swelling of face after da Vinci hysterectomy

Today begins my third week of recovery from a DiVinci procedure, and I have had the oddest swelling episodes over the past two weeks.

Week 1 - my tongue swelled which the doctor thinks was caused by an allergic reaction to the pain medication. Stopped meds.

Week 2 - the soles of my feet, palms of my hands, and forearms began to swell, tingle, and turn very red. I was told to take Benedryl. Since I felt severe burning during urination, they also gave me an antibiotic to relieve that. I am allergic to sulfa drugs and ironically, the antibiotic that I was given has a minute trace of sulfa.

Beginning of week 3 - I woke up last night with severe facial (lips and cheeks) swelling. I went immediately to the ER. The ER doctor "thinks" I had a reaction to the antibiotic and put me on a "Benedryl/Steroid/Histine Cocktail" and sent me home with a five day steroid cocktail as well as sulfa-free antibiotics.
My vital signs were perfect, so he didn't seem too concerned.

I am very frustrated. I had hoped that by week 3 I would start feeling human again, but that has not happened. I have no swelling around abdomen (thank goodness!).

Has anyone else experienced these odd side effects? My face is so distorted right now that I look like a bad case of Botox!

I'm so sorry to hear about all this nonsense you've had to endure. As if a hysterectomy wasn't enough already... BIG HUGS!

I haven't had this issue post-op, but I wanted to commend you on going to the ER when you developed the facial swelling. It's so important not to mess around when your body displays those signals in particular.

Just a quick comment, though: I had almost no allergies growing up and then all of a sudden I developed about 40 new allergies and sensitivities in my early 30s. I realize you have enough on your plate right now, but I'd like to suggest that you may want to schedule an appointment with an allergy specialist when you can. You may have new allergies that are causing some of these issues.

For me, having the appointment with my allergy specialist helped confirm why I was getting rashes, hives, puffy lips and eyes, blisters, dizziness, etc. so often, and it helped me reduce my symptoms by 95% just by knowing what to avoid. I don't even take antihistamines anymore.

Wishing you the best of luck and sending you big hugs.

Thank you for the suggestion. I hadn't even thought about an allergist. I will follow-up with that!