Back in the days my parents fondly refer to as "the fog," I had a lot of migraines. Mercifully they are not so common anymore. There was one particular medication that worked best when given as a shot (usually in the bum by my mom). And it burned. So when faced with a choice of having jackhammers in my head or a burning bum (still with the jackhammers), I chose what seemed most reasonable at the time- to refuse the shot.
The drug company wised up after a few years and made a sublingual tab. Unfortunately they never took psychology 101 where they would have learned about Pavlov's dog. So now the taste and smell of peppermint bring me right back to the horrible headaches, chalky taste of faux-peppermint, and nausea. If I want a flashback, just bring out the peppermint.
Incidentally, whoever embalmed our cadavers in college missed psych 101 as well (they must have been partying with the chemistry majors). We can all agree that formaldehyde smells pretty disgusting. Rather than masking the smell with something benign, however, they masked it with wintergreen. It took me years to pop in a piece of wintergreen gum without seeing the image of a cadaver in front of me. It still sometimes catches me off guard.
Every once in a while we'll use peppermint at work to help with nausea. I wish I could say I enjoy that refreshing smell, especially in the setting of the ICU, but I would be lying. I don't and it makes me feel nauseous.
Wintergreen cadavers sounds like the half baked "looks good on paper" imaginings of an ivy league business graduate, not something undertaken by people who should know better. Glad my school didn't order those...
ReplyDeleteThe idea just gets worse over time.
Doesn't it though? :)
ReplyDeleteIsn't it interesting how closely tied memory is to sense of smell and taste?
ReplyDeleteI constantly have moments where I smell or taste something that totally brings me back to a time of the past that I hadn't thought about in months or even years.
How have you been? It seems I haven't talked to you in forever!