BootsnAll Travel Network



Rabies

It is a 15 minute walk between mine and June’s apartments, and I’ve traversed the distance numerous times, sometimes in the middle of the night. One day June asked me, “Are you afraid (of walking the streets of Bangkok alone in the middle of the night)?” I said, “Only of the dogs and rats.”

There are hundreds of thousands of stray dogs in Bangkok, and, of course, millions of rats. On my 15-minute stroll between our apartments I might see between 8-12 stray dogs. And in the alley behind my apartment, if it’s night time, my sudden presence sends about 15 rats scurrying for their holes.

The dogs generally seem to hang out in the same areas all their lives: In front of a specific shop or apartment building (June’s has two dogs in front of hers); at a subway entrance; at a market; a bus stop; in an empty lot; basically everywhere. They do rome, but generally they stay close. Normally, the dogs and people here live in harmony. In America, if you see a stray dog, or especially a pack of them, it can be frightening. Here, the dogs see hundreds, even thousands, of people a day, so they tend to not pay attention to us. Mostly they just sleep, or lie motionless in the heat, and we can walk within inches of them without stirring them at all. And the people see dozens of stray dogs every day, and they know that they are virtually harmless, but that a wary eye is still somewhat necessary.

A couple of days ago, on a midnight walk to June’s, a couple of dogs paid particularly close attention to me. When I first started making this walk, these two dogs would bark at me, but nothing more. After they got used to me, they stopped barking at me, and with feigned interest, just watched me walk by. This day, however, their interest was quite real, and they didn’t just watch. They renewed their feirce barking, but also got very close to me and showed me their teeth. I didn’t panic or anything, but I tried to get away from them. I got passed them but the black dog was determined to get me. He lunged at me and bit me on my left calf. I was wearing shorts, so my skin was exposed. It hurt, but luckily he didn’t break the skin too much. But this thought did crossed my mind: “I just got bit by a mangy stray Bangkokian dog, that can’t be good.”

Hey hey mama, said the way you move, gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove. Click image to enlarge

Luckily I was close to June’s, so I went there and washed the bite, and put Betadine on it, then we went to the hospital (my third trip to the hospital since I came here). There was some slight bleeding, and a bite mark. At the hospital, I got two shots: tetanus, even though I was pretty sure I’d gotten one before I left America; and the passive rabies shot. One in each arm. And of course they disinfected and dressed the wound. But there was also another rabies shot they recommended, and they said it was very expensive. The nurse wrote the amount on a piece of paper: “21,000 baht.” Whoa, that’s around $561 for one shot! I wanted to make sure my insurance would cover it, but they didn’t get back to me, and now it was 3:00am. Even though the dog was pretty mangy, we didn’t think it had rabies, since it’s been there for so long. But they said I had 24 hours to get the shot (which is actually 5 shots), so we went home without me getting the shot.

The shot is a human immunoglobulin serum. I had an option to go to another hospital where they had a cheaper serum, but it was from a horse. The next day I called the insurance company, and they said the expensive human serum would be covered as long as the doctor said it was necessary. So I went back to the hospital to get the shot–better safe than foaming out the mouth in a few months, or craving hay.

The doctor gave me 3 shots directly into the wound! Yeeeeoooowwwwww!!!!!! June said he was wriggling the needle inside of my leg. It sure felt like it. Then the nurse shot me twice more. Once in each butt cheek. Now I have to go back for about 8 more shots, until April, where ever I happen to be. My insurance was due to expire in two days, so the timing was pretty good, but I wish I had taken a motorcycle taxi to June’s that night.

This is the nurse removing the bandage from my first visit. In a few minutes the doctor would come in and wriggle around a needle in my leg . . . three times.

Many times I've loved, many times been bitten, many times I've gazed, along the open road. Click image to enlarge

There wasn’t a whole lot of privacy in that emergency room. There were curtains, but they didn’t really hide much. I suppose they would have if someone closed them. I didn’t care though, because it was only my leg. But while in the waiting room, the nurse was talking to us–actually she was talking to June in Thai about my situation, so I didn’t really have to pay attention until June translated for me–and my attention drifted into the emergency room. There was a young Thai woman being attended to in the first bed right at the entrance, and her curtain hid nothing. She was on her side in quite a bit of pain and discomfort, kind of curled up, with her western boyfriend by her side. The doctor was working on her butt area for quite some time. I know I shouldn’t have been looking, but it was right there, impossible not to glance. Eventually June translated for me, and I stopped looking. And eventually the woman threw up. I hope it made her feel better.

Well, as I write this, tomorrow I will have been here for one year. So I made it. There were some ups and downs (read all of my previous posts and see what they were), but I made it through the year. Now I have to decide what to do next. I did go through quite a bit of money, especially lately with the teaching class and all, so I’m getting a little short on cash. So this week I have to aggressively pursue a teaching job in South Korea. But tomorrow morning, hopefully, I can watch the Mets and Cards in game 5.



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4 responses to “Rabies”

  1. Alan says:

    Man,

    A whole year. It’s hard to believe. You had some great experiences and I’m still jealous that you had the guts to do it. Congrats!

    Game 5 should be good. I’ll even watch it. I watched a couple so far (much more than usual…0). I’ll quietly route for the Mets. 😉

    South Korea, huh? You better check out CNN first. Just kidding. Good luck with the job hunt. I’ll talk to you later.

    -Alan

  2. […] I’ve been taking the time to read some travel blogs of people who are travelling SE Asia and now I’m getting frightened. Mark’s post on Rabies, for example makes me really re-think my decision not to get that vaccine. […]

  3. Katherine says:

    I’m fascinated by you and your postings. What an amazing year for you. I stumbled upon your blog while I was searching google images (for what I don’t remember now, since I’ve spent the last hour and a half reading most of your posts). Would love to hear more.

    -Katherine
    Burbank, CA

  4. paulette says:

    i’m having a quiet evening at home and have been catching up on your blogs…..so interesting.nrnrsorry about the dog bite…..hope you are better, with the lousy shots and all.

    i’ll email you soon. paulette

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