Just a quick, thrown together, griping update on how stinking difficult it is to get a medical facility to order me post exposure rabies treatment!
Fill in:
Rabies post exposure treatments for a person who has no previous exposure to rabies requires a shot on day 0, 3, 7, 14, 28.
Day 0 was Tuesday.
Day 3 is Friday.
I canNOT find anyone to order me the stinking treatment!
The office of Dr. Suzanne Black in College Station, TX said first that it’s, “A real pain in the arm and leg to order, and really expensive.” They said they’re too busy to be able to ensure someone with the proper training could be there to administer it, and even so, it’s just, “A lot of work.”
I argued with them about it being “a lot of work” for a few hours, when suddenly the P.A. said, “Actually, there’s a test we can give you to see if you even have a need for the treatment- it’s a Rabies Titer.” So I drove back to the office, got lab work done, and the doctor said not to worry about Day #3 treatment. The lab work results would be ready by Monday at the earliest (that’s Day #6…) But when I asked the doctor if I should still get Friday’s #3 treatment, she said it’s not a big deal- most people wait to even start treatment until 10 days post exposure anyway, so chill out- no worries.
Well, my Twitter staff of doctors and nurses flipped out when they read that I was calling it quits on treatment unless Titer said to do otherwise. At that point, I stopped blindly following the trained, medical professionals who I pay to treat me properly, and I started reading about treatment online.
This, for example, wasn’t the most comforting page to read, and my Twitter friend, Rene had quite a bit to say to the contrary of what my local doctors were telling me- and all of her advice was matching up pretty nicely to the CDC.
After LOTS of urging from various professionals by means of Twitter, I realized it’d be best to just order my Day #3 treatment regardless of what my family practice Doc says is necessary or not.
It’s now Thursday- I still can’t find ANYONE who will give me treatment!
Here is the information I was given in the ER:
Call your doctor to set up remaining Rabies vaccines at days 3, 7, 14, and 28. Novartis number is 1-800-244-7668 to set up overnight shipping to your doctor, cost is approx $198.00 per dose.
Followup with a doctor in 3 days for recheck and 2nd Rabies vaccine.
It’s 10:43am Thursday– I need this overnighted to arrive tomorrow– that’s why I was begging people to do it yesterday.
College Station Care Plus said they simply can’t do it. I gave them the number, the information from the ER doc, and they said, “It’s impossible, sorry.” I spoke to 4 different people there, all of whom initially gave me inaccurate information: “You have to go to the local health department to get it administered.”
…No…They don’t do that anymore, which is why I had dozens of people in the ER tell me to call Novartis because that’s the only way to order it due to the shortage of human treatment for Rabies exposure.
After I explained this 4 separate times, to 4 separate people, someone else finally got on the phone and– without having tried calling Novartis– told me it’s impossible to receive- it can’t be overnighted- “No one has rabies post exposure vaccinations.”
Really? Nobody has them? It seems as though if that were the case, ERs might have been given a heads up. Shortage I can understand– lack thereof? …Come on…
I called Animal Control and they said to try St. Joseph Urgent Care in Bryan, Texas. St. Joseph was also entirely useless and more ignorant that me– NOT comforting.
I’m going to call Novartis myself and explain the situation.
Jamie,
Please make sure you are seen by a medical doctor and receive the post-rabies treatment. Since you didn’t catch the dog there is no way to monitor or check the animal and see if it is indeed rabid. I posted some info on your facebook page that might help.
Larry