Mouse Dropping

[AnxiouslyScared]

Okay so I'm 19 weeks and 4 days pregnant with my third child. Today our dogs escaped from the backyard so I had to take them to the backyard myself since I was home alone. I was still in my pjs and wearing my loafers. When I came back inside, I sat on the floor to play with my 3 year old. I looked down and noticed something brown that looked like a long piece of rice on my loafer. At first I thought it was mud that was rolled up but then I realized it was a mouse dropping as we've been having a mice infestation since we live near an open field. I even sniffed it to see if it had a smell. I've washed my hands multiple times, disinfected everything I touched, and sanitized whatever fabric was touched in the washer. We live in an area where hantavirus is rare but when I looked up "hantavirus in rio grande valley" there has apparently been an outbreak in the panhandle of Texas this past summer so now I'm even more paranoid. I see my ob/gyn in a couple of days and I'll be asking him about this. Hopefully he can do some tests. I don't know but I'm just afraid of getting the disease or my children getting it if I didn't disinfect everything that may have possibly come in contact with it. I know it's rare but I need to ease my mind. I feel like everything is infected. Any advice or help?

---------- Post added at 19:19 ---------- Previous post was at 19:02 ----------

Just wanted to add that I was speaking to my mom of my new fear and, like always, she got mad at me for having anxiety. She right away shot me down and told me that even she's gotten mouse poop in her fingernails and that even my little brother has eaten mouse poop and they're fine. But she was no help. I don't know how she expects me to get better if all she does is shoot me down.

[AnxiouslyScared]

Anyone? Please.

[Fishmanpa]

I was speaking to my mom of my new fear and, like always, she got mad at me for having anxiety. She right away shot me down and told me that even she's gotten mouse poop in her fingernails and that even my little brother has eaten mouse poop and they're fine. But she was no help. I don't know how she expects me to get better if all she does is shoot me down.


While your Mom's reaction probably wasn't the best, isn't that what reassurance is? You're asking others if you'll be Ok and we'd be doing the same thing in shooting down your fears. IMO, this is more about your fear and treating your reaction to it than the piece of mouse poo. You've probably disinfected enough to have killed more germs than exist in your entire house too :)

Positive thoughts

[AnxiouslyScared]

Thanks. Yeah your right. I just wish she wasn't so blunt about it though, but I guess I need it sometimes lol. I just need to overcome this new fear and know that is extremely rare even though there was only one case in my area back in 07. I've been thinking, everyone must come into contact with mouse droppings throughout their lives one way or another without even knowing and even then it's still extremely rare. Okay. I'll only update if this fear doesn't subside in a week or two. Other than that, I'll just be writing my thoughts in my anxiety journal.

[Thoughts]

This was one of my more interesting anxieties. Here's my story. I went backpacking in the area north of Yosemite national park in August or so. I was hanging out near a rock, sitting on it. I started picking up little pieces of pebbles and stuff, and picked up a mouse turd. I thought, jeez that's gross, but didn't think much more about it. I then went on to eat snack foods without washing my hands.

Fast forward three weeks. I wake up with a viral headache, serious body aches, and a fever. I proceed to have a terrible virus, like a massive flu but in August before flu season. Doctor google tells me I have either Plague or Hanta Virus. I rule plague out after reading extensively on epidemiology and mode of transmission along with a deep study of incubation time. Simply put, I'd have been sick sooner if it were plague.

Here's the thing, there was an active plague outbreak in ground squirrels in the area I had been backpacking, and the deer mice in that region are known to be infected with Hanta at a rate of 80%. And, I got a massive viral like illness, within the time frame that Hanta would be expected.

I counted down the days until I would get fluid filing up my lungs and a gruesome death. If I made it to day 10, I was likely to survive. Well that was some number of months back and here I am. It turned out to be a serious virus which put me on my ass for nearly two weeks. But it was not Hanta.

I did go to my GP because the body aches were sole crushing. I spit out my concern and she reassured me.

Here's what I'd say. You don't have Hanta because: (1) it is not that common in Texas; (2) Hanta occurs mostly in the spring; (3) mostly during sweeping which disturbs massive amounts of the virus into the air; (4) it is rapidly killed by sunlight so it mostly persists in dark sheds, but only for a day even then; (5) most infections occur where there is massive infestation with piles of feces; and (6) it is freaking rare for humans to be infected probably because the molecules are heavy and the disease transmission vector is ineffective. Like in all of history in the us 100 people have died from it.

Could it happen? Its theoretically possible, but so incredibly unlikely that you're more likely to get struck by lightening while having a heart attack and being struck by a truck at the same time.