The smell of the week...

Sure it's summer and barbecue season. When I think of summer as a kid, I remember the smell of charcoal lighter fluid, Coppertone 4 sun lotion (no one called it sunscreen then), chlorine and the smell of food on the barbecue pit. Those smells still evoke fond memories for me.

This week, the smell is C. diff, as one of my assigned patients has this dreaded spore. It's really a hard to describe smell. To me, it's a flat, acrid smell that just seems to stick in your nose. It got so bad the other night, that I actually left the unit to sit outside in the breeze for a while. I had gowned, gloved and thoroughly washed my hands when I was done, but that smell (or the memory) hung around in my nose for a while. So far, this patient hasn't developed colitis, but we'll have to wait and see.

If you want more information on C. diff, check out these sites:
CDC
C diff project website (Netherlands)

On another smell note, totally unrelated to rehab nursing, check out Luscious Cargo. I got some perfume samples from them this week after I read a NY Times article about perfume. They even sent me a free one for Fracas, which is a very interesting scent.

Their smells sure beat C. diff!

More later...two more shifts on evenings this week.