I need to be told I'm being ridiculous. Rabies/ bats?

[Anxiouspotat0]

Hi.
So, I go abroad on friday for two weeks.
Yesterday I woke with a weird.mark on my hand. I google lensed it to be told it looks like a bat bite. I measured it and it is the right size. IGoogle of course recommended a full course of post rabies exposure vaccines as bats arre the only.animal in the UK that cam carry a rabies like virus.

Here's the thing. I walk the dogs of an evening. There are sometimes bats around flying overhead but I.am confident I would have noticed one stopping to land on my hand (apparently they don't bite mid flight and have to anchor theirselves). It's the hand I hold the dog lead with. To my knowledge (I am confident) one never got anywhere near close. Which leaves one flying in through a window and biting me in my sleep (google says you'd always find a bat in the room, there is 0 evidence of any bat) I also have dogs that bark if a spider farts so if a bat was in tbe room surely they' have woke me up.

I'm waiting for the GP to get back to me (111 told me to send them a photo) .Obviously rabies is 100% fatal and not something to mess with. BUT if I do the jabs which are 4 jabs over 28 days, I will have to either not go away (it is incredibly important to me, it isnt a regular.holiday and I can't reschedule it) or source 1/2 jabs in the US which insurance would not cover. Tens of tbousands of debt which I cannot afford. All on the slight chance a bat somehow entered my home, bit me, and left with0 trace, and when only 0.5% of tested bats even carry the virus even if it was a bat bite.

I don't even know if the NHS would recommend thr jabs given I was never directly near a bat or found a bat in a room, but I'm just stressed as hell, please be gentle. But I'm hoping to be told that you regular unanxious people would just assume a spider bite or anything else and go about their lives without worrying about rabies. I am a super anxious person as you can surely tell.

Thanks if you made it this far.

Only read OP's posts but don't forget that now you have this on your medical record you will need to advise your travel insurers before you go away

How are you getting on OP?

Honestly not good.
I found a photo of a bite similar to mine and I'm convinced im going to die. The specialists were over the phone so didnt ser the bite. They only cared there was no bat in the room or that ive had no contact with them to my knowledge.
I cant stop crying :( theres nothing I can do but wait now

Oh no. Sorry to hear it's so difficult!

Op are you getting help for your mental health? You habe been seen by a doctor. You have not been bitten. But you need help for your mental heath.

can you post this image of this supposed bite that’s the same as yours , I say supposed as you’ve not been bitten,

OP, you haven’t been bitten by a bat. This is really significant health anxiety that needs treatment.

You need to post the image that looks like yours, as it will not look like yours. You have not been bitten, a doctor has seen it, we have seen it, it’s indents. It looks nothing like a bat bite.

but you need to make an appt for your health anxiety/hypochondria, as you may need medication to help you through this.

I think as you describe yourself now you might need some medication to calm you down.

Honestly its not a bat bite op (I work with bats and have been bitten as posted above, similar to another poster).
Given nothing has happened, I personally wouldn't be contacting my insurers

Oh crikey OP, honestly if you've been seen by a doctor and spoken to a specialist, you really can be confident you're going to be fine.

Put the logic through here:

1. You haven't got any pain, redness or swelling that would indicate a bite.
2. The indents are such that if it were a bite you'd expect it to have been hard - and therefore that puncture marks would be apparent.
3. A doctor has reviewed it and concluded the same thing.
4. They have applied an abundance of caution to the situation and have conferred with specialists to make sure.
5. Almost all bats in the UK don't have rabies, in any case.

You need to think about what you're doing here. It's time for some CBT on yourself:

1. Recognise the thoughts: "Gosh, I am catastrophising."
2. Reframe them with a more reasonable alternative: "I have taken every precaution and there is no evidence to support my beliefs."
3. Remember that you don't have to believe the things you say when you're doing this for them to help. It's great if you can get yourself to, but the most important thing is to keep saying them, preferably aloud, every time you clock yourself catastrophising.

Have you googled what to do IF you contact rabies. I know this sounds a bit wierd but bear with me as I also have health anxiety, but I find that if you are prepared for the next steps AFTER you catch the horrendous thing that has a 0.01.% chance of happening then it calms me because I know what to look for

This must be the most ridiculous thread I have ever read on MN.

That doesn’t work with rabies as by the time you have symptoms, it is fatal. OP is there a blood test you can do for it?

Unfortunately there is no “what to do if” you catch rabies because at that point there’s nothing you can do because it’s 100% fatal. So while that thought process may work for lots of things it absolutely won’t work for rabies.

Your GP sounds fab, she had experience of seeing bat bites and took the trouble to investigate it for you.

I can understand that you will still worry, but I hope that helps you to feel more reassured. Particularly if you are currently feeling OK in yourself.

Im not an expert but I think if you checked this with your doctor in UK before your trip, its on the record, so that if something did happen you may be able to claim on your travel insurance because a medical professional gave you the all clear to travel? So that could be something less to worry about from the expense point of view.
So I think you did the right thing by checking.

Could you be also stressed by pre going on holiday anxiety? I get that and have found that getting a few online checklists and putting a check list on the fridge helps That way you won't forget anything important and can relax on that front.
And allow plenty of time to get to the airport, better to be there than to be rushing to get there.
Hope you have a good trip and can put this worry behind you.

You die horribly. There is nothing to be done :(

OP are you on any medication for your anxiety? You sound like me before starting medication. Are you anxious in general or just health anxiety? Apologies if you’ve already answered this or you don’t want to talk about it. Please try and stop catastrophising.

However I do understand. Not only as a someone who does have generalised anxiety disorder, albeit very well managed now with sertraline, but also because I get it, rabies is fucking scary. You don’t have rabies and you’ve not been bitten by a bat, however because there may be no other way to alleviate your worry at this stage, could you ask that you are given the jabs in this instance? This will help your anxiety and enable you to go on holiday. Others have said if you got one jab in the US it wouldn’t be insanely costly.

However it’s crucial that you seek help for your anxiety too. Get the rabies jabs, go on your lovely holiday, and then come back straight to a GP appointment to discuss your mental health. You don’t have to continue struggling. Medication changed my life, basically gave me my life back. It will be absolutely worth exploring what is suitable for your situation.

Please continue writing here if it helps, we’re listening ❤️

@Anxiouspotat0 - I have the most horrendous health anxiety and going through a massive spiral at the moment so I underhand how intense your feelings are. I have found ChatGPT really helpful to calm me down. I have copied and pasted the reply I got got your anxiety eassure her:
Why She Can Rest Easy

• No Bat, No Rabies: UK bats do not sneak into homes, bite people unnoticed, and disappear. They are loud, chaotic flyers. If a bat had been in her room or near her hand to bite her, she or someone in the house would have almost certainly seen or heard it flying around or found it grounded. 1, 2, 3, 4]
• It is Likely a Standard Bug Bite: Unexplained marks on the hand are incredibly common. It is statistically far more likely to be a routine spider bite, midge bite, horsefly nip, or a simple scratch from a household object or pet that she didn't notice happening.
• The "Sleeping in a Room" Rule: In some countries (like the US), protocols require treating an unexplained bite after sleeping in a room with a bat as an exposure. However, according to NHS Scotland and UK guidelines, a bat simply being in the same room as a sleeping person in the UK is classified as a Category 1 (No Risk) event because UK bats do not behave aggressively. Since she didn't even see one, the risk is completely non-existent

I hope this helps.

Op you haven't been bitten by a bat. That is not a bat bite, its not even a bite its an indent. The Dr who's seen it said its not a bat bite. The rabies team are't concerned. There's absolutely nothing to indicate you've been bitten by a bat

I cannot get the jabs, I don't qualify. But thank you x

Ah ok I misunderstood, ignore me.

Can you think of it this way - the only thing that put rabies and bats in your brain was googling that picture. If you hadn’t, it wouldn’t have even crossed your mind at all. Why? Because you’ve not even seen a bat come anywhere near you. Your GP examined you and they’re happy it’s not a bat bite. Please could you try and find some reassurance in this ❤️

@Anxiouspotat0 I was bitten by a bat in the UK earlier this year. It didn't look like your marks, as previous posters said the have very fine and sharp teeth, it was a large bat so went deep and drew blood but I could only just see the puncture and I felt it. There were no indentations it was fast puncture.
I definitely felt it and knew I'd been bitten. I hope the doctors have helped to reassure you that you haven't been.

You are not going to get bitten by a bat and not notice- I used to live in a village where the church porch and the church was alive with bats- they never came near enough to you for you to even see them clearly let alone bit you- i think the likelihood of you being bitten by a bat in the UK and getting rabies from it are similar odds to you being hit and killed by a meteorite-so small as to be not worth considering.

That's not true at all. Bat with rabies bite just because. Just like dogs. It scrambles their brains.

I’m sorry you’re feeling so unset. Living with this level of anxiety must be extremely difficult. Have you ever engaged with any therapy for your anxiety? I think you might benefit from cognitive behavioural therapy.

You haven’t been bitten by a bat OP. But that’s not the problem here, your anxiety is. You’re in a cycle of feeling anxious, seeking reassurance, but feeling anxious again because ultimately nobody here or in real life can 100% guarantee you weren’t bitten by a rabid bat and therefore your brain won’t won’t let it go. Every time someone reassures you it gives you temporary relief but that subsides and the anxiety builds again as you need more reassurance, and the actual act of seeking it makes the anxiety worse as it just tells
your brain it’s right to worry and the fear is valid. You won’t get better until you understand that seeking validation and reassurance in the way you’re doing now is actually making you worse. You’ll move on from fear of bat bites in a couple of weeks (when you don’t develop rabies) and then another fear will come in and the cycle will start again.

The first thing you need to do is understand and accept the cycle. Then you need to tackle it. CBT will really help you, and potentially meds as well. I have been there and done it. It’s tough but you can do it and life on the other side is better. But asking for reassurance makes you more anxious and understanding that is crucial to recovery.