Mouse/LCMV worry

[mrsbirdie]

I suspect I’m being daft, but can’t get this out of my head.

Over the weekend we stayed in a holiday cottage complex in the middle of nowhere. On day one we saw a mouse/vole scuttle across the kitchen floor - maintenance team came in and dealt with it, theory is it had come in when we were unloading the car and been trapped in overnight as there was no obvious route in for it (though I know they can get in anywhere so am taking that with a pinch of salt).

Before we actually saw it I spotted and picked up what I now realise was probably a rodent poo. Didn’t register at the time what it looked like, I chucked it in the bin and rinsed but didn’t thoroughly wash my hands (Feel like an idiot for this now!) and went on with the morning.

Worrying myself silly now about LCMV from picking up the poo and then generally being in the area.

Currently about 5 weeks pregnant, second pregnancy, received an OCD diagnosis during first pregnancy in 2020. Know I shouldn’t have googled, it’s like rule 1 of managing obsessive thoughts. Anyone able to offer any sort of reassurance?

Mice are everywhere OP - most offices are infested and I suspect many people are oblivious to the fact that they come in and out of their houses regularly. If you hadn’t seen that mouse you wouldn’t be worrying, but you’d still almost certainly be in a mouse-visited area at other points in your pregnancy. You know that it’s impossible to control and minimise all risk, and you also know that the vast majority of people come to no harm from these sorts of everyday encounters, so try not to let yourself worry.

Thank you. It is very true and trying to remind myself of that! Think I need to have ‘it’s impossible to control and minimise all risk’ on some sort of loop playing all the time.

Thank you again. My mental health made my last pregnancy really really difficult, and I’m just really hoping this isn’t a sign of things to come again.

I went to stay with some relatives whose house turned out had a really really bad mouse infestation. Loads of mouse poo around the kitchen and I think the cloth used for wiping surfaces was also used for the washing up. I pretty much felt I couldn't have had worse exposure and left early - I was very anxious, especially when i fell ill about ten days later. My GP had never heard of LCMV but kindly consulted a microbiologist, who said the risk was very very small and the symptoms were more likely to be a bug going around. Baby is now here and all seems to be fine. Hope this is somewhat reassuring!