when you start thinking of what could go wrong

Whichever way this goes, it will be a short blog. primarily to keep track of medical items.

Either I will get rabies or not. But the ridiculousness of the situation just makes me laugh.

So:

A dog tried to bite me in a staircase, on October 20th, 2014 at 10 pm. It managed to bite my shoe, and in the scuffle I tripped and fell, and the dog left. I had bruised my hand and my leg in an attempt to get some balance while the dog was trying to pull my shoe off. I picked up that shoe with a hand, and realised that the dog had dripped some saliva on the shoe. That saliva may have come in touch with the bruise on my hand.

I walked up the stairs in those shoes, kicked them out, and then washed my hands in tap water for 5-10 seconds without soap.

Next day, October 21, 2014 (Day 0), I went to Dr. Charu Kohli's clinic in Defence Colony. I first took a Tetanus injection, and later the doctor had procured the Rabipur injection, which was given by her in the stomach. The skin was folded and the injection was given into such folded skin. (Can't be classified as intra-muscular or intra-dermal). I asked her, that hasn't the practice of giving injection in the stomach stopped - and she was very confident that no it hasn't. She said it has to be either given in the stomach or in the thigh. I read the took the injection leaflet from her.

On October 24, 2014 (Day 3), I went to Dr. Charu's clinic and a technician/nurse was present who gave me the Rabipur injection in the upper arm (should be the deltoid muscle). This was given straight into the arm, and not intra-dermally.

On October 24th night, after reading the injection leaflet and speaking with family, I spoke on the phone with a doctor who is a family friend, and he said that it is possible that the first injection I took was ineffective and that I should go to Safdarjung hospital for the remaining doses and to generally check up on the situation.

On October 26th morning, I went to Safdargunj hospital, where the doctor told me that the first dose was useless, so either I can continue with the intramuscular doses where i procure the doses or I can take the doses given in Safdarjung hospital - which are given intra-dermally. Since the procurement and availability of the vaccine is an issue, I agreed to the latter. I was prescribed to start a full course by the intra-dermal route in Safdarjung Hospital. She also prescribed that I take the Equine Rabies Immuno Globulin (ERIG) on either the 26th or the 27th latest, and that its available only in the Hindu Rao hospital in Delhi. ERIG is not effective after the 7th day from the start of the vaccines, as by then your bodies would have started production of their own anti-bodies.

So I stood in the line (60 people at 9 am) for dog bite injection room no. 5, and got 2 injections of Abhayrab the intra-dermally in the deltoid area of both arms.

Then I drove to Hindu Rao hospital, which is very far away. The OPD there was shut on Sundays. Walked around, was told my injection cannot be given by emergency/casualty, so no point. Have to go back tomorrow morning.

Ate some chole samosa. There was an entire slum camped outside the hospital - a teenager had murdered three guys in the slum last night. Two of the guys were dead, and another was dying. Dead were in postmortem, and the dying would reach soon. He had slit the throat of one, and knifed the entire abdomen out of the other. I was having panic moments about this rabies treatment going wrong and ineffective or being too late; this murder fitted right in.