'It's still a little early for Halloween': Michelle Chong retains sense of humour despite 'swollen fishball eye'

They say when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Local comedian and actress Michelle Chong did just this after getting an eye infection.

"Since most of you asked for it, here's my swollen eye and I look like the Elephant Man. Please don't cancel me, you were warned," the 46-year-old wrote on her Instagram Story posted late last night (Oct 26), adding a photo of her badly swollen left eye and horror music.

She said that the doctor gave her antibiotics and an antibiotic eye ointment, and thanked everyone for their concern and advice.

Speaking to AsiaOne today, Michelle explained how her eye started aching a little the night she went for a friend's birthday dinner.

"I put a warm compress on my eye but it started swelling a little the next morning. Then I tried to ice it. It didn't get better but it still wasn't that bad," she told us.

Despite her condition, she felt "bad" cancelling a Peranakan private dining reservation that was booked months prior, and still went out that evening.

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"Maybe it was the copious amounts of fried pork lard I ate that made it worse. The next morning, because my eyelid inflamed and swelled to the size of a fishball and I looked like the Elephant Man — no offence to anyone who identifies themselves as the Elephant Man — I got a little worried and went to an old-school clinic across the road the minute it opened," she recounted.

Michelle said that the doctor gave her medication but didn't mention what caused the eye infection, and she wasn't sure herself.

She continued: "The doctor asked me what I did for a living and I said I ran my own business so I didn't need a medical certificate. She said, 'Good, 'cos you can't go to the office like that.'"

Of course, she didn't forget to crack a joke: "I agreed that I didn't want to go around scaring people 'cos it's still a little early for Halloween, but I posted a photo of my swollen fishball eye on my Instagram Story since a huge majority of my followers asked for it."

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syarifahsn@asiaone.com

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