Rabies!?

A few weeks back a Soldier at Fort Drum was killed from rabies that he contracted from a rabid animal while he was deployed to Afghanistan. Of course, the Army has blown this isolated incident out of proportion, because that's what we do around these parts. A survey was sent out Army wide to pick out Soldiers who are "high risk" for having contracted rabies while over seas in 2010-2011.

I love animals. I would pet any dog or cat I could get my hands on while I was deployed. Thus making me "high risk".

So I had an appointment at Preventive Med to be interviewed about my experiences with Iraqi animals. As I was sitting in an exam room explaining to a Captain all of the interaction I had with wild animals, I started to rethink my initial thoughts that this was a completely unnecessary medical appointment.

I was reminded of Combat Stress Kitty and how we evacuated her head to be tested for rabies after she went bat shit crazy and attacked a Soldier. I used to pet that cat all the time. And she would lick me: lick me with possibly rabid saliva on her tongue!

The doc that I was telling all of this to started to inform me of the rabies vaccine. He told me it was a very expensive series of shots ($700 on Uncle Sam's tab!). And then about the 10cc of imunoglobin that were going to be injected into my thighs and the weekly shots in my arms for 4 weeks. He then pulled out a Rx pad and wrote a prescription for me to get the series of shots. HeHe put me in an exam room and told me to remove my pants in preparation for the shots in my thighs.

PANIC!

When he came back to the exam room in what seemed like hours later, he told me I didn't need the shots after all. He said I did not fall into what "Army protocol" requires to receive the vaccine series.

After the relief washed over me, and I put my pants back on, I started to feel slightly offended. Why wasn't I good enough for the shots!? What part of the Army protocol didn't I meet!? Was it because it's an expensive vaccine and I'm not worth it!? WTF!

All I have to say is, I better not have rabies.