4 ms·

Scents and memories at the hospital (2019)

40 points by davikr 2y ago

zabzonk 2y ago
from 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.
- nerdponx 2y ago
  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.
  - zabzonk 2y ago
    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.
    - adolph 2y ago
      "catch some on toilet paper" Have you ever tried to catch something behind yourself, or under yourself in a high squatting position? Something your body has some deep learning about not touching? Seems like labs would get a better response with putting some used TP in a bag.
      - zabzonk 2y ago
        have you ever wiped your bum?
    - YeGoblynQueenne 2y ago
      >> it was astounding how few samples we got, even from hospitals, that managed this. Yeah, I'll tell you why. I was asked for a stool sample once (don't ask). I looked at that tiny perspex cylinder with the tiny little fairy spoon in it and it was immediately obvious: nuh-huh. No way. I'm not handing my shit in a tube to some poor health person. Nope. No. Never. No way. TFE: Too Fucking Embarassing! You medical people have to think harder about all the things you ask your patients to do. Colonoscopies? Specula? Prostate exams? Shoving a rod up your nostrils to get samples for Covid? Come on. The human body is not just a machine. There's a little person inside that feels every single thing.
nerdponx 2y ago
Bless 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.
- rqtwteye 2y ago
  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.
  - nerdponx 2y ago
    Very much so.
chevman 2y ago
One 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. :)
- lainga 2y ago
  There is a certain type of tea that my mom would give me every time I came home from college, and I refuse to even try drinking it anywhere else
vanc_cefepime 2y ago
In 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.
- gg1993 2y ago
  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.
  - QuarterReptile 2y ago
    He probably learned it. When I worked at one, I used to be able to smell what power a nuclear reactor had been operating at.
    - gg1993 2y ago
      {{asking nicely}} do you credit this for something else that’s developed in your life? Just wondering if things like these help us do something else..{{not so serious}}
      - QuarterReptile 2y ago
fuzzfactor 2y ago
This 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.
- kotaKat 2y ago
  Former frontline IT for the docs -- There's clean, then there's hospital clean. The sterile smell sure is something. In one way, it's a comforting "home" smell, even when I show up at one as a patient.
wing-_-nuts 2y ago
I've suffered some pretty severe mistreatment in a hospital setting before, and there's a certain cleaning chemical that's commonly used in hospitals that absolutely sets my teeth on edge. It's wild how a scent can not only trigger a memory but a flood of emotions to go with it.
sethammons 2y ago
20 years ago, my marketing professor was talking about scent being the sense most strongly linked with memories. The smell of exhaust taking him back to his country of origin. Sticking with medical smells, my sister can smell bladder cancer. Not sure how common that is, but she used to work in urology and after a urine sample was turned in, she could tell ahead of time who was sick. I imagine that smell has helped shape how we find food and avoid disease and has been reinforced since some long ago ancestor likely common to many mammals or even further back. We often think of dogs or bears for their well developed sense of smell or even sharks sensing blood in the water. Fun fact: humans are more sensitive to the smell of petrichor (fresh rain on dry ground) than sharks are to blood.

40 points by davikr 2y ago

from 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.

nerdponx 2y ago
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.
- zabzonk 2y ago
  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.
  - adolph 2y ago
    "catch some on toilet paper" Have you ever tried to catch something behind yourself, or under yourself in a high squatting position? Something your body has some deep learning about not touching? Seems like labs would get a better response with putting some used TP in a bag.
    - zabzonk 2y ago
      have you ever wiped your bum?
  - YeGoblynQueenne 2y ago
    >> it was astounding how few samples we got, even from hospitals, that managed this. Yeah, I'll tell you why. I was asked for a stool sample once (don't ask). I looked at that tiny perspex cylinder with the tiny little fairy spoon in it and it was immediately obvious: nuh-huh. No way. I'm not handing my shit in a tube to some poor health person. Nope. No. Never. No way. TFE: Too Fucking Embarassing! You medical people have to think harder about all the things you ask your patients to do. Colonoscopies? Specula? Prostate exams? Shoving a rod up your nostrils to get samples for Covid? Come on. The human body is not just a machine. There's a little person inside that feels every single thing.

nerdponx 2y ago

Bless 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.

rqtwteye 2y ago
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.
- nerdponx 2y ago
  Very much so.

chevman 2y ago

One 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. :)

lainga 2y ago
There is a certain type of tea that my mom would give me every time I came home from college, and I refuse to even try drinking it anywhere else

vanc_cefepime 2y ago

In 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.

gg1993 2y ago
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.
- QuarterReptile 2y ago
  He probably learned it. When I worked at one, I used to be able to smell what power a nuclear reactor had been operating at.
  - gg1993 2y ago
    {{asking nicely}} do you credit this for something else that’s developed in your life? Just wondering if things like these help us do something else..{{not so serious}}
    - QuarterReptile 2y ago

fuzzfactor 2y ago

This 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.

kotaKat 2y ago
Former frontline IT for the docs -- There's clean, then there's hospital clean. The sterile smell sure is something. In one way, it's a comforting "home" smell, even when I show up at one as a patient.

wing-_-nuts 2y ago

I've suffered some pretty severe mistreatment in a hospital setting before, and there's a certain cleaning chemical that's commonly used in hospitals that absolutely sets my teeth on edge. It's wild how a scent can not only trigger a memory but a flood of emotions to go with it.

sethammons 2y ago

20 years ago, my marketing professor was talking about scent being the sense most strongly linked with memories. The smell of exhaust taking him back to his country of origin. Sticking with medical smells, my sister can smell bladder cancer. Not sure how common that is, but she used to work in urology and after a urine sample was turned in, she could tell ahead of time who was sick. I imagine that smell has helped shape how we find food and avoid disease and has been reinforced since some long ago ancestor likely common to many mammals or even further back. We often think of dogs or bears for their well developed sense of smell or even sharks sensing blood in the water. Fun fact: humans are more sensitive to the smell of petrichor (fresh rain on dry ground) than sharks are to blood.