What's That Awful Smell? Ohhhhh ... It's *You*!

People who work in doctor's offices should not wear scents. Period. No matter what type of doctor they work for.

Actually, I'm of the mind that if I can smell your perfume/cologne/whatever without getting intimate with you, you're wearing too much. Whatever happened to subtlety?

I'm seriously thinking about writing a polite letter to my gastroenterologist to let him know how obnoxious the scent one of his medical assistants was wearing. And that was after I was already reeling from the overuse of an orange/citris smelling "air freshener" that was on auto-dispense in the bathroom at his office.

When I complained to the receptionist about it, she agreed it was awful ("I have to think twice about how badly I need to use the bathroom because it stinks so bad in there," she said.) and said they have a repair person coming in to adjust it because it was clearly turned up too high.

And it was. If only I hadn't needed to pee so badly, I would have turned around as soon as I opened the door. By the time I finished -- and trust me, I was as speedy as I could be -- my eyes, nose and throat were all burning. Awful!

And then the MA who brought me back to the exam room? I didn't notice it until she stood holding the exam room door open for me and motioned for me to enter first. Ugh.

At first I thought it was chemical cleaners that had been used in the exam room before I got in there. But when she came over to take my blood pressure, I realized the awful chemical I was smelling was apparently her perfume. Ugh.

I should have mentioned it to the doctor when he came in, but I was a little embarrassed at the thought that she would know it was me who complained about her perfume. And, you know, this is a GI doc's office, not an allergist's or anything.

I kind of wish my asthma had a quicker response time because of course I didn't have the asthma attack triggered by those horrible fragrances until I was home. Certainly the burning in my eyes, nose and throat is pretty quick, but it's not as apparent to people outside my body as when I suddenly need to pull out my albuterol inhaler and take a couple puffs. And I don't even have anything close to the response of people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity -- imagine how it would have been for one of them!

Anyway, thanks for listening to my rant for the day. :-)