Hives????

I'm experiencing something really strange and am not sure what's going on. For a couple of weeks, I've noticed some itching on the palms of my hands, and some strange red blotches. Today it got a lot worse, and the blotches are all over the backs of my hands too. They're HIVES! Now, I've never had hives before in my life, and I have no idea why this has happened now. Maybe stress? I'm applying cortisone cream like mad, and going to take some Benedryl before I go to bed tonight. Hopefully this will subside in a day or two, but this is so weird. Maybe I'm allergic to work -hmmmmmmm.