Hey Al,
have you reacted like this before? I ask because I just had a similar reaction and I have never had even a little bit of swelling before.
About a month ago I caught a swarm and, in the process, took several stings to my hands and one to my forehead. (When you have a 5 gal. bucket of bees over your head don't drop the bucket!
) The stings didn't hurt and I had never had any reaction before so I didn't give it much thought. A few hours later I felt a little strange and briefly had a small patch of hives develop on my butt---it was hot, I was sweaty, so I didn't give it much thought. I'm guessing that I was probably stung about a dozen times. The next few days my hands were very swollen but not sore or itchy, there was no swelling on my forehead. I took a few benadryls, just in case.
One week later I checked the hive top bottle feeder and was surprised when several bees came after me. I was just going to do a quick bottle change so I didn't bother to put on a veil. One of the girls chased me down and stung me in the middle of the forehead right at the hairline, about an inch from where I was stung the week before. I took some benadryl immediately. It took several hours for the swelling to develop but eventually my entire face was swollen to the extent that my eyes were tiny little slits. For the next two days my vision was impaired enough that I didn't feel I could see well enough to drive and it was a few days after that before the swelling was completely gone. Until this time I always thought that, except for the initial sting, I reacted worse to mosquito bites. Something had definitely changed!
I saw my Dr. and got a prescription for an EpiPen and some better Benadryl, just in case. I'm waiting to see how I will react to a sting somewhere other than my face. I'm curious to see if I have developed an alergy. :(
George