Hi everyone. Wow this has been a terrific trove of real time information over the years. Kudos to all the consistent and regular posters!

Backbrief. New to the upper Midwest, not super familiar with bats but familiar enough to know not to touch one. Came across a grounded little brown bat at the city park, live in a small town and the park is a big attraction, the bay was relatively close to the kids playground so i thought hey this isn’t good. Asked a few passerbys if there was a park service to call or how to proceed and one suggested I move the bat off the sidewalk and into the long grass along a creek. Great idea. I found the nearest stick I could and proceeded to try and coax the bat towards the grass. It resisted. Fluttered it’s wings. Gave me an oh **** moment. Then the person who suggested I move the bay handed me a longer stick. Got the bay to latch on and then moved to a tree nearby. All in all the interaction was 5 minutes or less start to finish. Later that evening I research the internet. I send a couple local bat experts pictures and info, it’s a holiday weekend so nobody responds. The following morning I check back the bay hasn’t left. So I call local PD dispatch as that is who dispatches animal control here. They send an officer who puts on a glove grabs the bat and carries it off to his squad car to relocate it. Wild.
No mention of rabies, no asking about my interaction with the bat, nothing.
The weekend goes off, my mind wanders. I start to review the video I recorded of the interaction and notice the stick flings towards me when the bat climbs off onto the tree. I set off into panic mode. By Monday I’m in the urgent care discussing whether or not I was potentially exposed to rabies. The nurse calls me paranoid. Sends me on my way. Tuesday I’m a ball of nerves reading into every sensation in my body. Wednesday I notice a tiny cut on the back of my hand and suddenly it hits me that while I was so busy being paranoid of the flinging stick I didn’t think about the possibility of the bat scratching me while moving it with the first smaller stick. Thursday I call public health and have a chat. They insist because I’m not certain the bat didn’t touch me I go get the vaccine immediately. So I did. HRIG in the thumb and deltoid and vaccine in the deltoid. It’s been a wild ride of emotions and anxiety.

I stumbled across this forum and y’all are amazing. I just got my day 3 shot this past Sunday and have day 7 this Thursday. I’ve had severe bouts of anxiety, but also marked known side effects of the vaccine, the tingles and the soreness as well as some hypersensitivity in the arm the day after each shot so far. Been doing my best to stay busy and tell myself mathematically with the length of the stick and the size of the bat there wasn’t anyway it possibly scratched/cut me. But even then an air of doubt creeps in and spirals out of control. Thanks to search engines mostly.

I’m perplexed that not one of my conversations with the locals suggested I examine my hands for any possible scratch or bite wounds. You’d think there would be protocols in place living in a national forest area!

I’ll keep checking in as this plays out. Thanks for reading!