Question about Etiquette in Waiting Room

Today I had my (long) monthly OV with my pain doc. A woman came in wearing so much perfume (or something?) that I had a hard time breathing. In fact, I can still smell her odour in my nostrils and my appointment was this morning.

I was wondering if there's any type of protocol? Suck it up and stifle your breathing? How does one behave in that environment? I don't want to appear reactionary, and at the same time I'd like to be able to breathe. No one else seemed (at least on the outside) to be bothered.

This happens quite a lot. I'm a sensitive gal I guess....










M.

LOL!

I guess it's a no-win situation either way, eh?

((sigh))










M.

Some people can't bathe as often as they'd like to due to CP. I'll bet that lady in the wheelchair was one of them and was overcompensating with $2 /gallon perfume. I've run into that at pharmacies and esp. waiting rooms and then those real small rooms where you wait for a CT scan. It's grin and bear it time . . . Q

Just my 2 cents...I have experienced nurses post-op that wreak of perfume.  I think there should be a "no perfume" policy for nurses, period.  Any smells post surgery induce nausea and vomiting for me.  As for the waiting rooms...I can only suggest sitting as far away from the source as you can=)

One of the last offices I worked at, we had a sign posted asking people to please be considerate and not wear perfume,...etc., etc.

We had one repeat offender, (who was actually the catalyst for our making the sign in the first place,...too many complaints, especially from staff), and she'd sit right beneath the dang sign!! Bathed in the same, medicinal-strength super-powerful, sharp and highly irritating smell. It was dreadful.

I understand that there are situations in which bathing is not always an option, or not often possible, and often people who suffer resort to attempting to camouflage by drenching themselves in perfume. I get it. Honest.

But I also sincerely believe the culprits do not care about how it affects others. Their primary motivation is to not be a source of offensive body odour. And if they accomplish that by being the source of "perfume" -- however pervasive -- that, to them, is a better alternative than being perceived as stinking of human odours.

I actually DO breathe through my sleeve or cover my face and mouth.

VERY often the culprit tends to be a receptionist or nurse, and that always shocked me. We were always told not to wear perfume or jewelry (I am NOT a nurse, never was,...but staff in general, it's all part and parcel). I was always shocked to see how often this infraction went disregarded.

I often felt like I'm just "too sensitive" since evidently so many others are tolerant. But now, in retrospect, I find that whole odiferous situation to be inexcusable.

At Dana-Farber, (and yes, there are signs posted), same thing, they ask for no scents to be brought in (they have patients on chemo after all)....and there'd invariably be the one or two workers (again, usually receptionists or nurses) who worse sharp-scented perfume. It was gag-worthy!!

I was surprised at an institute working with cancer patients that this was remotely tolerated.

Goes to show, eh?










M.

Yuck! I feel for you! I HATE that! People are so inconsiderate! At the very least, I definitely would have gotten up and moved to the opposite end of the waiting room! Or if it was bad enough, I would have gone up to the front desk, told them what was going on, and that unless they had somewhere else where I could wait, I was going to wait outside & to please come get me when they were ready for me!

I also have a sensitive nose. Strong perfumes actually hurt my nose and give me a headache. I don't know how people can wear the stuff! And men's aftershave (especially Axe, yuck!) is just as bad! Personally, I do not even own any perfume. Even most of the lotion that I own is unscented. I find that my skin (especially my face) is very sensitive to strongly scented commercial lotions. If I use scented lotions from say Bath and Body Works (those ones are THE worst), it actually feels like it burns my skin! Nowadays, the only scented lotions I ever use are homemade ones that I make myself (pure coconut oil that I whip with a few drops of lavender or tea tree essential oils). And even those I only use on occasion, and avoid using on my face.

We have a no perfume/no scented lotions rule for students/staff/faculty in our (veterinary) teaching hospitals here at school. I always assumed that human hospitals had similar rules, but perhaps not. Or at least people seem to abide by that rule here, whereas they don't in other places. They are pretty strict about that rule here. We get emails from the hospital admin at least once every fews months reminding us about the no perfumes rule.

Skeye

However much I wish this idea were self thought up I cannot take the credit! I was still working barely and there was a lady about my age in the xray waiting area and she had one of those folding Chinese design fans, like tourist trinkets, fanning away and I assumed her age had brought her to that time of life it had bought me, where heat rolled through you numerous times a day! I said something like "I feel ya " or such and she said oh you can't stand some people's trigger happy perfume fingers either?? Lol

She was fanning the air to keep the smell away not having hot flashes at all! Great idea as no one would ever guess her reasons for the fan and it was far less ridiculous looking then nose plugs!

Haha. Trigger happy. That's a good one.

I actually have several fans (yep, the fold up kind!) because I'm super-duper sensitive to heat, but yeah, that's a very good idea.

The thing about moving was,...this particular office is a type of annex (if that makes sense) and the waiting room holds 4 chairs (if that gives you an idea of size) and moving would do no good.

But I do think that if it happens again, I'll mention it and ask to be taken into a room, and just as a back up, I'll bring a fan. I hadn't thought of that particular application before but it sure makes sense.

Thing is, some people genuinely don't know that they're offending others because no one has dared or offered to say something to the person. They just plaster on a pleasant face and then whisper once you've left the facility. Most people can just suck it up for that short period of time.

Not me. And yes it physically hurts, and yep it can trigger asthma, and yep it can trigger migraines, and yep it can make me nauseous.

But as I said, I think some people think they're fine simply because no one *says* anything to their face. Think of it. How many of us here have ever boldly stepped up to someone and *told* them about their perfume/cologne ?? We don't.

Even if we did, the offender would probably think it doesn't apply to them...that the person complaining is "just too sensitive" since no one else has ever said anything.

I also don't wear perfume, and everything is pretty much scent free (except I use regular TIDE detergent), but I avoid scents like the plague.











M.

When I was in the hospital last March a year ago, something that hit me immediately was all of the nurses, techs & the female drs were wearing perfume. This was my first hospital experience where the staff wore perfume. All my other admissions no one was wearing perfume. I was shocked. I was already very sick at my stomach & this just compounded the situation.

I think as we get older our noses tend to become super sensitive. Now sometimes walking into a restaurant can send me flying right back out the door. We have had to suddenly have our food packed to go because of this with me.

The same when out in public, there is always some female drenched in some nasty smelling perfume. It is true that when you wear a particular one for some time you no longer smell it on yourself. I think that is when someone takes a bath in their favorite because they no are able to smell it.

The PMD I was seeing last year had a small waiting room for how many patients they saw.Usually there wasn't much choice of where to sit.

The PMD I see now has a huge waiting room which makes it seem like people aren't in your "personal space".

Cigarette smell is what gets to me.It's like,how can they not know they smell that strong.

I LOL at the "deodorant" comment.

Rick