hornet stings.

managed to get stung multiple times ohh about two days ago. Stung pretty bad when it happened then it subsided. 5-6 hours later when I was ready to go to bed, none of the stung area were swollen, sore or had turned red. ??? no swelling or discomfort.

Woke up next morning and not much of swelling or redness. Worked outside on my farm and my left hand where it was stung started to hurt. More like minor irritation. Later in the evening my hand was definitely swollen. Why the delayed reaction? Took some antihistamine (benedryl) and it seemed fine.

And today, my whole left hand is swollen and hot to the touch and very itchy. I've been icing to cool it off and reduce the itchy feeling. My other sting site has finally showing signs of swelling and redness.

Does this seem normal for such delayed reaction? or as I'm wondering, if it might be an infection rather than a reaction from wasp venom. If the swelling gets worse by Monday, I will go find a doctor...

I thought most people would get redness, swelling etc soon after a sting not 24, or even 48 hours later. what do you think?

BTW, we wiped out about 8 hornets nests right in the vicinity of where I was stung. Right by the water spigot in the greenhouse. They can make nests elsewhere where they would not inconvenience me.

I got a bunch of fly bites the other day that did pretty much the same thing. At the time I didn't even think they were biting - I only felt one or two, but the next day I woke up with my ring finger all swollen (I had to grease my rings off) and about a dozen or so more super itchy, raised bites. They itched horribly and were all bumpy for a few days. I took some Allegra and used antihistamine cream on them to take the edge off. They stopped itching after about 3 days and the swelling went down after about 4, but the red marks on my legs lasted almost 2 weeks.

Yikes.

Delayed allergic reactions aren't that unusual - when I get my allergy testing done, the nurse always re-checks the wheals 24 hours later. For me, also, circulation in my hands and feet isn't that great, so if I get a sting or bite on a finger or hand, especially, working with my hands will mechanically spread the venom around and make the swelling worse.

But yeah - I'd keep an eye on it for sure, maybe even pop into urgent care tomorrow rather than waiting for Monday if it hasn't started getting better.