Scents and memories at the hospital (2019)
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Scents and memories at the hospital (2019)
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Re: Scents and memories at the hospital (2019)
#2from my memories, i can recommend gauze with embedded rotting flesh from a gangrenous wound. we used to get one or two of these a year at the microbiology lab i worked in, and there were few volunteers to open the container. exploding stool containers, packed full up with shit and then left in sunlight for several hours were another non-favourite.
Re: Scents and memories at the hospital (2019)
#3from my memories, i can recommend gauze with embedded rotting flesh from a gangrenous wound. we used to get one or two of these a year at the microbiology lab i worked in, and there were few volunteers to open the container. exploding stool containers, packed full up with shit and then left in sunlight for several hours were another non-favourite.
I've had to send in stool samples several times for various reasons, and every time I imagined some poor lab tech having to handle it. Too bad they never did a "Dirty Jobs" episode about that profession.
Re: Scents and memories at the hospital (2019)
#4Bless you, all who are in the medical profession. It's hard work, and at least here in the US it's made even harder by understaffing, brutal work hours, and getting pulled around by big business interests. Everyone from janitor to EMT to phelobotomist to anesthesiologist: you have my deep and sincere gratitude. May you have the strength to keep doing what you're doing.
Re: Scents and memories at the hospital (2019)
#5from my memories, i can recommend gauze with embedded rotting flesh from a gangrenous wound. we used to get one or two of these a year at the microbiology lab i worked in, and there were few volunteers to open the container. exploding stool containers, packed full up with shit and then left in sunlight for several hours were another non-favourite.
I've had to send in stool samples several times for various reasons, and every time I imagined some poor lab tech having to handle it. Too bad they never did a "Dirty Jobs" episode about that profession.
actually, it was really easy to send in a simple to deal with. the NHS used a stool sample container that had a little spoon attached to the top (whole container is about 4 inches long and 1.5 wide, spoon about big enough to hold a pea) - procedure:
- crap, but catch some on toilet paper
- scoop some with little spoon - tests need almost nothing
- send off to lab
it was astounding how few samples we got, even from hospitals, that managed this.
Re: Scents and memories at the hospital (2019)
#6Bless you, all who are in the medical profession. It's hard work, and at least here in the US it's made even harder by understaffing, brutal work hours, and getting pulled around by big business interests. Everyone from janitor to EMT to phelobotomist to anesthesiologist: you have my deep and sincere gratitude. May you have the strength to keep doing what you're doing.
Let's make sure to exclude the business people that make the health system more and more inhumane for workers and patients in search of ever growing profits.
Re: Scents and memories at the hospital (2019)
#7One of my core memories was standing in an elevator in college, deep in to my second or third LSD trip.
My friend handed me a tin of Japanese green tea, which I opened slowly and then inhaled very intentionally.
It instantly transported me back to being 14 and in Japan for the first time. Will always remember that feeling of smells blending with nostalgia, adventure and discovery. :)
Re: Scents and memories at the hospital (2019)
#8In primary care, I used to smell sinus infections/strep as a patient walked in the room for their “sick visit” and felt confident enough to diagnose without swabbing but I still swabbed anyway to avoid antibiotics for viral infections. I’ve long left primary care for hospital and concierge medicine so now c diff stool and melena get me usually.
There was this one time in residency I had a tiny older lady from a very rural town come in with a festering breast wound. One breast was normal sized and the other was 4x size of the normal one. Almost the size of a medium watermelon. Turns out it was necrotizing breast cancer and severe cellulitis. She didn’t recall much about why it took her this long to seek help. Her kids pleaded her to get it checked out but she had a deep mistrust of healthcare workers it wasn’t until the smell was unbearable for her family that they brought her in. The whole ED smelled of rotten infected flesh and no amount of winter fresh and peppermint oil was able to help the smell. That was about 10 years ago and I still remember that day and smell.
Re: Scents and memories at the hospital (2019)
#9In primary care, I used to smell sinus infections/strep as a patient walked in the room for their “sick visit” and felt confident enough to diagnose without swabbing but I still swabbed anyway to avoid antibiotics for viral infections. I’ve long left primary care for hospital and concierge medicine so now c diff stool and melena get me usually. There was this one time in residency I had a tiny older lady from a very…
Do you still have this knack of smell or did it develop into something else? I spent a lot of time in the hospital growing up because of my brothers being admitted and stuff so I used to people watch often and got pretty good at just being able to see someone and guesstimate what they have/needed to be treated for.
Re: Scents and memories at the hospital (2019)
#10This is from a doctor's point of view on the front lines.
For the rest of us when we walk in the door, it's the bouquet of delicate notes above the isopropyl alcohol, sometimes with a very complex finish that can be impossible to forget.