I had electrolysis on my upper lip three weeks ago with an experienced practitioner I had seen before. My previous visits had resulted in scabs and breakouts lasting approximately a week with very little swelling. During my most recent visit I had a longer treatment on the areas above the corners of my mouth and one side swelled considerably. Both sides are still discolored and pockmarked. I have had cosmetic procedures before and am used to variations in healing time, but this swelling seems unusual. It is about the size of a quarter and feels firm to the touch, though not terribly red or infected-seeming. I made an appointment with my dermatologist but have to wait a month to see her. Does anyone have experience with this same situation? Guidance? I’m getting worried, as it is rather noticeable. Thanks so much.
Sometimes healing can delay, especially if many hairs had been removed.
A few years ago my a series of treatments i did was the cause surpisingly massive healing delays despite extremely small energy levels of about 58 ELs with a Platinum and a .002 probe. It took a while until i had sufficient feedback from my cleints allowing me to track that down: the timing was too short, only 0.05 secs, and that must have lead to tiny local overheatings which took long to recover. But on the long run everything healed perfectly.
Judging just from Your description i would let it heal. I would, of course, not do any electrolysis on that spot until it has healed perfectly, and i would give feedback to the practitioner.
You can, of course, apply the usual aftercare, but don’t do too much!
Thanks so much for your reply. I am doing no particular aftercare or scrubbing, just leaving the skin alone as much as possible. I will likely not continue with electrolysis in this area, or will wait until things heal completely and then do just a small bit at a time after discussing thoroughly with my practitioner, including the points you raised.
I clear upper lip hair more than I don’t. Swelling lasts no more than three days and I rarely get feedback about scabbing.
There is no way of knowing what your practitioner did. We all have our own tools and skills that get clients to the end game of permanent hair removal. The best thing for you to do is to communicate well with your practitioner and together, you will decide what is best for your hair removal journey. If you slow it down, you will still get there. If you don’t want too much swelling, then go slower. Either way, clearing each time or thinning each time, you get permanent hair removal. The later will take more time.
I don’t mind the process taking longer as long as I can have less swelling and stress along the way. 
Thanks for your response.
You are most welcome! There are hundreds of strategies to get to permanent hair removal with electrolysis. We are in an exploring mode in the beginning to see what is good for your particular situation. So TALK to your electrologist, but don’t send her “thousands” of text messages asking the same questions over and over again. You might scare her or him away.