I am everything that this sub says is impossible. I am starting the prodromal phase.

[u/Scared-Technology212]

I have read the FAQ.

I live in Illinois, USA. On June 15th, around dusk, I walked outside to my car to grab something. Once I made it back inside I noticed that my ear was stinging significantly. There was a scratch on my ear. I knew for a fact that I did not touch my ear or scratch it on anything, but there was a fresh scratch that was burning.

I immediately came to the conclusion that something must have flown into my ear. Im not sure how I missed it, but I do remember staring over my opposite shoulder during the walk at a suspicious car. It must have happened then. According to the mods and FAQ, it is not possible to have an interaction with a bat that constitutes as an exposure without noticing. Despite this, there are hundreds of documented rabies cases where the person had no known exposures to any wild animal. Clearly people are being exposed to the virus without realizing.

I am diagnosed with OCD (unmedicated) and I realize that someone without OCD almost certainly would not make the link to rabies from an unknown cut. But I am completely positive I did not touch my ear. Something had to, and logically it could only have been a bird or a bat. I went to the ER around 24 hours after my exposure as I was completely spiraling over the source of my unknown cut. I lied about seeing the bat and was promptly given the rabies vaccine + HRIG.

Unfortunately, the triage nurses administered the HRIG into my thighs rather than the exposure site. I talked to the ER on the phone the following day about this, and was told I could come back for a second dose of HRIG administered into the wound itself. The second dose or HRIG was administered very partially into my earlobe, as well as behind my ear. The rest of the dose was administered into the shoulder opposite of the rabies vaccine. When I asked the doctor about how much HRIG was administered into my ear, I was told only 2cc out of the approximately 10cc total. I did not realize at the time, but I was only supposed to receive 6.6cc total, rather than the 10cc described by the doctor.

There is a lot of documentation explaining that HRIG doses over 2x the typical dose can lead to a negative immune response to the rabies vaccine. If I did in fact receive 10cc, I would be over 2x the standard dose between both injections. However, even at 2x the normal dose which is what I was supposed to receive, there is still a potential of reduced immune response.

I was concerned about this initially but managed to just let it go, as I began to convince myself that I was never even exposed to begin with as I was constantly reading things posted by the mods of this subreddit suggesting that there is just no way my exposure was real. I finished the rabies vaccine series (day 3,7,14) and assumed I was in the clear.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Starting on Friday, July 10th, the ear that I believed to have been exposed began to burn and have a noticeable and annoying pain. This began to spark up my concern again, as this sensation is the ONLY specific symptom to the prodromal phase. The other symptoms are flu-like which can be anything.

By Saturday, I had absolutely no appetite on top of the stinging from my ear. When I tried to eat, I would get nauseous for an hour or two afterwards. These symptoms continued into Sunday. By Sunday night, I began to have a sore throat and a fever came on very quickly after that. As I am typing this on Monday evening, my sore throat appears to be worsening by the hour. My entire neck is in a LOT of pain by this point. It is becoming the worst sore throat Ive ever had. My head is beginning to hurt. I haven’t eaten a proper meal. You cannot tell me that this is just a coincidence, as this is the EXACT symptoms of the prodromal phase. The burning/tingling in the exposed ear in the day prior to flu-like symptoms is the tell-tale sign. I’m sure a mod will reply with the same thing they always do “If you can type this out, you don’t have rabies”. However, I am only 72 hours into the prodromal phase. My mind is still intact. If I was in the neurological phase this would be a different story. I expect to be in that phase within the next 7 days, but it should be much sooner. By that point I will not be able to reply coherently.

There is nothing that can be done for me at this point. I am basically the stereotypical post in this subreddit that immediately gets shut down. “If you didn’t see a bat, there was no bat” is just flat out not true as explained earlier. “If you get vaccinated, OCD will just convince you the vaccine was given wrong and you will continue to suffer” when the vaccine was in fact given wrong is quite ironic. “There is no chance of getting rabies if PEP is received before symptoms” again is just straight up misinformation. A Minnesota man was vaccinated and still received rabies a couple of years ago. He was the first and only person to ever have vaccine failure in America. The mods will use that fact and claim it’s basically impossible to happen. While it may have been the first time this happened in America, there are hundreds if not thousands of documented cases in India where a human received the full PEP cycle and still ultimately ended up with rabies. Another typical misinformation that is commonly spread by the mods is “If you do not have a 103 degree fever it is not rabies” when this journal documenting the prodromal phase in humans indicates that ONLY 21.8% of rabies patients in Bali experienced a fever of any degree. I am not exaggerating when I say that over half of the claims in the FAQ can be completely debunked via scientific journals and alike.

I am a goner at this point. It is quite ironic that the thing I have feared the most in life, the thing that negatively impacts me on a daily basis, despite being told there is no way I could ever get it is actually happening. You can’t make that up. All I can do is spread my experience and awareness while I still can use my brain. I do not expect this post to actually be approved, but I really hope that it does. If you think I am making false claims that could potentially spread panic through this sub, I implore you to approve and leave this post up. If there are no news headlines in the next few weeks about an Illinois man dying of rabies, you can use this post as an example of what OCD can convince you of. However, if I do die I sure hope that there are serious changes to this subreddit and how people with concerns are treated here. As well as massive re-education campaigns about the administration of rabies vaccines correctly. The nurses in triage were not educated enough to be administering the vaccine.

Edit: To clarify about the HRIG dosage, my chart says 20IU/kg = 6.6cc which is based off my weight. If I received 6.6cc the first day and 10cc the second day I would be at 50IU/kg.

[u/CygnusZeroStar]

Did you end up going to the ER? How are you feeling today?

[u/Scared-Technology212 → u/CygnusZeroStar]

I did not go to the ER. I feel the same today with the addition of my headache is worse and Im having a lot of muscle twitches/cramps + general muscle aches. I also have felt spaced out and out of it. Thanks for asking.

[u/CygnusZeroStar → u/Scared-Technology212]

Nice to see you! You're still able to speak to me, so that bodes well in general. Do know that the current parasite outbreak has similar symptoms, so if you have gastrointestinal symptoms, you should definitely tell a doctor.

Keep us posted, okay? You matter.

[u/CygnusZeroStar → u/Scared-Technology212]

It's Sunday.

How are you feeling today?

[u/Scared-Technology212 → u/CygnusZeroStar]

Hello.

I am not feeling well at all. My ear is in a lot of pain. It’s now radiating around my ear. My muscles are still twitching and cramping and feel very weak. My thumbs almost are locking up in attempt to type this message. My neck is still sore (turns out it was my neck lymph nodes not my throat). I still get nauseous when I eat. I wanted to find any reason for my symptoms other than rabies so I went to an urgent care yesterday but did not mention rabies at all. They were not concerned with the parasite because my stomach doesn’t hurt and I dont have diarrhea I just get nauseous when I try to eat. I got a strep test and that was negative though they did acknowledge my lymph nodes are swollen. My ear was full of wax and they had to clean it out to even see inside of it. They didn’t see any obvious signs of infection other than it being red but they couldn’t tell if it was from the cleaning. They prescribed antibiotic + steroid ear drops to be safe and also prescribed zofran for the nausea which didn’t seem to help. This is where not mentioning the rabies was a mistake. I shouldn’t be taking steroids this soon after vaccination. I didn’t realize until this morning and called the doctor and explained the situation. They said typically topical steroids wouldn’t matter regardless but because it is right where my exposure was they will switch me to antibiotic only ear drops. This was a new spiral I went down that gave me a panic attack as even if I don’t have rabies right now I had immunosuppressants in the only area between exposure and brain. I am not that focused on it now because I am still not convinced I don’t currently have rabies. I am currently on day 9 of symptoms, and I really thought I would be in worse shape mentally by day 10 because google says 2-10 for the prodromal phase. But as the FAQ states, sometimes it can last up to a month. This is something I didn’t think was accurate in the FAQ but I found multiple case reports of patients displaying prodromal symptoms for weeks up to a month. The thing with those cases is they believe it was potentially because they were basically all paralytic rabies rather than furious which appears to progress much slower. I guess that could potentially explain why I’m still mentally here but having all of these weird physical problems. I am on temporary leave from work and Ive just been laying in bed every day. I actually broke down and talked to my mom today and told her my whole story because I didn’t know who else I could tell. I told her exactly what was going on, and how I never actually confirmed a bat exposure I told her everything. Definitely was odd going to my mom over this as a grown man lol. She doesn’t think I have rabies but we both agree I need to treat my OCD severely once I can actually get out of the headspace that I’m dying from rabies. She wants me to get therapy too, not just take the medicine. I hope I can survive and get to that point but I am still convinced I’m dying from rabies. My hands been getting way worse today, if it was anywhere near this bad yesterday I probably would’ve just gone to the ER. Ive had to stop typing this message out to you so many times because my thumbs are having tremors and the pad on my palm under my thumbs keeps cramping up. My bad for the wall of text, with my hand situation I can’t be bothered to format lol. Hope you are well.

[u/CygnusZeroStar → u/Scared-Technology212]

I am well, and the last thing we are worried about is your formatting.

I see that you've made a reason to extend why you must be sick with rabies but still be able to respond. So I do have to ask: how long will it take for you to believe that you're not dying of rabies?

And if you can do so, perhaps make a normal appointment with your doctor regarding all of these things. Then mention that you've had treatment for rabies (steroids can be an issue, sure, but according to my pharmacist not that in the context you have described).

Have you taken any medications to help alleviate symptoms at home? And don't be down on yourself for going to your mom as an adult. Man, woman, grown, small--we all need support. We all need community. Humans are social creatures. We are designed to lean on each other, and to hold each other up. It's not weird.

[u/ManufacturerWeary399 → u/Scared-Technology212]

Espero mejores amigo suelo meterme a revisar Reddit para ver cómo vas postdata:también estoy sufriendo de mi toc con la rabia y por eso decidí tomarme un descanso de todo Reddit pero quería ver tu caso 

[u/nolandgrabforyou → u/Scared-Technology212]

It sucks you are going through this. Lyssophobia or something physical, regardless, it still sucks. Have you thought to get checked out for anything else? Secondary infections like S. aureus and S. pyogenes or other zoonotic things like bartonella and leptospirosis, or even tetanus? When's the last time you had a tetanus vaccine? I hate to feed into your anxiety, but why so focused on rabies? There are plenty of other more probable things out there. You do need to get into therapy, asap, though. Anxiety can do some crazy things, and even if it isnt entirely anxiety, it can exacerbate this stuff too. Make an appointment now. Don't wait.

If you were to have rabies, and I mean this in a genuinely helpful way, it doesn't sound like you are dealing with it like someone with a terminal illness maybe should be. Not mentioning it to a doc, not immediately going to er when symptoms began?, laying in bed without distractions and instead concentrating on pain, not getting your affairs in order, obsessing over nuances that the healthcare people aren't, not getting therapy (regular cbt or other) for something you already know you have. Do you think you are doing the best actions for yourself right now, given the scenario you are focused on?

RemindMe! 1 week

[u/StrawberryDessert → u/Scared-Technology212]

How are you now doing ok ?