Can't calm down. Feeling ill and found a bite mark.

[ButterscotchLatte]

I know these rabies posts get annoying and many of you are probably rolling your eyes right now, but please hear me out. I just desperately need some comfort. About 5 days ago or so, I started getting bad pain in my ribs when I would lay down to sleep at night. Every day since then its gotten worse and the pain has spread. It hurts especially bad in the back of my neck and my spine, and I have a throbbing headache. Taking migraine meds helps a little but it comes back. I also feel incredibly dizzy all the time and so fatigued, I can't even move around for a couple seconds without my muscles feeling like I was hit by a train. I'm shaky and have blurred vision off and on. Today I started feeling nauseous and having stomach cramps. I went to the emergency room last night and they diagnosed me with dizziness after checking nothing. Saw the actual doctor today and she ran some labs and did a neurological exam and said that besides some vertigo I don't seem to have any neuro symptoms. My labs came back normal, no worrisome inflammation or anything like that but my iron was slightly low and my lymph nodes are kinda swollen suggesting I have something viral. She said I should just let it run its course, stay hydrated and get some rest. But it just continues to get worse. My whole body is on fire and I seriously feel like I'm dying. I haven't been sick since before the pandemic so I'm sure something as simple as a cold could probably knock me down but I have no respiratory symptoms. The reason I post this here is because a couple months ago a bat dive bombed me while I was taking a short bike ride one night and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. Then last night to make matters worse, I found two perfect little tiny pinprick scabs on the top of my left foot. I have no idea how they got there and google says that combined with my symptoms I was definitely bitten by a rabid bat while sleeping and its too late for me. I will attach a photo if I can. I also mentioned to my doctor that I was worried maybe it was a poisonous spider since we have black widows and brown recluse here but she didn't seem concerned enough about spiders or bats to even look at the bite. I am seriously freaking out. Worried I'm gonna start foaming at the mouth and having seizures any moment. I honestly wouldn't be so terrified if it weren't for those little bite marks appearing just as I'm experiencing the WORST flu like symptoms I've ever had in my life. I was tested for the flu and covid and both came back negative. I really want to try and go back and get my doctor to look at the bite but I don't want to look like a complete spaz and if these are rabies symptoms its far too late for me to get help anyway. I just really need to talk to someone right now. Any support would be nice.

[ButterscotchLatte]

I also forgot to mention, I had some tingling in my right toes last night and now its also in the rest of my foot. Really don't need this right now.

[Justus]

Two days late, so I hope this is still useful. Bumping into a bat must be nasty - I don't wish that on any HA sufferer. But... rabid bats are very, very sick by the time they are infectious. They don't fly around biting people. Is there a remote possibility that you were bitten by a rabid bat? Sure, but the likelihood is so small that there's really no point in worrying about it. Think of the millions and millions of people hiking in forests, camping, working outdoors every day - without ever even thinking of rabies.

I've been down that [s]rabid[/s] rabbit hole, and based on everything I've read, if someone actually had rabies, they wouldn't be in a position to worry about it. And as for the "perfect bite marks" - everyone on this board, and I mean every single person, could find a pair of those on their body right now. Just for fun, I just checked and found two on my arms alone. I'm willing to bet yours are neither bats nor spiders. I hear this spider bite theory a lot, but the fact is spiders don't run around biting people randomly. Most of us have probably never been bitten by a spider and never will be. If your marks are a bite, it'd be something that actually wants to bite people like fleas, but it's probably just two random old tiny scratches. Keep in mind that scratches often look like one, two or several individual dots when they're almost healed.

[ButterscotchLatte]

Thank you, your reply actually did make me feel a bit better. I have at least accepted that my flu like symptoms can't be rabies because they've lasted way too long and seem to be getting better. The right side of my face and scalp has been feeling weirdly numb and I've even accepted that that is because of the insane amount of muscle tension in my neck due to constant stress. I was actually feeling a lot better about the "bite".. until today when I noticed another one that looks exactly the same, if a bit smaller, on the same foot but more up towards my ankle. Maybe it was already there but I feel like I would've noticed since I'm so paranoid. But yeah, I now have two sets of perfect double puncture marks on the same foot that are scabbed over, look like they've healed well even though the one from today is new, they do not burn, itch, or hurt at all and are not really red or discolored. I guess I'm lucky that whatever it is isn't causing me symptoms like that but trying to google it yields no results because apparently bug bites always itch and the only things that look similar to mine are posted by other hypochondriacs who think they have bat bites too. We had a harsh winter here so I've been spending practically no time outside, rarely ever go out at night, and have not physically seen a bat in my house. I had my husband check everywhere in our room and he found no dead bats or evidence of any bats having been there. I also have three cats but none are outdoor and these don't itch so i doubt its fleas or mites or anything. I am just so frustrated that whatever is biting me is doing it right now in the midst of a rabies fear flare and there seems to be no answers. I actually did have the whole post exposure rabies vaccine protocol back in like 2017 when I actually had a bat encounter, but that doesn't even make me feel better since apparently you need a booster every couple years and I haven't had that. The doctors don't even want to look at the marks because they think my fear is so outlandish. I really started to believe it was just a healing scratch until the new ones appeared. I am so SO tired of feeling like this and worrying about this.

[ButterscotchLatte]

Honestly I feel like it should help me feel better that it happened again because how likely is it that a ninja bat with rabies would crawl back into my bed to bite the same foot a second time? The two sets of marks look about the same though so I'm pretty convinced they happened at the same time and I just didn't notice one of them. As unlikely as that is.. been trying to attach photos but I don't think I can on mobile.

[ButterscotchLatte]

So tired of feeling this way. I can talk to other people about how irrational their rabies fears are and help calm them down from a panic because I KNOW how rare and unlikely it is, but I can't do the same when it comes to myself. I was finally starting to feel a bit better but today my right foot started hurting like my muscles or tendons are cramping slightly or something. I was ignoring it but I noticed about 30 mins ago that it started feeling tingly around my toes and if I squeeze my foot it straight up feels like stabbing pins and needles. Now it feels like my left foot is starting to do the same. I am just losing it over here. The panic is setting in. I can't leave my feet alone. I keep poking at them. Pacing around. Probably making it worse. I'm just waiting for the numbness to spread and for me to get extremely sick and die. I'm shaking and sweating, having a full blown panic attack over here. It feels like there is reduced sensation in my right foot too, and it feels more intense than my usual anxiety numbness. I am trying to calm down and believe that I'm fine. I'm prone to muscle tightness in my hips and knees, which can pinch nerves. My anxiety often causes tingling. I have chronic pain and I've been walking a lot more lately. I stood for a much longer time than normal today. It definitely feels like the issue is coming from tight muscle. But all I can think about is those two bite marks that each looked like a set of fang marks. I am so so sick of it. I don't want to be this way anymore. I know I have OCD and I need help but every therapist I try to talk to just wants to talk about my childhood and is never interested in talking about my very specific hyperfixation on this particular fear. I feel absolutely hopeless. I'm just wasting my life being terrified of dying a painful death at any moment.

[ButterscotchLatte]

Today I randomly started to come down with a fever and other flu like symptoms, specifically headache and a tight/itchy throat that makes it hard to breathe in all the way. Scared I'm gonna end up getting worse and just being admitted to the hospital to die.

[Darksky]

I know you’ve had a covid test earlier on but it wouldn’t hurt to do a another one.

[ButterscotchLatte]

I just woke up and besides feeling sore I feel a bit better now. Can you stress yourself sick to the point you have a fever and everything? God, I hate anxiety. I will ask for another covid test on Monday when I can see my doctor.

[ButterscotchLatte]

Was doing a bit better today and then suddenly tonight I had that thing happen where you randomly forget how to swallow and panic for a minute before you finally manage to. Trying not to let anxiety OCD brain tell me its rabies throat spasms or something. Was just thinking last night about how glad I was that that throat thing hadn't happened to me in a while. Ugh.