QuestionThe first morning of my vacation in Canada, I woke up with two bite marks about 5mm apart on my arm, and a cluster of bite marks on my back, two of which were 5mm apart as well, but the rest didn't seem to follow any real pattern and ranged from 7mm apart to 3mm apart. The bites swelled up like mosquito bites do and bothered me for a day and a half before the swelling went down and the itching eventually subsided. I can still see the marks today (four days after appearance of bites) but they have faded considerably in that time. If I look closely, I can see the puncture marks as well, which are a little crusty in the middle. I also have a horseshoe-shaped mark my opposite shoulder that consists of five tiny scabs about 1mm apart that I noticed around the same time and became red when I fussed at it, but I cannot be 100% sure they appeared at the same time.
I come from Southern California where rabies has recently been covered by the media a lot, and although I intellectually realize the odds are astronomical and that the bites are behaving exactly the way insect bites behave, I am concerned about the possibility of a bat having flown into my room and bitten me several times on the back and shoulder while I was asleep. Everything I've read from official sources about rabies indicates that you should go to a doctor if you wake up in the room with a bat or have physical contact with a bat, but I did not see a bat in my bedroom and cannot recall ever seeing a bat around my home.
I became so anxious that I went to a walk-in clinic up here in Canada and spoke with a doctor yesterday about it. She examined the bites and was fairly certain that they came from an insect, and that I would probably wake up and catch it in the act if a bat bit me that many times while I was asleep, but also did not have any experience with bat bites. She suggested I speak with my primary care physician when I get back to the States, but that's a week away and I'm having difficulty functioning in the meantime. I do suffer from anxiety and was recently prescribed the generic form of Wellbutrin -- I'm about two weeks into it and I feel more anxious than I have ever felt in my life.
I have resolved to take pictures of the marks so the pattern is on record and speak with a doctor in California when I return as the doctor up here suggested. Right now the fear is crippling even though I know only one or two people die from rabies in the United States every year on average, and a significant percentage of those either remembered coming into physical contact with a bat, had a bat sighted in their house or knew people who indicated the victim had definitely come into contact with a bat in some way or another. I can't find any information from the CDC about what to do if you wake up with bite marks but there's no sign of any bats, or even what bat bites look like except that they can be so small it's impossible to detect them or mistake them for something else. We have screens over our windows and do not keep them open for this very reason. The fact that I only noticed the marks 24 hours after my departure from the States when they began itching (which to me suggests I was bitten by something while up here in Canada) and that my roommate back home has checked the house for signs of bats and found none are a little calming, but whenever I think I've dismissed the fear and put it behind me, it returns in full force. Is there anything I can do to ease my fears while I wait? Am I taking all the right precautions?
Thank you so much for your time.
Answerwell, you spelled it out in your note... rabies is incredibly rare. And you also describe a situation where it is most plausible that there was no exposure at all.
There is an option of getting the rabies vaccine when you get back (you have weeks to do that) but that gets pretty expensive... 2-3 thousand dollars for that vaccine.
I would heed the advice and let the bug bites heal overall.
One note... Welbutrin for primary anxiety isn't my first choice... sometimes that can be a little "activating" and worsen symptoms.
Good luck with everything.....
