Hi, about a month ago (September 2019) I was exposed to a bat in our backyard on a sunny Saturday afternoon. I was given 'Day 0' Rabavert in my shoulder muscle on the Monday following the weekend. (Because I had already had a bat incident back in 2002 and received the full rabies protocol, I only needed 2 doses of Rabavert on day 0 and 3 in September).

Within 2 hours of receiving the Rabavert I started to notice side effects starting of tremor, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath and painful burning on my arm. The next day, I had nausea, muscle aches, joint pain - like I had been hit by a truck, chills and fever. This persisted for the next 3 days of feeling very unwell. Then most of it quickly went away by Wednesday night.

Thursday of that week was Day 3 - last Rabavert vaccine. This time I went to the drug store about bought something for nausea and was ready to get ill again, knowing what I already went through on Monday. I went to the hospital and was met with great skepticism from the physician as to 'why' I needed a rabies vaccine in the first place without a 'visible' bite. He was clearly not impressed with my need for the second vaccine.

The nurse came in and took some time to prepare the vaccine then came over to my arm. (Any time I have a vaccine, get a blood test or have accupuncture - I can FEEL the needle go into my arm and come back out - always.) Not this time. I didn't feel anything. I even asked her 'when' she was going to give me the vaccine. She said she already did. ???

Then 2 hours later, nothing, no side effects - I had zero side effects from the last Rabavert vaccine - none! Not even a sore arm.

How can I have so many side effects from the first vaccine and none from the second?? When I had the initial vaccines back in 2002, the side effects progressed with each vaccine, so I knew what to expect.

So after talking to other people I decided I needed to get my rabies titre levels checked - I'm still waiting on the results. But, what do you think?