Sights, Sounds, Smells of the doctors office

What are peoples favorite sights, sounds, and smells of the doctor's office? This could be any medical setting...doctor's office, dentist office, surgery center.

For me, at a regular doctor's office the sight would be an injection sitting on the counter, the sound would be the doctor snapping on a glove, and the smell would be the alcohol prep for the pending injection. At the dentist, the sight would be all the instruments out on the table in front of my chair, the sound would be a dental drill, and the smell would be all the latex. At a surgery center, the sight would be te anesthesia machine and all the doctors and nurse in their scrubs, the sound would be all of the monitors beeping, and the smell would be just that sterile smell of an operating room.

Please share your favorites!

Well, I am a doctors office type of girl, the dentist scares the crap out of me, and surgery doesn't do much for me either. So, with keeping this in mind.....

At the doctors office, my favorite site hands down would be seeing him with a loaded syringe in his hand waiting for me to bend over and drop 'em.

My favorite sound is hearing him say "bend over and drop 'em".

And my favorite smell is the smell of the alcohol prep pad. Hello, yummy, instant turn on.

Mashie,

You and I are so much alike it is a wonder that you are a woman and I am a man. The only real difference in your response and mine is that I like a lovely lady to be giving me the injection and I prefer to be nude and laying on the exam table when I get my shot! Other than that we agree 100 percent.

I like the sights of sterile linoleum or tiling, saucer-like operating lights, tubes and lines in your body suspended from IV-stands and syringes filled with chemicals, people in gowns and gloves crowded around your exposed region, the gleaming instruments they are preparing to use on you...the sounds of clamps locking down, your pulse on a machine, conversations and commands regarding your procedure (perhaps the doctor narrates the procedure)...the smell of rubber and disinfectant.

My favorite sights would be a syringe ready to go filled with a vaccine and exam gloves and KY on the table. Smell is the general medicinal medical smell. Sound is definitely the glove snapping on the examiner's hand.

My favorite sound is, while you are waiting in the waitingroom, te hear the people talking in the doctorsoffice without understanding what they are saying exactly. My favoutive smell is the smell of alcohol.

The paper definitely does it for me. The look of it is unlike any other type of paper, and the sounds it makes is unmistakable. My doctor's office also has a distinct smell. I think it's rubbing alcohol, but it's very faint.

I also distinctly remember the sound of the exam room doors at my pediatrician's office clicking shut.

There are so many favorites, many of which have already been mentioned. But I think my absolute favorite sight is to walk into the exam room and see that the nurse has already laid out a pair of exam gloves and a tube of K-Y for the doctor to use later in the exam. That's just so exciting to see because you know exactly what's in store for you later in the exam. You know that your exam today will positively include a rectal exam and that the doctor will be lubing up her finger and sliding it deep into your rectum!

And even better is the fact that it's no secret what will happen to you. The nurse obviously knows what those things are for and what the doctor will be doing to you. Is she looking at you in a different way knowing that you're about to receive a rectal exam? Does she wish that she could be there to watch, or even looking forward to being a chaperone for the doctor today? Is she secretly undressing you in her mind, picturing you bent over the table about to receive the doctor's lubed finger.

It's all so much fun.

Watching the doctor retrieve latex gloves from the box and putting them on is one of my favorite sights in a doctor's office. In surgery I like to see the sedated patient lying on the table as the doctors and nurses prepare all the instruments.

Matt - I agree completely with this -

The paper definitely does it for me. The look of it is unlike any other type of paper, and the sounds it makes is unmistakable. My doctor's office also has a distinct smell. I think it's rubbing alcohol, but it's very faint.

I also distinctly remember the sound of the exam room doors at my pediatrician's office clicking shut.

I notice the stirrups and some are even cleverly hidden. My office coworker on her annual physicals was relieved that the table in her exam room didn't have stirrups. She figured she would not have to put her feet up and spread her legs and her genitals were safe. Wrong! The table had those hidden stirrups built in and imagine her surprise after he finished palpating her abdomen and he told her to put her feet in the stirrups. What stirrups? Oops, there they are! I like the clank they make when the doctor positions them. I have heard them before while waiting on rooms next door being pulled out for that part. I wish I could hear the sound of his fingers slipping in.

The sound of a tube of KY being snapped open and then closed, particularly if I am lying butt naked in a position where I am unable to see what the doctor is doing.

I'm on board with the crinkling paper. It's such a minor thing, but it's the difinitive jumping off point for me. Even a slight rustle but can sound almost deafening in an exam room.

There are so many it is hard to chose..... the sound of the glove being snapped on... the sound of the paper.... the sound of the cap being snapped off a vial, or the top being snapped of an ampul.... the smell of the alcohol.... the sight of a large syringe with a long, uncapped needle... and then, of course, the sound of one's heart beating faster and thumping away when you encounter anyof those

These are things from past times, but they still remain with me and surface again in some situations.

There is the smell of medical alcohol used as a disinfectant and the sound of metal on glass, as for instance when instruments are taken from glass shelves in medical cabinets. Or when old type injection needles were swirled around in a glass containing disinfecting alcohol. Those sounds are so distinctive in my memory, especially since it seemed that a doctor's office was often inordinately silent and quiet. You could almost hear yourself breathing from trepidation at whatever was going to happen.

There were also the bright lights that some doctors used to illuminate an exam table and patient. All these things together - sounds and smells and bright light combined can be triggers for remembering visits to a doctor's office ...

And then on another opposite of the spectrum, there were also doctors who had offices in very old, 19th century buildings, with high ceilings, wooden paneling on the walls and bookcases full of bound medical volumes. This would be the Old World look I suppose and here there were other scents mingled with disinfectant - soap used to wash down the tiles in the hallways, wax on the furniture and the dusty smell of an old building. And then a doctor behind an old ornate wooden desk, with usually a metal and glass medical cabinet containing all manner of wicked and scary looking metal instruments ...

Agracier, mmmmm, how yummy are those thoughts? Hehehe

Mashie

Agracier, mmmmm, how yummy are those thoughts? Hehehe

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They are indeed so yummy. This weekend I finally found an old metal and glass medical cabinet at a secondhand store for a decent price. It's going to be used in my bathroom next year when we move. Maybe it might take some explaining but I'm planning on not only using it for the utilitarian storage of towels and washcloths, but probably also to display some of the old medical instruments I've found at flea markets over the years - clyster syringes, needles and knick-knacks, a few rectal instruments, retractors and clamps and so on ... maybe I'll get a few glass beakers and fill them with alcohol and swirl some metal instruments around in them before I go to sleep at night ... ha ha

[quote author=agracier link=topic=55285.msg472504#msg472504 date=1348598664]

These are things from past times, but they still remain with me and surface again in some situations.

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Agracier - I think we must have had some very similar experiences - all those things you said brought back the memories for me too.

Agracier, The antique medical cabinet in your bathroom with the antique medical things is actually somewhat common practice here in the states. I know a lot of nurses and not medical professionals who have them in their bathrooms, or other various places in their homes because they are cool, and interesting, and just plain neat to have, not to mention great conversation pieces. Others have other "tools" of the trade type cabinets too like one has 2 old oak library card cases. She uses one for her sewing threads and stuff, and the one in the bathroom she puts different things in them like washcloths and their toothbrushes and other small things. They are, alone with the old medical cabinets, really pieces that in their own right, quite beautiful.

And once you get it put up, if anyone asks you about it, you can always say that you have an American friend who told you that it's quite the trendy thing to do in America. That should stop any further questions. You know us crazy Americans, lol.

Mashie

There's something about the smell of IV medication that I get a whiff of every time. I almost get a 'high' off it but it's almost a mental thing I believe since i know its going to help me feel better. I don't have a medical fetish really but I do like the smell when they start pushing medication in my IV.

I know a lot of nurses and not medical professionals who have them in their bathrooms, or other various places in their homes

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I suppose this must be the case here too, though I've never seen any in friends homes. Maybe because I have vanilla friends for the main ... ha ha

However, the old medical cabinets are not that easy to get hold of at a decent price. They sell for a steep price often and are even so quickly sold, or so antique and secondhand dealers always say - though they would say so, wouldn't they? .. ha ha. But I do think they are correct though. They never stay long in the stores, often not even for a week's time. So there must be a big demand for them.

I am pretty sure though that showing off an old anoscope or rectal speculum is going to take a bit more explaining than toothbrushes or washcloths ... ha ha

Agracier, no, having speculums, anoscopes, or any other medical equipment in your antique medical cabinet wouldn't take any more of an explaination than simply saying that you wanted medical equipment in your medical cabinet to make it look authentic. Trust me, no one would question it or even bat an eye. It's the perfect explaination.

By the way, I can't even begin to tell you how jealous I am that you have that cabinet. It is my ultimate dream to have one and have it filled with all things medical. Simply yummy!

Mashie

While rather mundane, I get excited when I am left alone in the exam room and can see the stirrups (hidden unfortunately) and also see the drawers labeled with catheters, and speculums. Just leaving my mind to wander about who they have been used on and who has been in the stirrups/why. Also the smell of antiseptic and the brightness of the flourescent lights that illuminate every thing in the room.

I was back at my home town a few weeks ago. I met my older sister for lunch and after we ate, we took a stroll around town. We came to an empty lot that was very familiar to both of us. It was the corner lot where our pediatrician's office used to be. The building is gone and so is he. We stood there for a moment and I asked her if she remembered what used to be there.

She said she did and so did every kid who passed through those doors growing up.

We talked about the building itself. It was as clear to both of us as when we were growing up. It was a single floor building that was especially designed for a single doctor and his staff, none of whom had Carnegie Training. You walked in the front door directly into the waiting room. To the left was the counter where the receptionist was located. The waiting room was rather bland and always quiet with the exception of an occasional whimpering youth. This came mostly from kids who were going to get shots that day.

Beyond the double doors were the exam rooms. The first room on the left was a bathroom for the taking of urine samples. The first room on the right was for shots and blood draws. Down the singular hallway were four exam rooms, two on each side.The exam rooms were undistinguished. They all had an exam table, a scale, a sink, a counter and cabinet with instruments placed in particular positions. The smell was always the strong odor of alcohol and it also had a medicinal smell.The last two rooms in the hallway were devoted to the doctor's private office and consultation room and the other was a file room/nurses station.

Back toward the rear of the office, a T was formed and there were three procedure rooms. I was treated to being in two of them, I won't go into why. I did notice the variety of enema related device available for use. I never received an enema in the office, but I did have two friends who admitted to it and they said it was anything but enjoyable. I asked my sister if she had ever been in the third procedure room. She just laughed and said, "That was where all the gynecological exams were done."

We told a few stories and then we walked away. We were having a good laugh about our pediatric experiences. Then my sister looked at me and said, " we weren't laughing so much then were we."

Sound - latex gloves snapping

Sight - instruments laid out on the table

Smell - that "doctor office" smell

Sound: the little sound, when the stethoscope diaphragh is lift off the moist skin of an exited girl being auscultated.

Sight: any sight of a stethoscope.

Smell: the smell of the rubber tubings of a stethoscope.

Yess for me the same!!! The most exciting sound in the world is when the sthehoscope is lifted of the skin. Zzziipppp....

Funny, but my favorite and most intimidating sense that gets overlooked quite a bit is the sense of smell. I love the smell of alcohol and it heightens my excitement about my surroundings even more than visual or sounds, although I love that aspect as well.

I also love the sense of smell, as I have written about in previous posts. I always love it when the play Doctor washes his hands and when he touches my face, I can smell the clean, fresh scent of soap on them. To me, I get more aroused by the scent of soap than hearing the snap of the gloves.

I also take a small spray bottle and I spray a small amount of rubbing alcohol into the air before my patient enters the exam room. I am hoping that the scent will remind a patient where he is, that is: in a Naughty Nurse's exam room.

Lady Teddy, now off with your clothes, Sir, and please step into this exam gown

I like the sterile surgical smell!

I like it when a female medical person asks me to 'drop my trousers' and when I ask why they tell me they are going 'to examine my penis and testicles'.

DFG