Hi there,
I was recently (2 weeks ago) on vacation in Florida and while walking to the car in the darkness of the night something enveloped my left arm and then I felt something crawling. I turned on the flashlight in my cell and right above the garage roof I saw a huge spider net and a big spider crawling around in it. I didn’t think much of it since I didn’t see anything else and proceeded to walk over to the car.
I drove over to my sister who was staying a few houses away and she jokingly said “maybe it was a bat”. The thing is I’ve been through this before, I am a total OCD health anxiety freak and once something gets in my head it’s very hard for me to get it out. I inspected my arm and didn’t see any obvious bites except for a needle prick looking pimple. A few days later I noticed another mark on the hind side of my arm. I freaked out.
A few days later I started to develop pain and itching around that mark. It also started to pulsate. I started getting agitated, tired and experience numbness and tingling in that whole arm, neck and my head. I also had difficulty swallowing for a day. I’m still feeling some of this 2 weeks later although for the most part I’m feeling better but the immense anxiety is getting the best of me.
It’s been about 2 weeks since the incident and this whole time I was debating whether I should brave through 2 booster rabies shots. The reason it’s been such an agonizing decision for me is because I had a similar scare a few years back and got a whole vaccination series but was dealing with terrible side effects. I had tingling and numbness in extremities, really bad headaches and neck spasm that caused difficulty swallowing, confusion, and just overall feeling like the vaccine is making me sick. Luckily these symptoms subsided some time later but the thought of going through even two shots of this again is making me extremely anxious.
Do you think I should get the vaccine given the encounter I described and some of the neurological symptoms I’ve been feeling since?
Thanks!