This is the continuation of our batty saga…you can go back to read part 1 and part 2 if you need to get caught up. (Or go forward to part 4 or part 5.)

Our second set of shots was yesterday morning. As I explained during my last post, the “rabies course” is a 4-part series of shots. Day 0 was last Friday, so Monday was Day 3. We still have two more shots left in the course – Day 7 (this coming Friday) and Day 14 (next Friday).

In the interim, ds got sick. The immune globulin shot(s) (HRIG) are chock-ful of antibodies, but – ironically – the introduction of the antibodies can actually lower your immune response. I assume it has something to do with someone else’s antibodies calling the shots in your immune system. Anyway, while dh, dd and I all came through this okay, ds started acting a bit droopy Sunday afternoon. I gave him a cuddle and realized that he was quite a bit warm. His temp registered a little north of 101F, so not only was I keeping him inside for the remainder of the afternoon, I was pulling him from going to daycare the next day. He was so exhausted and unwell at bedtime that the poor little guy conked out within about 5 minutes of my putting him in bed. Truly, there are few things worse than having a sick kiddo. You just feel so helpless…

When we woke up on Monday morning, ds’ fever had broken. He seemed perkier – even bringing a small banana toy with us to the doctor’s office to be his “banana phone”. As we explained to one of the people in the waiting room for the Internal Medicine folks, we figure it’s the next generation after the iPhone.

The wait at the doctor’s office screwed us up quite a bit. There was a scheduling mishap in the Internal Medicine area, and though we’d been told by them that we could book at Pediatrics and they’d “match” the schedule so that we could do everything in one go, they expected us at the same time as when we went into Pediatrics. I explained to the nurse that it’s unlikely I’d leave my 6yo and 3yo with the Pediatrics folks on one floor while I went to Internal Medicine on another, and she got the idea that perhaps they should stagger our appointments by about 20-30mins. BRILLIANT!

In other words, if you ever run into this type of scenario (which I never hope any of you ever do), and if you have a family (which is fine, except for the whole rabies thing), I recommend you make sure that your doctors’ offices/receptionists/scheduling peeps understand how to build a block schedule so that you’re not waiting twice in one day for a shot that takes 20 seconds to administer. Just a suggestion.

My day was a blur – I was constantly behind at work, thanks to the time lost to the doctors’ offices – and I was disheartened to hear that ds was running a temp just under 102F early this afternoon. So, he’s home again today with dh and we’ll see if he can kick this nastiness in time to make it back to school on Wednesday. I suppose we’re lucky that only one of us got downed by the HRIG’s side effect, but even one is too many in a household where there’s too much going on at work and home.

I can’t wait for this rabies course to be over and done. I’m slowly starting to get comfortable in the house again at night, although I do my nighttime planks with considerable fear that something will come flying out from the fireplace and land on my back. The likelihood is so incredibly small, and yet now the phobia has been planted. Every little noise in the house at night seems like it must be something that I don’t want in our home. I’m trying not to become the most anxious person in the world, but it seems like it at times.

I should probably just say “This, too, shall pass” (plus a few rounds of OM) and see if that resettles me back into feeling safe in my own house. Perhaps it’s just part and parcel of living in an exurban area that’s got lots of green space; critters and things are likely to be in the vicinity. But the city girl that I am still can’t quite fathom the idea that I had bats in my house. i suppose the small bandaid I sported last night on my shoulder was my reality check.