PHEROMONES / PERFUMES

Come take a walk on this lovely Spring Day.   I suppose the beauty of the trees and plants and the lovely fragrance wafting through the air have inspired me to share this story.

First of all, I do not wear perfumes, colognes, or any other products that have a lingering smell.  As a student nurse long ago, we were told that any strong odors such as perfumes etc. could create nausea on the part of the patient.  It was not just discouraged, it was forbidden.  As a working registered nurse, I continued this practice of perfumed abstinence, especially having chosen the surgical area as my favored nursing service.

It was during the late 1960's, and early 1970's when many of my friends were wearing a new fragrance called musk, allowing the wearer to have a more natural fragrance. (a better description should be pheromone)! At this point in my story let me explain the word pheromone:

"Pheromones are similar to hormones but work outside the body.  They induce activity in other individuals around you.  Scientists say, your airborne compounds send signals about your moods, your sexual orientation and even your genetic makeup. Airborne molecules that elicit a reaction in a member of the same species are called pheromones, and the most famous ones are potent aphrodisiacs."

I am about to share a personal experience with perfumes/pheromones that will dispute the scientific claim above!

Again, back to the time period as mentioned earlier.  One of my good female friends gave me a large bottle of Musk Oil for Christmas.  She had been using it and I had complimented her on the fragrance that she elicited as she moved about the room. A pleasant, musty, woodsy odor followed her as she moved among guests. I told her I would like to try that, believing this particular fragrance would not be noticeable. That Christmas, she gave me a huge bottle and I could not wait to try to smell really natural, like my friend.  And so it was on a particular night, I decided to run a HOT bath to which I emptied about 1/2 the bottle of Musk oil.

I slid into the exquisite silky soaking solution and stayed there for a long, delicious soak in a bathroom all to myself.  The children were asleep, and my husband was downstairs watching something on the T.V.  I was totally alone and enjoying pampering myself.  Even my flannel pajamas felt luxurious against my soft skin as I crawled into my bed.

After falling asleep, I was awakened by my husband who demanded that I wake up because there was a terrible smell in the bedroom, and we needed to find the source because it smelled like an animal had died under the bed!  I jumped out of bed and as I was helping him look under the bed and was up close to him, he began sniffing my arms, then my back. " Oh, no, he exclaimed, it is you!  What did you do?!" 

He further declared that he could not sleep with me and that the sheets needed to be changed and I needed to take another bath.  Well, I changed the sheets, but I did not take another bath, so I found other sleeping arrangement in another area of the house.

The next morning, I went to work at my position as the operating room manager of a small local hospital where I had worked for the past seven years.  I spent most of the day in the desk area located in the center of the main admitting hallway as we admitted patients into the correct surgical area.  Around mid-morning, one of the surgeons sat beside me in order to dictate his surgical notes.  He suddenly stopped during the dictation and looked at me.  He then asked if I had noticed a peculiarly foul odor that had permeated the operating room that morning.  I responded that I had not, trying to hide my secret.  I was now wishing I had taken another bath.  He then began sniffing around my arms and around the general area of my person.  He stood up and said:  "It is you!  What in the world have you done?"

Well!  Suffice it to say, I never again used the musk oil. I suppose the hot, soaking bath allowed the musk oil to diffuse from my skin into my circulatory system and emerge back through the skin after the long travels throughout the rest of my body!  I have to admit that it did take several days and showers before I felt it was safe to be around others.

Perhaps the musk changed my good pheromones to bad pheromones.  The reaction from my husband and the surgeon proved that maybe, just maybe, I could have been a good candidate for that one specimen who could demonstrate turning off/ on pheromones.

Oh, the pondering of it all...............................................