My UVA damage is from stupidity, I have several strong sources of UVA. I use UVA for certain chemistry things like TLC visuals etc and also I use 50W UVA for water sterilization in hydroponics and various experiments. I have had several bad over exposures that required hospital treatment and this has damaged my eyes (right eye in particular), I also have a tiny spec in my right eye from using a laser I thought was 5mW but turned out to be alot stronger.
I am now extremely cautious with my eye sight, I am also partly deaf in my left ear from messing with things that go bang.
Hell LG,
I know when you are young you are invincible, but your sight is the most precious of your 5 senses: you must look after your eyes because any problems/damage while you are younger will only make the situation worse as you get older. I expect you know this, but the eye is both the fastest and slowest healing organ in your body. The front part heals very quickly, 24 hours typically, but the rear part, optic nerve etc are extremely slow healing as are all the nerves in your body. In early 1964, as a passenger in a car that hit a wall, I was blinded in the right eye- the optic nerve had been damaged where it joins the retina.
The Ophthalmic consultant who checked my eyes said that the right eye would probably improve , but it would take years. What he said proved the case and now, 52 years later, I can recognize people and sort of watch TV with my right eye.
Like you, I have been blaze about my eyes: welding without shading mask, grinding/cutting without protective goggles and, worst of all, looking at a sun eclipse with the naked eye- that was really painful and burnt the retina but, luckily, it has pretty much healed up now.
It really pisses me that as my close up sight has deteriorated with age, so electronics has got smaller and smaller. This makes surface mount work impossible at the moment so I am investigating a microscope, either optical or electronic, as a background task.