Ok, this came out of the blue and now won't leave my mind. I've always been creeped out by rabies, but never worried I would be exposed as I live in the UK and it's extremely rare over here. The only recent case was a man who handled bats frequently.

Last week, I was in a rush to use the bathroom having drank way too much water. So I hastily sat down on the toilet seat and felt a sudden sharp sting on my eh... posterior. It genuinely felt like a sharp bite on my left cheek. I shrugged it off, flushed the toilet and went on with my day. Then I started worrying because the "bite" was still aching and throbbing. I asked my boyfriend to take a look and he said he couldn't see anything but it looked slightly red in one area. I started freaking out a bit.

I then started to worry that a bat had been hiding under the toilet seat. Yes, crazy I know. But the bathroom has an air vent directly over the toilet. That air vent leads to the front of the house where I regularly see bats swooping around for insects. In fact I had seen one a couple of days before. What if it crawled in for shelter and found it's way into the bathroom? I read that they go looking for water when trapped in a house, so what if it crawled under the toilet lid (they can squish themselves into small spaces). I know they can end up in toilets. It even happened in my old house growing up when bats would frequently end up in bathrooms and bedrooms.

I ran down to the bathroom to check under the lid and saw nothing. But what if I had flushed the bat away after it bit me? I didn't look when I did it, so it could have bitten me, then been quickly flushed away by the water as I washed my hands, completely unaware of its presence.

Now I'm terrified I've had those one in a million encounters with a rabies carrying bat that bit me and got flushed away. I genuinely felt that sharp sting. It actually made me jump when it happened, so what on earth caused that if not something with teeth?

I know I can't go to a doctor about this as I saw nothing and have a "what if" scenario going here. I'd be turned away for sure. I'm genuinely terrified something happened, and my lack of attention missed spotting the bat before flushing it away.

I'm sure I'll get replies telling me I'm being really irrational (I really hope I am), or there's no rabies in the UK. Rabies is present in the UK, just rare, bats do get disorientated and end up in houses, the vent leading to the bathroom is right next to where they fly, and I felt something sharp when I sat down. I saw a bat two days before this. It should have been hibernating. Maybe it was just starting to get sick and confused. Lets say it was indeed a bat hiding under the toilet seat, why would it bite if NOT rabid, as they are generally very gentle and human shy?

Anything to calm me own would be greatly appreciated because my boyfriend just looked at me like I was going slowly insane. I'm filled with a feeling of dread that this is some freak encounter and I'll die a horrible death and be some headline in a terrible red top paper.