Do you smell that?

As a (fake) doctor there are many aspects of my job that are really cool. It's a profession that most people respect, people entrust their health and lives to you, and most of the stuff I learn is really interesting. On the other hand there is one part of medicine that is less than glamourous and unfortunately there’s no way around it; human bodies are disgusting. You never know what your senses will be assaulted with when walking into a room. The other day we walked into a room where a person had a coloscopy bag (she was mentally/physically out of it and couldn’t control her bowels) and the smell was suffocating. Another day we walked into a patient’s room that’d been in the hospital for a couple of days and apparently (and somewhat understandably) had forgotten (?) to get up and shower. In another doctor’s office there was a patient that had an infection on his hand and after we cut it open the whole room stunk like crazy. Why, you ask, do I feel like it is worth a post to share with you these stories? Next time you look at a doctor (and to a greater degree Nurses) just remember the not-so-glamorous aspect of being a health care professional – it’s what we deal with on a daily basis.