And not one canned post the whole time

So last week I spent a bunch of hotel points and took my wife to a nice Hilton resort down in the Sunshine State. I used up some gas points too, so we got a week's vacation for a few hundred bucks. We did nothing beyond relax in the sun poolside. We ate out for dinner. I finished one book that I started before we left and finished two more. I am halfway through yet another. So, yeah, sitting poolside, in the sun, sipping beer, surreptitiously looking at the young moms in bikinis, while reading a good book, made for a perfect relaxing vacation.

I managed to get a decent tan base without a sunburn.

I also got...something. About Tuesday I noticed a few bumps popping up on the back of my hand. By Wednesday the hives were on both hands. Thursday saw both hands and my lower arms covered in itchy hives. If I didn't know better, I would swear I was rubbed by poison oak or something. The back of my hands look like one of those nasty bumpy gourds you see in the fall. I've always been prone to allergic reactions. Hives are nothing new, but I have never been afflicted for so long and that makes me think I have some kind of rash instead of an allergic reaction. I just don't know where I got it or why the wife wasn't afflicted too.

At this point I don't think it is an allergic reaction.  Hives do not last this long.

If it is not better by tomorrow, and I have no reason to think it will be since the bumps are not going down and the itching has not ceased or abated even a little (despite generous amounts of cortisone cream), I will have to saunter off to the doctor.