Daily rabies concern (sigh)

[sirthrockmorton]

I know everybody here has seen about 100 rabies threads. Looking at it, it seems there's one every other day. As much as I wish I could get rational and quit worrying I'm in need of reassurance.


This isn't the first time I've been worried about rabies. This is the third time in the last six months, I think, but this feels like the one most worth worrying about even though it probably isn't.


For some context, I was out a few nights ago, Thursday night I think. It was pitch black outside and I was walking around my backyard when I felt a weird scrape against the back of my left leg, just above my ankle. Ever have a twig roughly brush up against you?



I knew not to panic immediately, and I figured it was just a branch, so I turn my phone flashlight on (I had my phone out, so this took 5 seconds) and saw nothing. Strangely, that's the part that freaked me out the most. There was no animal, but there was no twig either, and you don't hear about tree branches getting up and running away. So, naturally, I get worried about a bat bite. AGAIN. Those ninja-bats sure do suck, don't they?


I decide it isn't worth getting worked up about again and then I go inside and promptly forget about it. Then, one day later, I have a persistent itchy bump on my leg where I felt it, which I write off as a bug bite. Fast forward to yesterday, when I notice that it's now this strange... cut, I guess? I've never seen anything like it. The skin around it is raised, so it looks like my skin had a chunk taken out of it or it was bored into. UPDATE: I actually think it's a scab. The skin around it and the bad lighting in my house just made it look like a depression. I think it might just be a scabbed-over bug bite from me itching it too much but I'm still not sure. Its radius is a little smaller than an pencil eraser. It still itches. Today, it looks just the same, but now I notice a small pinprick looking mark, the perfect distance away for it to be a bat bite (assuming the other mark near it is an infected puncture). This is when the anxiety starts going again. I've been scared of rabies in the past, but it's never been this... credible-feeling.


For the record, I'm 16 years old and I live in the USA. I got rabies shots from mid-June to early July so I've been able to take some comfort in knowing I'm less likely to get it if I've been vaccinated so recently. I just really need help getting over this situation. It sucks having health-anxiety be gone for so long only for it to bite you in the ass just because of a weird scratch. EDIT: Also if this matters the wound never bled, to my knowledge.

[Fishmanpa]

I'm curious as to why you were given the shots in the first place. They're not pleasant and quite expensive!

Positive thoughts

[sirthrockmorton]

I'm curious as to why you were given the shots in the first place. They're not pleasant and quite expensive!

Positive thoughts

I was actually bitten by a bat once. Not a ninja-bat, an actual definite bite. As in, I saw it bite me and was able to confirm this to the doctor. If not for that incident I likely wouldn't have health anxiety over rabies in the first place.


The shots are no worse than a flu shot. Not sure about the price but we don't come from a very wealthy family and the expenses haven't troubled my father yet.

[MyNameIsTerry]

If not for that incident I likely wouldn't have health anxiety over rabies in the first place.

That's certainly possible. But did you already have other HA concerns in which case this is just a new theme branching off from the underlying issues that are already there? If you never had anxiety problems prior to the bite then being new to anxiety gives you a good chance to catch it early on and sort it out.