November 8, 2005

Batboy

Where do I start? Perhaps here: Caleb was bitten by a bat yesterday. No, not a cat. A BAT!!! MY LITTLE BOY WAS BITTEN REPEATEDLY BY GIANT VAMPIRE BAT!! He was really only a baby bat, but that’s not the point. A bat! That’s right. The hideously ugly little rodent with wings, big ears, big eyes, sharp teeth, claws, and fur. They don’t have feathers like a cute little bird. They have fur.

Now that I’ve sufficiently got your attention, here are a few details. It happened yesterday about 4:45 pm. Tiffany took Caleb outside in our nice suburban cave-free backyard. As is our custom, she had Caleb put on his rubber boots to keep his feet clean. Caleb began talking about mud in his right boot. It had not rained in a week, so Tiffany knew there was no mud in his boot. Then he started saying “Oww” every now and then. Tiffany took off his boot, looked in it. She saw nothing. Caleb put the boot back on, and was soon complaining again about something in his boot. So still confused, Tiffany took off his boot again and shook upside down this time….

And she screamed. I mean she really screamed. At least that’s what she told me. I wasn’t home from work yet. It was a bat.

...I’ve gotta go now. Tiffany just called, and the doctor wants to start rabies treatment on him this afternoon. Please pray for him. We are so scared.

UPDATE (TUE 11:43 AM): The team of doctors at the Infectious Disease Clinic think that it’s critical for us to begin rabies treatments on him immediately, so we are going at 1:00 today for his first in a series of painful treatments. We caught the bat, and it’s being sent to Austin to be tested for rabies. But we don’t have time to wait until the results of that test come back. If Caleb does have rabies, and we wait too long, it is “universally fatal.” There is the added risk that one in 50K kids who are injected with the serum that Caleb will receive develop multiple sclerosis and/or autism. So please pray for little Caleb. Right now he is running around just as happy as can be.

UPDATE (TUE 3:32 PM): We just got back from Caleb’s first round of shots given to him at the Infectious Disease Clinic of the Cook’s Children’s Hospital. The doctors and nurses were so great. Rabies vaccinations have gotten a lot better over the years. They used to consist of about six shots a day in the abdomen for a month. Now there are five rounds of shots over the course of a month, and the shots are given in the thigh and shoulder instead of in the abdomen. Caleb hated the shots, of course, but he got over them quickly. He zonked out on the way home. We are supposed to know on Friday if the the bat was rabid. If it was, which is the most likely scenario, Caleb would get his second round of shots then. If it wasn’t rabid, then we don’t have to get anymore shots. Thanks for praying. I’ll keep you updated.

UPDATE (WED 4:11 PM ): We just got the report on the bat. IT TESTED NEGATIVE FOR RABIES!! Halelujah! We are thanking God for this report.