Friday, 6 March 2009

Drama Update

Many friends and family have been rabid with questions and concern.

hehehehehe... pun intended.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

Besides all the puns, everything is good. I'm good. So, let me break it down:

What are the chances I have rabies to begin with? Slim. We've seen the cat around for months before the bite. And the story tells me that the cat was more scared than rabid, having spent 12 hours in a garage, in a strange house, with two territorial cats patiently waiting for it to move, only to be held upside down in a blanket after a terrifying chase. Personally, I don't think the cat will come around again.

When you get bit by an unknown animal, and that animal is cannot be recovered, there is always a genuine concern that exposure to rabies may have occurred. As rabies is fatal, 100% of the time, treatment has to begin within 10 days of exposure. Now, 48+ hours from the bite, and no animal decapitation underway (rabies testing involves testing the brain tissue of the animal for acute encephalitis), I took the precautionary, and recommended, move of starting the rabies vaccination series.

So what does that entail, to start the series? Well, there is a lot of stuff on the internet (as this is itself), but to those that know me then, this is a first hand account.

First. There are needles. Lots. Second, there is no shot to the stomach. Third, there is a lot of talk about pain... eh, I may not be the best judge of this, but I have always had a high threshold for pain, and well, "what pain?" sums up my experience so far. The cat bite, at that instant, was painful; but that quickly subsided... for me.

Rabies vaccination is initially administered in the ER. There are two parts to the initial treatment: human rabies immuno globulin, or HRIG. HRIG is administered at the wound site and jumpstarts your immune system as well as provides immediate 4–8 week protection. The second treatment is the vaccine itself. Based on weight, the number of injections are dependent on individuals. I got four shots, all in the dense muscles the body: thigh, deltoids and gluts.

The vaccine treatments continue for a month, 3, 7, 14 and 28 days from the initial treatment as an out patient. I'll be busy to say the least, and promise not to bite.

And that's the story so far.

Everyone's thoughts and prayers are very much appreciated.

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Posted by tstone at 11:47 PM in 'srkE
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Thursday, 5 March 2009

Here's some drama...

What has happened in the last 48 hours is worthy of the three month absence.

Tuesday, March 3

I return home from work, pull into the garage and close the garage door.

Wednesday, March 4

0100hrs

Shannon gets up hearing commotion in the garage. Finding our cats, she guesses that they were having a scuffle.

0540hrs

I'm up for my workout and filling my water bottle when all hell breaks loose. At first I think that our cats are fighting each other over a field mouse. It takes a second to realize there is a third cat running for its life from our cats. Catfight!

This third cat is running into walls, unfamiliar with the house. Our cats are tackling it or boxing it into corners, hissing and growling.

In the confusion, I grab a blanket, separating our cats, having cornered the stray in the "powder room." Bundled in the blanket, I take the stray to the garage door...

Then, with deft execution, the cat recurses on itself, from under the blanket, and bites me.

And I mean bite. There are seven puncture wounds on the palm of my hand.

In the fog of pain, I rush to the sink to rinse and clean the bite. Shannon finally gets the cat outside. (It's hours later that I remember my Boy Scout training: it would have been wiser to keep the cat "handy" for rabies testing, e.g., decapitation and brain examination; rabies is essentially acute encephalitis, or brain swelling .)

1345hrs
At the doctor's office for examination, the doctor assesses rabies risk and gives me the bad news: cat bites are highly prone to infection. He prescribes a powerful antibiotic and tells me to watch for cellulitis, red streaking from the wound to my armpit. I'm "reported" to the Health Dept. for possible rabies exposure.

Among other things I learn that the rabies vaccine is only administered in the ER; there is a shortage of the vaccine; and contracting rabies is fatal.

1930hrs

Some cool sensations on my forearm prompt me to pull up my sleeve to find the beginnings of dark red streaking, following various crooked paths of veins, from the wound up my forearm. Well, a call to my sister, a PA and former vet tech has one thing to say, "Get your ass to the ER. That's a nasty infection. I had that and spent two days in the hospital getting high doses of antibiotics through IV."

2005hrs

I'm in triage at the ER.

2345hrs

I'm released from the ER after an IV drip of a very powerful antibiotic.

Epilogue

My cellulitis is all good, the red streaks all gone (catching it early) and I have a really good white blood cell count to help. The Health Dept. contacted me with instructions to watch for, and possibly catch, the cat that bit me. Barring that in the next 36 hours, start the rabies series for vaccination.

Guess where I'll be tomorrow afternoon? ~o)

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Posted by tstone at 2:42 PM in 'srkE
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