Hi Friends,
I'm having a quiet evening alone here at home tonight. Catherine flew to Boston today to do a few days work in an archive at Harvard and Julie is out to dinner this evening. I'm sitting and enjoying a plate of Abbie's lasagna. Soon I'll glove up and take a bath, then I'll watch some tv.
Tonight I'm struggling with a harmless yet annoying side effect I don't think I've mentioned on the blog: chemo nose. I was warned that I might become sensitive to certain smells once chemo began and that was true. The first week post-chemo I couldn't stand certain smells--citrus, lotions, anything very strong. Then my overall sensitivity to all smells settled down and I developed a higher tolerance. The side effect that I developed by early September, however, is the experience that everything smells musty. It's there all the time, and it's worst after I come out of the bath or shower. At night I have to sleep with the window open or I feel like I'm in an old musty attic. This overpowering singular "ghost" smell, I have learned, is fairly common for chemo patients. I read about one woman who had to live with the windows always open because her whole house smelled like a freshly-painted car. My colleague Leda, who also teaches at Queen's, finished chemo in August and everything to her smelled like rotten garbage (that's a bad one). So mine is the preferable of the smells, but it still wears me down. We have tried burning essential oils and scented candles and the like, but only fresh air helps. It's one of the side effects I never could have imagined, and I'm glad it will be leaving me by the time we hit the dead of winter.
Much love,
Kip
Dear Kip:
ReplyDeleteThis little poem has come from a blog by a woman who calls herself Mother of Invention:
Poetry Friday - SMELL!
Ode to the Olfactory Glands!
Good Smell, Bad Smell or......
Smells That Entice And Those Not So Nice!
turkey roasting,
almonds toasting
I'd have to say,
fresh cut hay
a beautiful rose
is a gift to my nose
beef a-stewing,
coffee brewing
lilacs in spring,
make my heart sing
an apple pie baking
is mine for the takig!
chocolate in the air
and I am so there!
gag me with liver
and I'm all a-quiver
the aroma of fish
is not what I wish
nothing so ripe
as a freshly-pooped "diap"
an open sewer
or sheep manure
onions so rotten
cat food forgotten
make my day
with male cat spray
what's really bold
is citrus fruit mold
deli meat gone bad
is really sad
putrefied meat
ain't a treat
so as you can tell
I've a keen sense of smell!
No mention of mustiness, but I can imagine how pervasive and annoying that must be. Less than three weeks now!
We talked of you at lunch today (at D.'s), while we at THE WHOLE Ozark cake I made! We felt like the Golden Girls and their cheesecakes!
Best love, CLR
Dear Kip,
ReplyDeleteThis does not fit in the realm of smells....
I'm at the SEM conference in LA. Many people who know you are here and ask how you are doing and what is appropriate to post or email. I share that I saw you last Sunday and you looked pretty darn good with even wisps of hair peeking out from your cap. I say that you like to hear news from their lives, too.
So, in LA, it was 66 F last night at 10 p.m. Locals talk of the chill in the air and, of course, the conference hotel is too air conditioned, but to a lot of us from Canada and Finland it is like summer. The pre-conference that Margaret was a big part of planning was great, and while I have not heard any breath-takingly new approaches or theories, I have heard a lot of good papers. I have Sunday afternoon free before the red-eye home, so I have to decide what to do in LA-land. What would Kip choose?
So happy to know that you, Karen and Leda are sharing your experiences and giving each other the support that is unique to your experience.
May your smell perceptions become what you wish them to be.
Much love,
Roberta