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By Jack Beresford
Senior Reporter
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A woman’s vacation took a frightening turn when she noticed something unusual under her eye.
Phoenix McPike, from Norfolk in the U.K., was taking a selfie while on holiday in Greece when she spotted something that didn’t look right.
“I noticed a heavy eye bag,” McPike told Newsweek. “I didn’t think much of it, but could see it was noticeable.”
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She went to bed that night not overly concerned, but the next morning things had got decidedly worse.
“I woke up and realized I couldn’t see very well, so I looked in the mirror,” McPike said.
McPike’s eye had swollen significantly overnight. She sought help from hotel staff, who directed her to a nearby pharmacy.
“Initially I thought it might have been sun poisoning, but the pharmacist dismissed that idea and told me to go to the hospital,” she said.
Even there, doctors were baffled.
“Initially they thought it was a severe allergic reaction and said it looked like an allergy to an insect bite,” McPike said. “But after three IV steroids and an antihistamine IV, my face looked the same. I also couldn’t find a bite mark.”
Doctors told McPike it was likely an allergic reaction or infection. After returning to her hotel, the swelling around her eye initially reduced. However, she also began to notice patches around her mouth that looked like hives.
A day later, however, McPike’s face had swelled up significantly again—from below her eye to her jaw—while the patches of hives had worsened and she felt increasingly unwell.
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She returned to the hospital. The doctor examining her didn’t mince words.
“The doctor said I had almost every infection you could have at the same time,” McPike said. “Cheek, jaw, ear, sinus, chest, lip, and lymph node infections. I also had significant hearing loss, and when they examined my ears, both were infected and there was blood on or around the eardrum.”
This time, they decided McPike needed to be admitted in order to receive IV antibiotics.
A few weeks on, McPike is pleased to report she has almost completely recovered from her ordeal, aside from a few lingering health issues.
“I have recovered mostly, but I still have an ear infection and a ruptured eardrum, which was diagnosed when I got back to England and is currently being monitored,” she said.
Though she’s on the mend, McPike said her ordeal on vacation was a “scary” experience, in part because, to this day, no one is really sure what caused it.
“I have no idea how this happened, and the doctors didn’t seem to either,” she said.
Despite the uncertainty over what happened, the experience has taught McPike to trust her instincts when it comes to her health.
“I’ve always been vigilant about my health and well-being, but this situation definitely made me more aware of the importance of getting medical assistance when you know something isn’t right,” she said.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Charlotte Nisbet and Emma Lee-Sang.
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