Around 2:00am a tingling started in the left corner of my upper lip. At 2:45am there was a bump. It grew through the night until my whole lower and upper lips were swollen. It was painful. It has happened twice before at an interval of about 2 months.

The swelling increases for only 12 hours then starts getting better without any medication. Has this any relation to what I ate today..

Does anyone know what is this problem.

Probably...I'd take a benedryl.

sanjeevtaneja,

I have had spider bites on my lip and eyelid that have swollen up like that.

--Rheanna

Is it an allergy of some kind or something else. Why does it goes off by itself.
Do we have an explanation for all this.

It does not looks like a spider bite... No pain and happens every 2-3 months

It goes away as the immune system gives up on it...so to speak...as the alleren has gone away and it no longer needs to fight it. What did you eat shortly before? Youll just have to eliminate the foods, cosmetics, etc until you isolate what caused it.

You know this happens to me all the time as well. I also have no explanation as to why it happens. My lip will feel all tingly, then a large bump starts to form, and then my lips swell huge and last for many hours then it goes away. I usually always take benadryl to help the swelling. But there have been times that i havent taken benadryl and it took longer for the swelling to go down. My eyes do the same thing all the time. They swelll almost complety shut. I always know when my eyes swell because it always feels like i got something in it and they feel very puffy, and then boom it swells up. I was watching t.v. the other night and one of the signs of my eye swelling was the feeling of something in it and sure enough i looked in the mirror and it was almost swollen shut. It just started swelling for no reason. My eyes and lips swelll all the time. I have no explanation for it. I do have very very bad allergies. I am allergic to everything that the ENT's test for, and i also have been recently diagnosed with asthma. So ive got it bad and i am allergic to something that is making me swell up like that i just wish i knew what it was. I know that i am very very allergic and sensitive to house dust, and my house is very very dusty, and it stays that way no matter how much i dust, so im wondering if its the dust that is making me swell so much. Like i said it does it all the time. So there could be many reasons as to why we swell up.

This happens to me sometimes if I eat shrimp and the last peel before the tail touches or scrapes my lip. It took some time to figure it out. I am also allergic to blue dye and dodecyl gallate, an antioxidant in waxes and cheap oils, which explains why my mouth and tongue itched uncontrollably when I would eat an apple.

I watch other people eat apples and think, "Lucky!" Peeling first has no affect, so sickly me eats applesauce instead on occassions.

With the blue dye allergy, I am not supposed to wear blue jeans - can you imagine that??? I wash all blue garments at least five times now before wearing and technically I am not supposed to fold any blue or dark clothes, but you cannot raise a family that way, so I live with the extreme dry skin on my hands.

John

Dustmite is a possibility. Do some dustmite resaerch online. Check out www.allersearch.com. I just saw these products at the allergist's office last week and it may be worth it to you to try the dust mite treatment. Check this out too, dust mites cannot survive under 55 or 60% humidity. If you add a dehumidifier to your home, you may be able to nearly wipe them out! How cool would that be. OH YES, they can become airborne. For washing to be effective, the water temperature must be 135 degrees F, but 140 deg F is recommended, which can cause burns if we get water that hot on our skin.

However, the Allersearch dust mite treatment is effective in cold water. Read up on their products. I do not have the extra money right now to try any of it, but maybe soon. Also use pleated air filters in your home, but not the washable central heat and air filters and I make it a rule not to spend more than $8 for a pleated air filter and change it monthly. Change vacuum cleaner bags when they get at least half full. We change our vacuum bags once per week or two at most, because a vacuum loses a lot of suction when the bag becomes half full and goes down exponentially from there, which means dust mites don't get picked up as well either.

John

I had the same type of swelling periodically occur at the same time of night (between 2-4 am). For a couple of years I had no idea what was causing this to happen. I eventually went in for patch testing and found out I was allergic to blue dye. If I eat something during the day with blue dye in it my lips or tongue will swell at night.

11-23-05

Regarding lip swelling----
You are having an allergic reaction to something and you call this angioedema.
I get this (along with swelling of eyes and head itches-hives). As I investigated, I found out I am allergic to aspirin and ibuprofen(Motrin etc.)
I have had an attack several times and can "nip it in the bud" by taking BENADRYL.
Word of caution--If you feel the inside of your mouth,tongue or throat closing-going into anaphlactic shock and must have medical LIFE SAVING help(911) IMMEDIATELY.
1.Find out the allergen
2 Always carry BENADRYL
3. See an Allergist-ask about carrying an EPI-PEN

Extra note summary--Angioedema is uncomfortable
Anaphlactic shock is Life threatening

I had a very similar problem about 12 years ago and traced it to eating foods with the preservative sodium benzoate. After swelling, my lips would split and bleed. Sodium benzoate is not as prevelent now as it was then. It used to be in soft drinks, chips most preserved/prepared foods and even toothpaste. Try to remember what you ate or did the night before these episodes. I read labels very carefully now, find very few with sodium benzoate any more.

I to have lip swelling, along with eyelid swelling and giant hives. Aren't lip swelling hives under the skin? Is this dangerous?
Mary

Regarding Hives...Mandarra was to see her Dr. last week. I'm curious as to his diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. Hopefully she'll see this post.

I bet you have pets. I strongly believe it is from kissing your pets or touching them and then touching your lips. I've had this happen to me numerous times. So, do you have a cat or dog or both?

I have a dog, have had him for 12 years and never had lip swelling until three months ago. I first develop hives, then I get lip, eye and face swelling always in the middle of the night, I take an antihistamine every day and have not had a breakout when I'm on them. In my case I believe that they are hives deep in the skin. It terrifies me that it could effect my throat, it hasn't so far and I hope it never will, but I fear this very much. I guess I've developed an allergy out of the blue and I don't know to what.
Mary

How about mangoes? have you eaten one recently? Or Fish? I get those symptoms when I eat either of those foods!

Hi,
I recently developed lip swellings too (lower lip). I had them before, but they went away by themselves.

Now they just would not disappear and I tried taking Zyrtec. Taking this one time a day lets the swelling disappear completely, so I gathered it is some kind of allergy, am I right?

If I stop taking it, It returns. I have started recently using a mouth wash that contains Sodium Benzoate, but I have not used it yesterday and the swelling still returned.

I will stop using that anyway though. I was due for an allergy test, but I have to stop my anti-histamines three days prior to the test... Which is not really an option at this point.

I am allergic to apples, peers, mango, citrusfruits, kiwi, cucumber peels, various nuts, tree pollen, yellow food dyes, sulfite, some artificial sweeteners and maybe some preservatives I do not know of...

I keep a few hamsters as pets, but have never experienced any allergies towards them. I do kiss my hamsters a lot, but have not done so in the last few days.

Any ideas on what else it might be?

I woke up this morning with painful, swollen lips. This happened once before, about 2 years ago. I went to the doctor and he put me on Valtrex and assumed I had herpes. It didn't help. However, during this time I was constantly applying Carmex. As soon as I stopped, the swelling and pain went away. Three days ago I purchased Chapstick Moisturizer and now I'm back in the same state as I was 2 years ago. So, I'm assuming there is something in Carmex and Chapstick Moisturizer that is causing this problem. I will take a Benedryl and cross my fingers. Any recommendations? Thank you in advance.