Lips feel dry, slightly itchy, slightly swollen, and have a yellow crust overall. it feels like there is a layer over it. how should it be treated?

Dry itchy lips: sounds like they may be superficially infected. Is the yellow crust coming from somewhere?? - like an open area. I might suggest dilute peroxide on a wash cloth and see what happens and to clean it and then a good simple moisturizer like plain petroleum jelly (less likely to cause a reaction. Hope this helps

To counteract: the dryness, try Vaseline every 3 hours for a few days then, as needed. It's less costly than using up a lot of Lip balms. Also, more hydration orally will go a long way.