will win the day, stay strong and stick with it!

 

Lucky to be alive! And sorry, I couldn't resist, it made me think of this ......

 

You just might be invincible. Incredible and it leaves me speechless.

 

Something like this might help if full towing mirrors aren't your thing

https://spottermirror.com/make/toyota/tundra/

 

And here I clicked this thread thinking you were being glib about breaking a headlight on your truck or something.

Way to adapt and overcome. Again and again.