Hi, I get hives, too...I was on an antibiotic at a low dose for a long time for a UTI and ended up allergic to it. My allergist said once the hive reaction gets turned on it is very hard to turn it off (I stopped the antibiotic this past december if that tells you anything), and I know exactly how miserable you are. He also said that very often no underlying cause is determined...he himself had hives for two years and never knew why! So unless you have switched something in your routine recently, don't kill yourself trying to determine the cause if you can't figure it out (although stress never helps, of course...but who isn't stressed??).

Benadryl is not going to do it since you are as itchy as you say you are...most likely it is not strong enough. I was taking allegra (prescription) for awhile and then they were breaking through that, so the allergist gave me some prescription xyzal samples and mentioned the active ingredient was quite similar to that in zyrtec...which is over the counter. So I have been taking zyrtec for quite awhile now (months) and have found that it works wonders for me! The Wal-mart generic version of zyrtec is the cheapest that I have found...you can definitely get a good deal on that and it is worth every penny! You take one every 24 hours. I think it might cause some drowsiness in some people, but has no effect on me.

I did get a blood test to make sure there was no underlying cause, so I would recommend that to you.

Do keep us updated on your progress and I hope some of this was helpful!

P.S. They were on my neck and chest and stomach, and I DID cry, so I am right there with you...totally sucks!!