Katie Wright didn’t realize she was putting her life in danger when she popped what she mistakenly believed to be a pimple on her face.
The 21-year-old Austin, TX resident went in on what she “thought was a giant under the skin pimple” next to her eyebrows, only to suffer immediate and excruciating pain.
“It felt like something was going to burst out of my skin,” Wright wrote on Facebook. She told Today that she initially put an ice pack on her face, took ibuprofen, and tried to rest. But when she woke up the next morning, her face was so swollen and painful that she barely recognized herself. Also, her wound was oozing.
“I could barely open my eyes,” she said. “The difference in my face it was unreal.” When she went to the ER, doctors knew exactly what they were looking at.
“They said it was a very serious case of Cellulitis, which is a version of a Staph infection,” explained Wright. “It affects the deep cellular tissues with no main source to attack.” She shared her experience on social media, writing how since the infection started on her face, “there was a huge risk of it spreading to my brain or my eyes causing me to go blind.”
when you go viral for being ugly pic.twitter.com/anwVTHGusH
— katie ? (@katiewright) August 1, 2017
Doctors believe the infection was caused by dirty makeup brushes. “This most likely happened from bacteria getting into my eyebrow pencil brush,” Wright explained. “I’m super strict on washing my face/beauty blender/brushes, but I never thought to disinfect my eyebrow spoolie.”
The area Wright shouldn’t have messed with is often referred to as the “triangle of death“, or the zone from the corners of the mouth to between the eyebrows that, if infected, can cause brain hemorrhages and death.
Wright warns other to take heed of her experience. “If you wear makeup, PLEASE make that a step in your cleaning routine!!!!” she wrote. “It’s a small thing to do to avoid a painful, expensive, and traumatizing infection on your face.”
