People think I’ve had too much Botox after my eyes swelled shut – but it was a SPIDER bite | The Sun
A POSTMAN'S face was left looking like he had too much Botox after his eyes swelled shut but he had actually been bitten by a poisonous spider.
Andy Pattinson had a horrific reaction to the false widow spider causing his face to swell so much his eyes closed over.
The postie noticed an egg-sized lump on his forehead after he finished his round earlier this month.
The 58-year-old joked it looked like his wife Sandra had smacked him with a frying pan and went into work the next day thinking it would go down.
Andy, from Eastbourne, East Sussex, said: "Something didn't feel right on my forehead while I was on my walk so I looked and I had an egg-sized bump on there.
"By the time I got home it [had] spread to either side of my forehead.
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"I told Sandra my head felt funny and she said, 'Bloody hell, it looks like you've had Botox', which I haven't.
"I knew it was a spider bite straight away because I walk through bushes and trees every day, it's an occupational hazard.
"You feel webs all the time and you just brush it off and think nothing of it. I've obviously annoyed this spider and it didn't like me but I didn't even feel it.
"Sandra thought it was funny at first then she started worrying.
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"I got called a few names like Mr Magoo, Kingpin and I was puffy and red. I told people Sandra had hit me with a frying pan, it's not a good look.
"My face swelled enough that I couldn't wear my baseball cap, couldn't see properly out of my left eye and looked like someone had been over-indulgent with the Botox injections."
Andy was soon rushed to hospital when he could no longer see and his tongue started tingling.
He said: "I might have been getting funny looks at work the next day but I didn't take any notice, I was talking to all the dogs that I've adopted on my walk.
It looked like someone had been over-indulgent with the Botox injections
"But then it spread into my upper eyelids and started to close my eyes so my wife said I should go to the hospital so I went before my eyesight completely conked out.
"I felt a tingle on my tongue and I started getting worried because the last thing I wanted was my tongue swelling up and a tube down my throat to help me breathe.
"They couldn't say for sure without the spider there but in the centre of my forehead I had two little pin pricks which could have been the fangs. It didn't even buy me a drink.
"I've had a reaction to the venom in the spider bite.
"It doesn't hurt at all, it just feels like I've got water under my skin. The weirdest thing is having a wash because you move the skin but the fluid underneath stays put, it's the weirdest feeling.
"I think it's my body underneath trying to flush it out."
SWELL OF A BITE
Eastbourne District General Hospital prescribed steroids to help with the venomous bite swelling but doctors don't know when it will fully go down.
Even after his reaction, Andy says he still doesn't have a fear of spiders.
He said: "I'm now getting puffiness underneath the eyes. I'm on steroids and I've just got to wait and it'll take as long as it takes.
"If it hasn't gone down when the tablets have finished I need to go back to hospital, I'll look like myself again soon but it may not be an advantage.
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"I'm not going to be on edge at work, if it happens it happens.
"I'm not scared of spiders but my wife is. If there's a spider in the house I have to get it and she gets annoyed because I won't kill them."
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