The Results are in - my immune system is retarded.

The allergist says that a lot of auto-immune diseases like hyperthyroidism can lead to hives (urticaria). When I went in this morning (after 72 hours of no anti-histamines yarrrrr!!!) he gave me a pretty cool informational pep talk. Then he did a scratch test because I said "I am not living without anti-histamines ever again - you better test this while you can", which turned out negative for all foods/typical allergens. Anyways, what this is I took away from the talk.

Your immune system has mast cells to fight off allergens. They release histamines which cause inflammation and the typical symptoms of an allergy. There are four typical areas of release:

Mast cells releasing histamines in the skin = hives.
Mast cells releasing histamines in the stomach = heartburn.
Mast cells releasing histamines in the lungs = asthma.
And there's another one but I forgot it.

Sometimes your immune system attacks mast cell receptors which triggers the histamine release without any allergens present - this is most likely what is happening to me. Mast cells can also be triggered by food/drugs/dust/latex/side effects/etc, but he strongly believes this is tied to my already present auto-immune disease, and that makes sense to me - no new foods/detergents/anything.

Then he gave me a Rx for and samples of Zyrtec. Once the body has calmed down, I may be able to go off of it at some point. If the body doesn't calm down, I have to go back to prednisone and zyrtec. All the while taking Zantac for the heartburn, because the H2 blockers are more correct in my case than the Prilosec.

I love drugs. I feel like a zombie with an all new set of aches and pains and sleepyness, but I am itch-free again.