Hi Ladies,

I enjoyed seeing your articles on rabies. Not to cause unnecessary fear mongering, but there is more rabies out there than we think of. In Sedona Arizona this year 7 people had to receive the shots from a wild bobcat who tested positive and went around biting humans and pets like Godzilla!

What a crazy thing. As BatBite said, it's like the mid evil ages!

MrsD, I have my EMG Tuesday. Thanks for encouraging words of support, I'm not looking forward to it but not dreading it now either. Has to be done

Hope all are enjoying long weekend

Wonder how Peaceful Day is I empathize with him, I remember those days and just sheer terror. Heck, I still have them some days when my body gets wacky!

Hey everyone,

At the current moment I'd say I feel pretty okay. I'm just sitting and enjoying some tea on a quiet Sunday. This is very different from my last few nights which have continued to be rough. "Sheer terror" is definitely an apt description.

So yesterday morning I began becoming concerned with the excessive saliva issue. My parents (who have been patiently supporting me through this entire ordeal) said it was probably dry mouth from Zoloft that I was taking. But I knew that this was definitely not dry mouth, exactly the opposite.

I looked up other causes of excess saliva (besides the horrific obvious choice) and strep/sore throat caught my eye as a cause. I had been to the doctor on Monday and he noticed my throat was swollen and gave me antibiotics in case it was strep. But he never told me directly I was positive for strep. He sent out a culture, but I haven't heard anything back. So I've been taking the antibiotic kind of willy nilly (big mistake).

Another cause of excessive saliva is anxiety. Go figure.

So yesterday afternoon my throat starts hurting and I kept swallowing saliva. Eventually, in the evening it felt like I had swallowed enough saliva that it was coming back up to my mouth.

At that time, everything in my mind was saying "This is the END. You are dying". I then coughed a little, threw up a little, and then just sat in front of the toilet and spit until I could calm myself down.

My mom was there this entire time (I live with her currently). She kept telling me to repeat this: "I DO NOT HAVE RABIES!". We went and lied down together in the bed, she held my hands and kept telling me that my thoughts and feelings about rabies were not true. She kept telling me that I was a healthy, confident person with a long happy life ahead of me.

I was able to calm down after maybe 1-2 hours, then I went to sleep in my own bed.

I know that I am a 21 year old male and I'm supposed to be Mr. Tough and Independent, but I am so grateful to have someone like my mother to support me. Don't get me wrong, you guys definitely have helped me through a lot the past few days. But having someone who is physically there to stave away irrational and horrifying fears is invaluable.

Today was much better, however. I was able to go to the gym and do my full workout, I went to the organic market and bought some anti-anxiety tea, and now I'm getting ready to do so very neglected laundry.

I will continue to update you guys as I get through this. I WILL get through this! Everyone of us WILL get through this!

Ummmm, yes. The excess saliva thing is so creepy that I've only given it a passing mention here on the forum. Hate to even let it into my concious thoughts too much. Not to the point of having so much as you, peacefulday, but I've had 3 instances of excess saliva. At around 3 months out, I bent forward to talk to the dog and drooled a pool about the size of a silver dollar on the kitchen floor. I don't drool, and I wasn't anxious at that moment. Had all I could do to get a grip and not completely wig out. Now 7 months out from completing the shots and my mouth occasionally feels a little too "soupy" but not like the three earlier instances. Not an expert, but I think it's side effects from the vaccine that unfortunately mimic rabies symptoms. It's stuff like this that either panics the heck out of you, or makes you question your sanity. Thank goodness for your mom.

Batbite,

I remember reading that part in your past posts about the over salivation. I'm sorry if my post brought you discomfort or scary memories. At least I have a few things (strep, anxiety) that I can attribute it to.

Strangely enough, I think it produces more if I start to think about it. But when I'm not thinking about it, I usually don't even notice. Also, I woke up this morning with a completely dry mouth so I'm thinking my conscious is the underlying problem.

Your idea of the vaccine response might also be true. At moments like the ones I had last night, I will take any sort of explanation I can get.

Thank you for talking about it though, Batbite. Even if it is a tough subject.

Also, I wanted to tell you guys (or any future readers of this thread) that hydrophobia does NOT necessarily mean rabies. I spoke with a man named Dr. Ruprecht who works at the largest private owned rabies testing facility in the U.S. When I was asking him if anxiety would have any effect on the effectiveness of the vaccine, he said flat out NO. He said that he's even seen patients who receive the vaccine, become anxious and hydrophobic for a while, but are ultimately healthy and rabies-free. He also said that the rabies vaccine series has NEVER failed in the U.S. since the 1970s. I know that's been said before in this thread, but it doesn't hurt to hear it again (especially if its from an expert that knows what they are talking about).

peacefulday, thank you for sharing the information! You are doing the best thing possible; researching and finding reliable facts. Especially in situations like ours, knowledge is indeed power.

Hi Peaceful Day,
I'm so glad to hear from you! I thought of you this weekend often and wished you well

I never had the excessive saliva, but I live in Phoenix and don't drink enough liquids so that's probably why! ive sure had about everything else you can imagine though happen to my body!

I hate to sound like the %*$&@@ doctors but SOME of this is anxiety. I hope you guys aren't mad at me for saying that because we definitely ARE having REAL symptoms but let's say stress sure "ain't helpin"

My advice is to stay offline. Gosh if only I could listen to my own advice!!!!

Peaceful Day, you're so young I'm 29 and while I'm technically "in my 20s"
You have a LONG LONG life ahead and these are the best years!!! Go to college, party hard, make fun mistakes, treat others nice always, and TRAVEL

Don't let this small bump in the road ruin this magical time my good man!
You ARE tough and strong, don't you ever forget that. How many people can get shots and be brave like you?! How many people have been through a battle like this?

You are brave and strong Peaceful Day, don't you ever think differently!

Something else I thought about

Does anyone, and I have a feeling our lovely Mrs D shout out to you Mrs D! happen to know when first rabies shots were administered? 1950s?

Think how hard those people had it! 21 shots or more IN THE ABDOMEN. And that was until the 90s I believe, or 80s.
And those were the early days when shots were brand new.

Now for the past 70 years they have been perfecting them and studying them and we didn't have to get very many, and only in our arm!


See- we are struggling, but it could always be worse.
Our words- who knows who is reading them and who this is touching. Hopefully anyone on this journey

Even in these hard times let us count our blessings always

I agree with your sentiment wholeheartedly, Trippin2. This is a tough process, but we are all getting through it one day at a time.

I hope everyone else is doing well. Personally, I'm feeling really great today. I finally found out that the excess saliva was caused by the strep throat. The strep result came back positive. I know it sounds weird, but I've never been so happy to have strep in my life. Like I said before, that saliva issue scared the living heck out of me.

Now I'm just sitting here with a sore throat and an occasionally tingly finger, but that's nothing compared to what I've gone through.

I looked on Wiki, and there isn't much there.
A mention of a human vaccine improvement in the mid 60's.

You can Google for more if it is important to you.

But the vaccine had been around for years before then and required 21 shots in the abdomen which were painful and had loads of side effects.