Hives again...

Hadley has been battling hives off and on for months now. We haven't figured out the culprit but it looks like an allergic reaction to something, we just haven't pinpointed what yet. This time around, they started on Saturday evening with just a few on her trunk and cheeks. Then, Sunday morning they were on her entire body. I had one steroid pill left from the last time, so I gave her that. This morning, they were even worse than yesterday, with a lot of yesterday's hives faded but lots of new ones and she was really itchy! So, I called the doctor again today, thinking they might just call me in another steroid prescription. But, since she had just had them a month ago and they did seem worse this time, they had us come in. The doctor wanted to rule out any autoimmune diseases that can cause your body to react in hives and also do some allergy testing. So, we headed down to the lab. Poor Hadley, she was so cooperative (even though she was crying her head off) while they had a terrible time getting a vein to fill the two tubes of blood they needed. She got rewarded with a milk shake on the way home and promptly crashed on the couch after she drank her milkshake and ate her lunch. We did get a call from the doctor's office this afternoon saying that the initial bloodwork looked fine with no elevated counts, which means we can just look at allergies. So, we wait for the allergy panel to come back and if nothing shows up there, we will get referred to see an allergist who can do more extensive testing. Here are some shots of the hives on Sunday. I should have taken new photos this morning when they had multiplied but I didn't think of it!