Scent of a disease
I heard on Terry Gross that there is an electronic nose being developed to smell diseases and conditions in sick people. Apparently, Hippocrates was able to smell diabetes by the juicy fruit breath of his patients and dogs have been known to smell seizures coming on. There are doctors today who use scent as diagnosis.
My mom called her doctor because she has a neurological condition that makes her feet burn and flutter and basically feel like rats are biting her toes off – the doctor’s office said he could not see her till December 24th and they wouldn’t refill her prescription till then either. She hasn’t been able to sleep for the last week.
I’m amazed that there are doctors who are so attuned to illness that they can smell disease when most doctors I have encountered that have anything to do with my mother’s care have been indifferent and downright rude. Except one, I will never forget him. In the emergency room having stabbed herself by falling off the couch and impaling the coffee table in her throat, this older gentlemen of a doctor came in and his bedside manner was so calming and so comforting that I, even as I smelled the familiar scent of alcohol of my mother’s breath, was lulled into believing everything was going to be alright too.