11 Days with hives

I am including pictures with this post, they are not of me, but of some other poor soul who suffered from the same thing. So 9 days ago, I began itching during the day, but didn't think much of it. It being winter and dry here, itching is normal. By the time I got home after work though, I ITCHED like crazy, felt hot, and was beginning to hurt in various spots on my body. When I took my clothes off, I discovered an array of problems. 1. I had a lot of little red spots all over that looked like they had the potential to become problems. 2. I also had bigger red splotches that looked angry, and then 3. I had raised hives all over as well. I believe these were the three stages of my hives. Here are some pictures of what I'm talking about.
 

Unfortunately, I was supposed to get up very early the next day to go out of town. I have had hives a couple of times in my life before, and I was always able to take Benadryl and a few hours later they would be gone, so this was my plan of action this time.  I took meds and went to bed, thinking all would be better in the morning.  Well, the hives were still there Wednesday morning, and now I also had a bad cold, when I really needed to leave for the airport.  They weren't any worse, but weren't gone either.  I had recently begun taking a new medicine for cholesterol and so figured that was the cause of the allergic reaction.  I stopped taking the cholesterol drug, took more Benadryl and went to the airport.  I figured it would take a few days for the cholesterol drugs to get out of my system, so I kept taking Benadryl, and soldiered on.  By the time I returned home on Sunday evening, I had been dealing with hives for 5 days.  My next plan was to go directly to my allergist's office first thing in the morning and be waiting when they opened, and get them to see me without an appointment.  They did, and diagnosed it as an allergic reaction, which, d'uh, I already knew that.

The doctor prescribed a menthol cream, and a couple of heavy duty anti-histamines to be taken at the same time to knock the allergy out, however, I wasn't supposed to take the anti-histamines until they could run tests on me to figure out what I was reacting to.  The earliest they could do this was Friday.  Well, Tuesday morning my hives got worse than they ever were and I was wheezing.  I had to take the meds immediately.

So today, Friday, the eleventh day after all this began, the hives are gone, only itchy red spots remain, and I'm supposed to stay on the anti-histamines for quite some time, then later get test for all my allergies all over again.  I have no idea what I could be reacting to, because the hives started before I left town and continued after I returned.  They lasted longer than the time it would take for the new meds to get out of my system.  Viruses can sometimes caused hives, but I got over my cold and still had hives.  I bought different clothes and wore them while out of town because I thought I might have developed an allergy to laundry detergeant. So, I'm at a loss over what was the constant, ever present allergen that was causing all the trouble.  I sure hope they can figure this out.