A British woman holidaying in Portugal confessed she has “learned her lesson” following a terrifying experience that left her seriously unwell during her travels. Shan turned to TikTok to warn followers after her nightmare, disclosing she “nearly died” on her maiden holiday overseas.
“What could go wrong?” she started with irony. Through a collection of photographs, Shan proceeded to recount her story.
“Arrived, the weather was gorgeous – 23 degrees – nothing too outrageous for my skin,” she explained. But while the initial few hours of her journey went smoothly as she unwound beside her resort’s swimming pool, Shan had no idea her wellbeing was about to deteriorate dramatically.
“Two hours later, I decided to head back in and grab a drink and some snacks and noticed this,” she stated, alongside a picture of her legs that had rapidly turned pink. Subsequently, during the following 24 hours, Shan disclosed the circumstances grew “progressively worse” as the pink transformed to red, causing her to panic and find herself “struggling to walk”.
She awoke the following morning, meanwhile, to find her feet had swollen severely, rendering her “physically unable” to walk to the bathroom. “I managed to crawl into the lift and come outside in the shade because I am not missing out on my holiday,” Shan continued. “But at this point, everyone was shocked to see me.”
Having succeeded in completing her break without requiring medical attention for her condition, Shan said she “braved the flight home” while wearing compression socks. Upon her return home, nevertheless, she went directly to hospital. “I arrived back in the UK and my legs had swollen again,” she revealed, sharing a photo to illustrate her ordeal.
“Blisters on my ankles, every walk is agony, every little movement hurts – I just think it’s sunburn (I had sunscreen on),” she said. But the situation only deteriorated for Shan. A photograph taken in A&E showed her heavily bandaged legs as she lay on a stretcher awaiting further treatment.
“They gave me morphine and a s**t tonne of water for dehydration,” she added. “I was seen instantly with burns on my ankles and legs,” she revealed. “I was dressed and cleaned up with pain relief and antibiotics to go home with four weeks of resting.”
But what was the diagnosis?
“Skin poisoning,” Shan disclosed. Her post, which has been viewed by over 2.2 million TikTok users, saw her close: “After a bandage change every day and a lesson learnt to wear factor 50 instead of 30, I will hopefully be returning on holiday at some point!”
Skin poisoning, medically known as polymorphic light eruption, is a skin rash that can occur after exposure to sunlight. Indeed, the NHS advises online: “It’s more likely to happen when your skin is exposed to strong sunlight for the first time in a while, such as in spring or early summer, or when visiting a sunny country.
“The rash may come back every time your skin is exposed to sunlight. But as the summer goes on, your skin becomes more used to sunlight and it’s less likely to happen.
“You’re more likely to get polymorphic light eruption if you’re under 40, a woman or you have white skin. Boys aged 5 to 14 years are more likely to get a type of polymorphic light eruption called juvenile spring eruption that affects the ears.”