Thyroid Antibodies Cause of Hives?

Today, paid a follow up visit to the Allergist...

Despite taking Allegra daily for the past 4 days, I still have been getting some form of hives nearly every day. Not a lot of them, thankfully. This morning I woke up and had a big one front and center on my chin, and by 10 AM at work, I noticed a few little ones on the tops of each hand. I decided maybe it was worth one more visit to the Allergist, especially since ragweed pollen in our area has been high lately. When I called in, expecting it would take at least a month to get an appointment, they told me they had an opening at 2:15 PM today. Yippee!

This time, a different Allergist saw me than who I saw before. We discussed that I've been getting different types of hives, different times of days, different parts of body. Her perspective for me was the following:

• She does not believe these hives are due to stress. Her stance is that hives happen for other reasons, but that stress can just make them worse. 
• She does not believe that pollen allergies are to blame. She said hives usually happen from a "contact allergy" (unless idiopathic or auto-immune in nature), so unless I've been rolling around in the grass or weeds, these are not due to pollens.
• She tested me for Dermatographic Urticaria by scraping my skin, but I did not get a hive for that. (see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dermatographic_urticaria)
• She did notice that in my medical history, I tested positive for having Thyroid Antibodies. The first test that revealed that to me was eight years ago by the way, and I never had hives until a few months ago. She believes that while I do not have an autoimmune disease, the presence of these antibodies alone may now acting on my body in such a way as to cause hives. She said that added stress would just increase this activity.
• She said there is no real treatment for this, other than to treat the symptoms with antihistamines.

I was told to take two Allegra a day (every 12 hours) from now on, that I could do so safely. And if I do get a "big breakout", I could try taking 3 a day -- even up to 4 in extreme cases, but by then, I should call them back. She also recommended Pepcid as needed too, as another histamine blocker.

I asked her what my "prognosis" is, and she said they can't predict. They see patients that have this for decades, some who go into remission for months or even years and then the hives come back. Some patients have them more than others, in terms of coverage and intensity.

I also asked her about the different types of hives I have been experiencing in addition to the standard wheals (i.e. sometimes pressure hives, sometimes rashes like from my husband's beard stubble, and sometimes red blotchy circles). She shrugged and didn't really have an explanation.

So I guess now, I must move on to acceptance that this is just what I am stuck with. And to hope for the best. And finally, to keep a periodic eye on my Thyroid levels to see if an autoimmune issue does start to manifest. But so far, it's only these annoying, frustrating, and unsightly hives!