Since we moved into our new neighborhood two weeks ago, we have thoroughly enjoyed meeting our new neighbors. We have been the grateful recipients of housewarming gifts and invitations to BBQ and have been thrilled to see that our new neighbors are just as kind, generous, and fun as our old ones.
Over the weekend, however, we were shocked to find a most unwelcome new neighbor in our house: a bat. It's a long story, but suffice it to say we were rudely awoken in the middle of the night by a bat swooping down over our heads and scaring the living daylights out of us. Eek!!
We called the county animal control who assured us that someone would be out first thing in the morning to collect the bat, which we'd thankfully been able to trap in a bathroom.
After an uneasy night's sleep, we were displeased to find that when the animal control officer emerged from our bathroom the next morning, he did NOT have a bat in his hands. Fun fact: a bat can squeeze through an opening as small as 3/8 of an inch. The animal control officer suggested we contact the health department and our primary care doctors for the next course of action since the wayward bat could not be tested for rabies. Another fun fact: bat bites are extremely small, heal quickly and often go completely undetected. Up to 85% of bat bite related rabies deaths happen to people who saw a bat but didn't think they'd been bitten.
So at the advice of our pediatrician, at 4:45pm on Sunday, all five of us loaded up into the car and headed downtown to the VCU hospital for the first in a series of rabies vaccinations. Another fun fact: you HAVE to go to the ER for your first round of rabies shots, and you best call ahead to make sure your hospital even has the shots in stock.
Of course, we were not at all thrilled to be making this family trip, but rabies is 100% fatal, so it was literally a case of better safe than sorry. 16 shots and almost 5 hours later, this handful of Heppers was on the way home. We were exhausted, starving, and cranky, but at least we knew we weren't going to die of rabies. It's the little things, right? :-)
Now we just have to make it through 16 more shots in the coming weeks and we will be done with this ordeal!
Since we spent a whole lot of time doing a whole lot of nothing in the hospital, I did take several pictures of our eventful evening...
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| In the pediatric ER waiting room, ready to get this rabies party started. |
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| We hit up the triage room first to check our vitals. |
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| Margaret didn't care what was happening as long as she had a "pop-pop" in her mouth. |
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| Julia was a little less enthusiastic. |
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| Never thought I'd be in a hospital bed as a patient with all my children as patients too! |
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| Julia excited about her glove balloon. |
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| The nurses were smart to ply Margaret with an enormous popsicle before administering her shots. |
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| Caroline was SO brave. She earned a popsicle and an enormous Woodstock for her courage. |
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| Julia after her shots :( |
