cant sleep because of rabies worries, PLEASE REPLY

[LavenderRain]

This is going to sound completely ridiculous but I am literally shaking in fear and crying.

A couple nights ago I went for a walk around midnight and I was swinging at the park and a bat flew right over my head and past my face while screeching really loudly. Rabies is one of my biggest fears and even though I know I probably would have noticed if it had bitten me, I can't stop looking myself over and trying to find bite marks. I have found a thing on my lower back (which was slightly exposed while I was on the swing) that looks like 2 pinprick sized marks and they itch and sting. I just found these about half an hour ago and I do have occasional breakouts on my back and shoulders but I can't help but think this is a bat bite. I feel really warm and earlier yesterday I had a doctors appointment and my blood pressure was really low. My vision has been blurry for a couple of nights and I don't know what to do. I am 100% certain I am going to die. Is there any way I can get my blood tested to see if I have the virus so I don't have to run into the emergency room like "oh hey a bat flew past me I think I have rabies now"

Even if I didn't get bitten I am even worrying that its saliva got into my eyes or mouth or something. What do I do??

[Ultimatejourney]

I think you would have felt it if it bit you

[misslove]

Let's think rational. If the bat did actually bit you it would have had to stop and land on you to bite you. Also bats don't go around biting people. They eat bugs and creepy crawly things some eat fruit. AND since it was flying around at night doing normally bat-type things means that it's not rabid. Animals with rabies do crazy things that you can easily tell it is sick. Bats are noturnal so seeing it eating bugs at night is a good sign it's healthy.

As for your fear of rabies..... You would have to go looking out in the woods to catch rabies. Safe rule to live by if you see an animal foaming at the mouth, limping around, making odd noises stay away from it and call police/ animal control. Rabies is pretty uncommon and people who end up with it are people who were messing around with animals they shouldn't have been.

[MyNameIsTerry]

We have rabies in bats in the UK too. Cases in humans are extremely rare and yet our bats are extremely common. I see them quite regular on my nightly walks. I've disturbed a whole load of them once shaking a bag out where I feed some local wild rabbits. There must have been over twenty of them that flew out of the bush in front of me.

Bats tend to stay away from us like all smaller wild creatures because they want to stay alive so you never go near a larger animal because it could be a predator.

They eat insects and fruit. They love chomping down on moths which they catch mid flight and it's about the echo location sounds and how they use them to track the moths.

My local zoo has a bat house where they fly all around you in the dark. There is a tunnel and they buzz past your legs and heads.

We even have a bat habitat wood near where I live which is a protected woodland area between housing and roads.

Our bats are protected.

All of that and our rabies is extremely rare from our bats. Those contracting it have been people working in their environment and even then it's extremely rare.

So, can you see how the odds are in your favour that haven't been bitten by one? And that even if you were, it doesn't mean you contract it?

[LavenderRain]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I really appreciate the reassurance. I went to the hospital and showed them the marks and they assured me 900% that it is not a bat bite. I still don't feel entirely convinced, because I've been having a dry sore throat and stuffy nose and flu like symptoms and my mouth has felt all foamy since last night. I still think I contracted rabies somehow and I'm going to die soon. But the hospital literally will not give me the shots unless they truly have reason to believe I was bitten or exposed to the virus and they don't. I'm starting to cough a lot now too..

---------- Post added at 19:17 ---------- Previous post was at 19:10 ----------

My throat is dry and feels like its full of mucous at the same time, my nose is stuffy, and my mouth is all foamy. I've had a headache pretty bad in my left temple too and my face feels all hot. I am so sure I'm going to die soon.

[Fishmanpa]

Your fear is all too real to you but at the same time is totally unfounded. You're so wound up in this unrealistic fantasy that you're getting real physical symptoms. I don't doubt your feeling these physical symptoms but their anxiety symptoms not rabies symptoms.

Hope you feel better soon!

Positive thoughts

[LavenderRain]

It has been a few days since my visit to the hospital, and my symptoms have only gotten worse. I have had increasingly blurred, foggy vision. I've been feeling hot and sweating nonstop, and the right side of my jaw just started going numb and it feels all stiff. Its twitching/spasming and its hard to open my mouth. Its like the symptoms I would have when I used to worry about tetanus. I seriously think I am going to die and if these are rabies symptoms I'm a goner for sure.. The doctors will not give me the rabies vaccine because they didn't think the marks were a bite, but could they have been wrong? What if I was actually bitten somewhere else and didn't notice and it was such a small wound I couldn't find it?? Do you think they could have lied to me or not bothered looking closely enough just so they could rush me out of there and blame it on anxiety??? The entire right side of my face is starting to go numb. I can't get the documentaries I have watched on human rabies out of my head. I know that the virus can go undetected in your body for a few days all the way up to like 9 years, which means I will be sick with worry for YEARS of my life. My whole face is numb and stiff now and I can barely open my jaw.

[paranoid-viking]

This is going to sound completely ridiculous but I am literally shaking in fear and crying.

A couple nights ago I went for a walk around midnight and I was swinging at the park and a bat flew right over my head and past my face while screeching really loudly. Rabies is one of my biggest fears and even though I know I probably would have noticed if it had bitten me, I can't stop looking myself over and trying to find bite marks. I have found a thing on my lower back (which was slightly exposed while I was on the swing) that looks like 2 pinprick sized marks and they itch and sting. I just found these about half an hour ago and I do have occasional breakouts on my back and shoulders but I can't help but think this is a bat bite. I feel really warm and earlier yesterday I had a doctors appointment and my blood pressure was really low. My vision has been blurry for a couple of nights and I don't know what to do. I am 100% certain I am going to die. Is there any way I can get my blood tested to see if I have the virus so I don't have to run into the emergency room like "oh hey a bat flew past me I think I have rabies now"

Even if I didn't get bitten I am even worrying that its saliva got into my eyes or mouth or something. What do I do??

I had a rabies scare after a trip to Asia back in...2003 it was. Was convinced after 2 weeks that "now it comes, in a few days I will die" bcause i caught a fever 2 weeks later. Well....I am still here.

No, it is not possible to get tested for rabies until it is to late.
But consider this: there are something like 1 or 2 in the entire United States; in a population of 300 million people who are unfortunate enough to get rabies every year. Your odds are with you. More likely to win the lottery several times a year, and not even that is likely to happen.
Have you had the shots, BTW?

---------- Post added at 05:28 ---------- Previous post was at 05:23 ----------

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I really appreciate the reassurance. I went to the hospital and showed them the marks and they assured me 900% that it is not a bat bite. I still don't feel entirely convinced, because I've been having a dry sore throat and stuffy nose and flu like symptoms and my mouth has felt all foamy since last night. I still think I contracted rabies somehow and I'm going to die soon. But the hospital literally will not give me the shots unless they truly have reason to believe I was bitten or exposed to the virus and they don't. I'm starting to cough a lot now too..

---------- Post added at 19:17 ---------- Previous post was at 19:10 ----------

My throat is dry and feels like its full of mucous at the same time, my nose is stuffy, and my mouth is all foamy. I've had a headache pretty bad in my left temple too and my face feels all hot. I am so sure I'm going to die soon.

Sounds like you caught a common cold. If you had developed rabies you would be to ill to sit and write on a message forum. You would be tied to a bed in a hospital foaming at the mouth.
I at the moment are worrying if I may have pancreatitis. It is unikely but still a million, no a billion times more likely than the chance of you having rabies. But I understand the fear and I have been there and it was one of the darkest periods of my life. But it was all in my crazy mind. But again; I know how you feel.

Came to think of it; back in 2003 I actually did freak out from seing water, a symptom of rabies. But this was because my paranoid mind was playing a trick on me. It was like "sooner or later I will freak out from seeing water" and of course I did. My jaw was shaking out of fear. But the water went down fine anyway.

---------- Post added at 05:36 ---------- Previous post was at 05:28 ----------

It has been a few days since my visit to the hospital, and my symptoms have only gotten worse. I have had increasingly blurred, foggy vision. I've been feeling hot and sweating nonstop, and the right side of my jaw just started going numb and it feels all stiff. Its twitching/spasming and its hard to open my mouth. Its like the symptoms I would have when I used to worry about tetanus. I seriously think I am going to die and if these are rabies symptoms I'm a goner for sure.. The doctors will not give me the rabies vaccine because they didn't think the marks were a bite, but could they have been wrong? What if I was actually bitten somewhere else and didn't notice and it was such a small wound I couldn't find it?? Do you think they could have lied to me or not bothered looking closely enough just so they could rush me out of there and blame it on anxiety??? The entire right side of my face is starting to go numb. I can't get the documentaries I have watched on human rabies out of my head. I know that the virus can go undetected in your body for a few days all the way up to like 9 years, which means I will be sick with worry for YEARS of my life. My whole face is numb and stiff now and I can barely open my jaw.

You should not have watched those documentaries of human rabies. It is not good for you; it makes you sick. Having rabies in the body for 9 years is extremely uncommon; well rabies in humans in itself is extremely uncommon; and incubation of 9 years? Perhaps one in 200 million chance that could happen. But having such fears really does sucks. Perhaps you should go telle a lie that you were bitten by a stray dog or something. Not that I believe that you have rabies; because you dont; but just so tat you can realax and continue to live.

[LavenderRain]

The hospital I went to won't give me the shots because the thing that I showed them didn't look like a bat bite to them, and they said "believe us, you don't want rabies shots if you don't really need them". They also say I would have noticed or felt it if the bat bit me, but everything I read online says you wouldn't even notice if you were bitten by a bat.. I'm in the hospital a lot because of my panic attacks and anxiety and that makes me worry that they didn't really take a close enough look at the mark because they just think that I'm crazy. And even if I did go back and pretend I was bitten by a dog, they would know I'm just trying to get the shots, and they would definitely want to look at the bite. I don't think I can just make an appointment with my regular doctor for rabies shots since its not a normal thing that they do all the time, and honestly I also have anxiety over the shots too.. Like if I do find a way to get the shots and I truly didn't have rabies, maybe the shots could give me rabies somehow?? I mean, logically if I really do not have rabies and then I get the vaccine I am actually more likely to contract it from the shot, right? I know deep down I am acting silly. I know there are people who live in the woods who are exposed to bats all the time, and people who literally take in hurt bats and try to nurse them back to health and never get the vaccine even after being nipped or bitten or scratched and nothing happens to them. But I just can't stop worrying. Since last night I have had random trouble swallowing, to the point I just can't do it unless I'm eating or drinking something. I have that happen randomly every once in a while, but its usually only once and then it goes away. But last night it just kept happening over and over for hours. I keep worrying that I will start being scared of water, and now I get all panicky and apprehensive when I go to drink some, probably BECAUSE I am worried I will panic around it.. Ugh, anxiety is such a vicious cycle. I am literally making myself sick with worry. I almost threw up a few times last night, and I am so anxious I have no appetite anymore.. and loss of appetite/anxiety are both rabies symptoms. I am flippin out.

[NancyW]

You really think in this day and age, with malpractice and lawsuits that drs would risk their careers and livelihood on.... you ?

If there was ANY chance you had rabies, you'd be getting the shots already.