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The many smells of sickness
Mar. 28th, 2008 09:12 pmI just came from a quick visit to the dad of a friend of my shoti (close family friends after everything that happened last year), who is in the hospital because he had a stroke. I... well, things are better now than they were just a week ago. I am crossing my fingers and sending good vibes.
I dislike the smell of a hospital intensely. In my experience, hospitals smell like gauze and iodine and the stuff that makes up diapers, rather than of antiseptic. They smell like my sister's gauze kit, which she needed to use after she lost her eye (the smell lingered in the hall to my parents' room for ages because they could not bear to get rid of my sister's stuff for years). They smell like my brother's hospital room, or maybe shoti's hospital room smelled like a hospital because that's where it was. They smell like my great grandmother's room those last few years she was in bed. They smell like cleanliness and cloth and plastic. That is how hospitals smell like. I hate that smell.
Old age smells to me like stewed beef and potatos pureed so it can be poured down a feeding tube. I remember that smell. I remember that smell distinctly; the smell of particular combinations of beef and potatoes is strong enough to make me sick.
Fever smells like lugaw (rice porridge). I can't eat that, unless there is something along with it to mask the smell. I can stand the taste; it's the smell leaves me feeling weak and dizzy.
Steamed fish with black beans is also a smell of fever. Not everything: particular kinds of fish, particular kinds of sauce. So is the... I forgot the name, but it's chicken in lugaw.
I dislike the smell of a hospital intensely. In my experience, hospitals smell like gauze and iodine and the stuff that makes up diapers, rather than of antiseptic. They smell like my sister's gauze kit, which she needed to use after she lost her eye (the smell lingered in the hall to my parents' room for ages because they could not bear to get rid of my sister's stuff for years). They smell like my brother's hospital room, or maybe shoti's hospital room smelled like a hospital because that's where it was. They smell like my great grandmother's room those last few years she was in bed. They smell like cleanliness and cloth and plastic. That is how hospitals smell like. I hate that smell.
Old age smells to me like stewed beef and potatos pureed so it can be poured down a feeding tube. I remember that smell. I remember that smell distinctly; the smell of particular combinations of beef and potatoes is strong enough to make me sick.
Fever smells like lugaw (rice porridge). I can't eat that, unless there is something along with it to mask the smell. I can stand the taste; it's the smell leaves me feeling weak and dizzy.
Steamed fish with black beans is also a smell of fever. Not everything: particular kinds of fish, particular kinds of sauce. So is the... I forgot the name, but it's chicken in lugaw.
