My face is red and swollen. No obstruction with my breathing but the rash has spread down my neck and chest to my waist. I called the doctor and he thinks that even though I didn't have a pennicillian allergy, it could've been the antibiotic that was put in my IV during my surgery on the first. Anyone else have this happen? Benadryl isn't doing s**t for me and I look just horrible. Any suggestions?

I did have that problem, but it was from the pain medicine. My doc wouldn't prescribe anything else and simply told me to take Benadryl. I took Benadryl along with my regular dose of zyrtec. That finally took the edge off, but Benadryl alone didn't do it. Are you taking the maximum allowable dose of the Benadryl?

I am taking the maximum and it's weird you said that about the pain meds...I was given Mepergan, which I took over a decade ago with no problems. However, I have an allergy to Sulfa and I found Mep has sulfites in it. The doc doesn't think it's the mep, though. So you're combining the Benadryl with Zirtec? Is that over the counter? How long did it take your swelling to go away? It's already puffed up so much around my eyes that it's driving me crazy...almost interfereing with my vision. But the doc says as long as there's no breathing difficulty then no emergency.

Zyrtec is over the counter. It took about a day of taking them both for me to be close to normal. You only have to take the Zyrtec once a day and then I took the Benadryl every 4 hours. I also drank a lot of water to help flush the medicine out of my system (I don't know if that actually did anything or not, but it helped to ease my mind). I got the idea from a friend that had really bad hives (they never could determine the cause). She went to an allergist that actually had her taking a combination of 4 different allergy meds (they all worked differently) to calm her system. As long as she took them all, her hives stayed gone. When taking just the Benadryl didn't help me, I decided to add the Zyrtec. I hope you feel better soon.

When I had my IUD put in I had a reaction to it because it was crocked. My face and neck looked almost bruised and I had to have it removed. Also your body changes and you definately could have developed an allergy to something that you've taken long ago with no problems. Try Zyrtec and see you regular dr. It may be something that you are eating or soap...something. Good luck!!!

Just returned from ER...had to get a steroid shot and was put on mederol (sp?). The concern is that I'm allergic to WHEY! What am I going to do about Protein? Crap.

While I'm in a crabby mood, let me just say I ate an egg and egg white scrambled soft today. I couldn't control myself...I wanted food so badly and was so sick of Protein drinks I could just throw up. My surgery was 10/1 so I'm 4 days out. Now, I'm drinking broth but is it normal to be this hungry?