UPDATE ON MY SITUATION...

So even if there was 0.00000001% chance I was in trouble...even if it had just been a dream, I decided to go to the ER this evening (just to put my mind at ease - if nothing else) and they ended up sending me down to the clinic. I was met by a kind Jewish doctor there who asked me a series of questions, summarized everything I had told him and then proceeded to tell me that if I was his daughter, he would not take me to get rabies shots. He then said "heaven help me if I was wrong but I would'nt take her if her situation was the same as your because I think it's highly unlikely that you were bitten". He then went on to say that he could give me the shots if I wanted but that they were so excruciatingly painful, he would have to anesthetize me first and I was thinking "whhhaaaaaaaaa?!?!?".

We continued talking as he told me about the horrors of rabies and intermingled this with assurances that he was sure I had'nt been bitten so I was sort of freaked out one moment and then relieved the next as I listened to him. In parting, he gave me some addresses to various online resources with information about rabies (yeah, like I needed to read that with my anxiety and hypochondria!) and then he left telling me not to hesitate to come in if anything changed.

So I waited in the room and this billing clerk comes in. Well, in my haste (and fear) I had not brought my wallet along (I'm always afraid of losing it anyway). and she told me that because of all the terrorist stuff, homeland security had made it a crime to go anywhere without having photo ID and that they can arrest you on the spot until they find out who you are. I apologized and then jokingly told her that I felt like I was in the Soviet Union and told her "oh great, after hearing all about rabies, now I get to sit under the bright lights for awhile". She laughed, then verified who I was and everything was fine.

Then the discharge nurse comes in and I broke down and spilled my guts to her about the "incident" and that's when I found out that she had dealt with a number of rabies patients. She asked to look at the "wound" and immediately told me that it was a paper cut and that I needed to take some deep breaths and try to relax and that it was definately NOT a bite mark". She told me tales of various patients she herself had administered the shots to and said that they are so painful that many patients go bonkers. She said that you NEVER want to take the shots unless you are totally sure you were bitten.

Anyway, I'm home now but the damage from 2 days of horrible panic attacks has already been done. Every sensation...every ache or pain...I will be convinced it is rabies and start freaking out again. This who thing started with a paper cut that I most likely received while I was working around the house yesterday but because I saw what I though was a bat and did'nt notice the paper cut until sometime afterwards, I have gotten myself into a huge panic.

- Regards