Rabies from Bats (real bite marks)

[NervUs]

These two days have been a little better. The fear is definitely still there whenever I have any symptoms (headache, tingling of the leg, cloudy head". But I have been able to managing it much better now with rationalization. I keep telling myself that there was no way a bat could have flew under the table without being frantic and bit me and flew away without me or anybody noticing. Even if the bite doesnt hurt, but I/we would have felt or seen something. So this has helped a little. I would still think of the horrible images of R, but every time I thought of it, I just tell myself that the chances are so small and that I wouldn't be the unlucky one and then move on to another thought.

If you have found a way to move on from the thought, then you are doing great!

[woaidelrey]

If you have found a way to move on from the thought, then you are doing great!

I think so! Thank you for your words the other day!! It helped a lot for me. I hope I keep up with today's trend!

[HelloPanda23]

I think so! Thank you for your words the other day!! It helped a lot for me. I hope I keep up with today's trend!

In all honesty, during summer, it’s so common to get bitten. I literally have at least 20 mosquito or spider bites around my body. Whenever I scratch them a decent amount, I can see the way the swelled areas were bitten, and they’re two bite marks right next to each other. It kind of freaks me out but then again, I doubt a bat somehow got into my house, sneaked into my room, bit me while I was asleep, and then dipped; especially a rabid bad at that. Getting a visit from the tooth fairy is probably more common than a visit from a rabid bat. In your scenario, it’s impossible for there to have been a rabid bad under the table. I’ve stated this but I’ll do it again, if there was a bat under the table, you’d know. They’re not ants, they’re quite big, and if they bite, you’d feel it. Bat bites feel like needles as far as ik, and if a bat bit you, you would feel its wings fluttering, or the wind hitting your leg due to the speed of them jolting at your leg. If the bat bit your leg, then it would’ve bitten the legs of other guests because the whole point of the rabies virus is for rabies to continue spreading itself. I think you’re overreacting, so calm down and think rationally. It’s impossible to pin point the cause of the bite, and so you can’t do anything about it anyways, besides getting the rabies shot. Even then, won’t you fear the possibility that you got it too late? In that case, what’s the point of the shot if it won’t relieve your worries? Your time is better spent doing things you enjoy. Rabies is a very scary virus but wasting your life worrying about this virus is scarier. It’s the biggest fear I have at the moment, but I don’t let it ruin my day. I barely consider it at all, however, I do subconciously fear the possibility of dying from rabies, I’m certain a lot of people do. The thing I’m about to state is one of the reasons I live more comfortably, instead of 24/7 fear of this virus. Asian countries are literally full of stray dogs and cats. Believe it or not, 50,000+ people get rabies, most of them being in Asia. If literally all the animals there have rabies, what can poor people living there say about this anxiety? In our case, we don’t have any rabid animals, and a very low percentage of bats have the virus. We’re living very well considering the state of people in these countries, and so why should we be the ones worrying? If they’re living their lives normally, regardless of how likely it is for them to get rabies, why shouldn’t we do the same? Put it simple, I 100% think you don’t have rabies, and I know this won’t be enough to assure you that you’re fine, but I really do wish you the best of luck with your anxiety.

[woaidelrey]

In all honesty, during summer, it’s so common to get bitten. I literally have at least 20 mosquito or spider bites around my body. Whenever I scratch them a decent amount, I can see the way the swelled areas were bitten, and they’re two bite marks right next to each other. It kind of freaks me out but then again, I doubt a bat somehow got into my house, sneaked into my room, bit me while I was asleep, and then dipped; especially a rabid bad at that. Getting a visit from the tooth fairy is probably more common than a visit from a rabid bat. In your scenario, it’s impossible for there to have been a rabid bad under the table. I’ve stated this but I’ll do it again, if there was a bat under the table, you’d know. They’re not ants, they’re quite big, and if they bite, you’d feel it. Bat bites feel like needles as far as ik, and if a bat bit you, you would feel its wings fluttering, or the wind hitting your leg due to the speed of them jolting at your leg. If the bat bit your leg, then it would’ve bitten the legs of other guests because the whole point of the rabies virus is for rabies to continue spreading itself. I think you’re overreacting, so calm down and think rationally. It’s impossible to pin point the cause of the bite, and so you can’t do anything about it anyways, besides getting the rabies shot. Even then, won’t you fear the possibility that you got it too late? In that case, what’s the point of the shot if it won’t relieve your worries? Your time is better spent doing things you enjoy. Rabies is a very scary virus but wasting your life worrying about this virus is scarier. It’s the biggest fear I have at the moment, but I don’t let it ruin my day. I barely consider it at all, however, I do subconciously fear the possibility of dying from rabies, I’m certain a lot of people do. The thing I’m about to state is one of the reasons I live more comfortably, instead of 24/7 fear of this virus. Asian countries are literally full of stray dogs and cats. Believe it or not, 50,000+ people get rabies, most of them being in Asia. If literally all the animals there have rabies, what can poor people living there say about this anxiety? In our case, we don’t have any rabid animals, and a very low percentage of bats have the virus. We’re living very well considering the state of people in these countries, and so why should we be the ones worrying? If they’re living their lives normally, regardless of how likely it is for them to get rabies, why shouldn’t we do the same? Put it simple, I 100% think you don’t have rabies, and I know this won’t be enough to assure you that you’re fine, but I really do wish you the best of luck with your anxiety.

Thanks Panda. Your first point is exactly what I use to kind of calm myself down whenever symptoms strike. Sometimes my rationalization takes the upper hand, sometimes the fear prevails. Its as if when there is a symptom that mimics R, all of the rationalization just gets overshadowed by the strong fear of R.

I'm currently in the battle between these two- the fear and the rationalization of the situation. It is painful to my psychological and physical wellbeing, but I think the only way to snap completely out of it is time- I assume as time goes by, the fear will subdue quite a bit.

What's weird is- nobody, not a single soul at the party that evening is afraid of rabies or even are thinking about rabies at all. I am the only one that's so concerned. I even asked the owner of the house regarding rabies. She said she has seen bats in her bedroom and she is not worried... She had a guy come over to do bat inspection yesterday. She is just NOT worried. I think if I didn't have the bite marks, then I wouldn't be worried neither.

Anyways, I know I shouldnt be too worried because the scenario is just too unlikely- I don't feel anything down at the table if a bat was flying under there and nobody saw any bats that day.. I think I just need to keep putting this in my thoughts and I have been ok, except for when the symptoms strike, I can't help but think "this is it". I still got a long way to go with this whole thing...

[woaidelrey]

I am having a little relapse right now because of new symptoms i am experiencing. I have been feeling right side of leg pain and right side of abdominal pain, both of which i have never experienced before. I am afraid that it is the R virus traveling up. I know the chances are slim and I am still trying to tell myself that I didn't get bitten by a bat that day because I or other people would have seen that bat coming or flying away.

However, for some reason, it seems like there are times where I have more "positive" force that will help me focus on the brighter side, and when i have that positive force, I kind of tell myself how stupid my fear is. But then, most of the time, the fear of R prevails and I can't see to overcome this cloud. I dont know if it makes any sense. Back on Tuesday, it seemed like I suddenly had an "epiphany" or something and I was like telling myself how stupid I am to worry about something I didn't even see and then that lasted for a while. Now the fear is coming back, and i can't seem to get that positive force or "epiphany" back to combat this fear... at one point, i was even like "i definitely don't have it, and ive been worried for nothing". and then there are times like right now that I feel like i really could be the unlucky one, i mean its either 0 or 100% for the individual right.

does anyone feel like this?

[NervUs]

I am having a little relapse right now because of new symptoms i am experiencing. I have been feeling right side of leg pain and right side of abdominal pain, both of which i have never experienced before. I am afraid that it is the R virus traveling up. I know the chances are slim and I am still trying to tell myself that I didn't get bitten by a bat that day because I or other people would have seen that bat coming or flying away.

However, for some reason, it seems like there are times where I have more "positive" force that will help me focus on the brighter side, and when i have that positive force, I kind of tell myself how stupid my fear is. But then, most of the time, the fear of R prevails and I can't see to overcome this cloud. I dont know if it makes any sense. Back on Tuesday, it seemed like I suddenly had an "epiphany" or something and I was like telling myself how stupid I am to worry about something I didn't even see and then that lasted for a while. Now the fear is coming back, and i can't seem to get that positive force or "epiphany" back to combat this fear... at one point, i was even like "i definitely don't have it, and ive been worried for nothing". and then there are times like right now that I feel like i really could be the unlucky one, i mean its either 0 or 100% for the individual right.

does anyone feel like this?

I don't want to speak for anyone, but I will. lol. Everyone going through ha feels like this.

The cruelty of this whole thing is that the anxiety heightens awareness of the body (little zaps or zings you would not even feel in a less heightened state). For whatever reason, it can also throw out new symptoms. Sometimes, these are real symptoms (like my daughter I talked about before and the photophobia), sometimes not. I will never forget, about 6 years ago, I went through testing for breast cancer. Of course, the process takes a long time, and I began to feel pain in my ribs, which I automatically assumed was metastasis to the bone. One day, I was listening to a radio program on NPR, and they were talking about alzheimers disease. The craziest thing is I would feel the pain shoot when they would mention certain words or themes. Now, it won't be that obvious for everybody, but it made very clear to me how the mind keeps going at this and can produce symptoms or feelings. The sad thing about this is that people with HA can't really trust themselves. It makes it hard to sort a real symptom for an imagined symptom, and it just prolongs the misery and also corroborates the fear. I think it shows that our brains actually crave this crud, for whatever reason!

I guess all you can do is try to assess objectively what you are really feeling. If this is rabies, you would expect worsening today. When I am having symptoms of whatever I'm fearing, that is how I approach it-- I try to not give the symptoms unless I clearly am worsening. Like, if I am waffling, like, omg does that feel worse than it did yesterday?, I do not consider that worsening. It has to be a true, clear, objective worsening before I entertain worry or seeing a doctor.

One time, after cleaning up some mouse droppings (unfortunately, we get intruders every so often), I woke up with the.worst all over muscle aches, which is a sign of hantavirus, which I of course had become expert in after finding the mouse poo. It was about a week or so after the cleaning up, so prime time for incubation. I was positive this was it. I couldn't believe it....until I remembered that, the previous day, I had raked up a metric ton of leaves! It wasn't hantavirus myalgia at all-- just being grossly out of shape. Our minds are always looking to confirm the fear, so we have to fight back a little and figure out ways of testing physical sensations more than the average person would.

I hope your pain is gone today but, if it isn't, just focus on it not being worse. And remember, you did not see a bat!

[woaidelrey]

I don't want to speak for anyone, but I will. lol. Everyone going through ha feels like this.

The cruelty of this whole thing is that the anxiety heightens awareness of the body (little zaps or zings you would not even feel in a less heightened state). For whatever reason, it can also throw out new symptoms. Sometimes, these are real symptoms (like my daughter I talked about before and the photophobia), sometimes not. I will never forget, about 6 years ago, I went through testing for breast cancer. Of course, the process takes a long time, and I began to feel pain in my ribs, which I automatically assumed was metastasis to the bone. One day, I was listening to a radio program on NPR, and they were talking about alzheimers disease. The craziest thing is I would feel the pain shoot when they would mention certain words or themes. Now, it won't be that obvious for everybody, but it made very clear to me how the mind keeps going at this and can produce symptoms or feelings. The sad thing about this is that people with HA can't really trust themselves. It makes it hard to sort a real symptom for an imagined symptom, and it just prolongs the misery and also corroborates the fear. I think it shows that our brains actually crave this crud, for whatever reason!

I guess all you can do is try to assess objectively what you are really feeling. If this is rabies, you would expect worsening today. When I am having symptoms of whatever I'm fearing, that is how I approach it-- I try to not give the symptoms unless I clearly am worsening. Like, if I am waffling, like, omg does that feel worse than it did yesterday?, I do not consider that worsening. It has to be a true, clear, objective worsening before I entertain worry or seeing a doctor.

One time, after cleaning up some mouse droppings (unfortunately, we get intruders every so often), I woke up with the.worst all over muscle aches, which is a sign of hantavirus, which I of course had become expert in after finding the mouse poo. It was about a week or so after the cleaning up, so prime time for incubation. I was positive this was it. I couldn't believe it....until I remembered that, the previous day, I had raked up a metric ton of leaves! It wasn't hantavirus myalgia at all-- just being grossly out of shape. Our minds are always looking to confirm the fear, so we have to fight back a little and figure out ways of testing physical sensations more than the average person would.

I hope your pain is gone today but, if it isn't, just focus on it not being worse. And remember, you did not see a bat!

Thanks again . Today has been ok for me. Had pretty bad headache but really tried hard to steer away from the thought of R, despite having the bad headache! Work was also super busy, so it kind of distracted me a little bit.

I am kind of trying to distant myself from that scary thought of R and tell myself that maybe I would've even think about this headache or other symptoms If I'm not worried about R. This definitely worked for me today because It allowed me to not give second thoughts to my symptoms.

Thank you again for the kindness of replying me and also trying to reassure me with your past experience. This has been so helpful and it actually made me smile reading this today while I was in a conference meeting at work!

[woaidelrey]

Past weekend was not bad. I didn't think about R that much. It slipped through my mind but I quickly told myself how ridiculous it is and then distracted myself to other things.. I hope this week is good for me. Im still not completely relieved yet because I still get scared and get anxious sometimes about the symptoms... But fingers crossed I get through this ordeal soon 🤞🤞

[ErinKC]

You were much more likely bitten by a spider since you were sitting on a bench. Bats don't typically walk around on the ground (which is why they were found in the attic, not walking around the yard).

[woaidelrey]

Today I have been feeling a little run down. Tired and feeling feverish. It's around the 3 weeks mark, and I'm scared now :(. Still trying to keep my calm and not panic, but deep inside I am scared right now.