A 27-year-old man will have a scar on his face for the rest of his life after what he thought was a pimple turned out to be an infected cyst.
In late 2024, Kai Davidson noticed a small lump on the side of his nose, but he didn't think much of it back then. He only thought it was a "tiny pimple" and that it would be gone in a matter of days anyway.
As it didn't go away, Davidson, of Melbourne, Australia, came to realize it was no ordinary blemish. He got it seen by a doctor, who said it was in fact a small cyst. While he certainly didn't like the idea of it growing on his face, Davidson, 27, didn't hurry to get it surgically removed, telling Newsweek that it "remained small and unnoticeable for nine months."
In June 2025, Davidson noticed some changes in the cyst, as it was growing much larger and appeared infected. As he already had a doctor's appointment coming up, he waited to bring it up then and see what could be done.
"I went in for my appointment and they said it had got infected," Davidson said. "But it didn't get that bad until Saturday when I got called in to the hospital early."
Initially, Davidson was prescribed antibiotics to treat the infection before going in for surgery several days later to remove the cyst. However, in the days that followed, the cyst "doubled in size every day," and it was causing his entire eye area to swell up.
Davidson called his surgeon, who told him to come to the hospital immediately where he was placed on IV antibiotics for 24 hours.
On June 22, he went into surgery to remove the cyst. Unfortunately, due to the level of infection, surgeons were unable to close the wound and had to leave it open until a second surgery could take place the next day.
In the second surgery, the rest of the infection was cleaned out and the wound could finally be closed.
"The first surgery was great, and I felt really good, but my second one definitely wasn't as good. I woke up in a lot of pain," Davidson continued.
He still had to remain at the hospital on antibiotics following the surgery to ensure there was no infection left. Thankfully, Davidson told Newsweek that his recovery "has been textbook," and he's doing much better.
"I really don't have any complaints, but I will have a scar right above my eye for the rest of my life," he said.
Following the unexpected ordeal, Davidson has shared his experience on TikTok (@_lifeofkaiiii_) and the videos have captured plenty of attention. A video explaining what happened and showing how bad the infection became has gone viral with over 217,700 views and more than 3,200 likes on TikTok at the time of writing.
He certainly wasn't expecting this overwhelming response to his experience, but Davidson is so grateful for all the support and positivity that he's received as a result.
"I didn't expect it to go viral, but I've had an outpouring of support from people all around the world, which has been pretty cool to say the least," Davidson told Newsweek.
With over 200 comments on the viral TikTok post already, many social media users praised Davidson for his transparency and for raising awareness.
One comment reads: "Glad you're fine after all that! Rest well."
Another person wrote: "Thank you for sharing. I hope you have a speedy recovery best wishes."
While another TikTok user replied: "You are extremely lucky that it didn't cause significant trouble for your eye."
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