hives update

Thanks for the kind concern about my itchy hives. I stopped the prednisone after one dose because that stuff is awful. I feel bad for anyone that needs to take that stuff long term because it made me feel like absolute crap. I switched to claritin and that seemed to help with the itching. My hives are no longer swollen and a good many have disappeared but I've still got a couple nasty big splotches on my stomach and chest. I feel like I have to explain that when I was panicking about what itching illness might have afflicted me that I came off as a hypochondriac, which I honestly don't think I am. Hypochondria by proxy I totally am, as my mind has an uncanny knack for imagining the gruesome worst, with respect to medical conditions or horrible accidents, that might befall my children. But I don't really worry about me getting sick or dying. Don't get me wrong, it would totally suck to miss out on time with my husband and children if my life was cut short and I'd lament all the good books I hadn't gotten around to reading and places I haven't visited yet. But I don't really worry about dying, which is odd considering everything else that I worry about. I panicked about possibly having contagious itchies because 1. I wouldn't be able to go to the gym and I've become quite the gym junkie, that 1 hour and five minutes of cardio and weights is my daily 'me time' which I rely on to keep me sane. So, contagious itchies - gym (it would be a little unseemly to be scratching myself nonstop while exercising) = me bouncing off the walls. 2. I was worried that I might have given something to the kids in Owen's class. I had just volunteered at Owen's school a day before I broke out in hives and I was like 'what if I've given his whole class lice or chicken pox or shingles?!' don't think the teacher would want me to volunteer again. and finally 3. I'd feel awful if I'd inadvertently exposed someone who's pregnant (we have a friend due next month) to chicken pox or shingles. So those were the three main reasons I was panicking about what I had, plus the whole disinfecting your house if you have lice would be a nightmare (and we have cats would they need to be deloused as well?!), but mostly I was flipping over getting other people sick or not working out. Alas, I just have hives so no worries, unless I have chronic hives which last for more than 6 weeks. Wikipedia says (so I can't say how accurate this info is) that 20% of chronic hive sufferers have them for longer than twenty years! That seems completely insane that hives could last that long,my kids would both be done with college by then. But I'm not really worried about that, seriously.