De-odor or Do-odor

Warning: I discuss my disgusting medical problems to get a point across. I generally call it 'medical shit' or 'what I had surgery for'. It's why I am now on antibiotics and have painkillers because it causes me a lot of discomfort. I wrote about extensively last year when I had my surgery, if you don't want to read about my medical crap feel free to close the tab or window. I'm being nice because I didn't give a warning the last time I described this crap.

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Not too long ago I read a thing about how when Matthew McConaughey announced somewhere that he didn't used deodorant that Axe sent him a case of their shit. I keep seeing here and there that little tidbit of information, then people's disgust of his supposed body odor.

That said, I haven't used deodorant in about two years and I don't think other people notice. I can't use deodorant even if I wanted to and I'll explain why. My hidradenitis is located in a few locations. I have them and surgically removed patches of skin underneath both of my arms. It's open skin that needs to be covered with gauze daily, or else pus and disgusting gets on my clothes and sticks to the wounds making them hurt when I go to take a shower. My second set are all around my vagina, on the labia and now down in the buttocks which makes going to the bathroom suck I can't bandage them properly and am in varying amounts of discomfort because of this. I do my best and try not to go into too much detail because it's gross. I don't really care about personal, it's just disgusting and I do want people to continue to talk to me.

As I said, and with the point of this, I don't wear deodorant. I haven't since about a year prior to my surgery, so 1.5 years at this point. The only time my odor has been brought up has been less me and more the disgusting puss, bile, and whatever else is pouring from my bandaged wounds on a daily basis. I have asked my roommate about my odor, she says she doesn't smell anything. Nobody around me has told me my odor is all that offensive. Not my body odor and not the stench from my wounds, and that can be really rank. Back in September when I had a new abscess opened, it was causing me a lot of pain and discomfort, that stank. It was like rotting eggs, and it was inside me, underneath my skin. Fucking horrible is what it was. I take one shower a day, in the mornings so the bandages are good for whatever I have to do for the day. The hidradenitis hurts like a mofo after about ten hours, so I have to shower daily. The only times I may skip bathing are when I don't go out and it's getting late and I don't want to waste bandages. I hurt when I do that, so it's not often. Not bathing actually hurts me, I think the daily shower does help my cause, and the fact that I don't wear deodorant. But nobody says anything about my odor. I notice it, but I'm always around it, I know what it smells like, I know what to look for. I also know what my own odor smells like, I know the difference. My own odor isn't that bad.

One's natural body odor isn't inherently a bad thing. I like the way men smell, their body odor and their cologne. It's not like I want them to put on sweat as a cologne, but average day to day odor isn't bad. In extreme cases then body odor is rank. If people don't bathe normally like they should, if it's an oppressively hot day, yes, they should take a god damned shower and wear deodorant. But people are fine without it. Not all people emit loads of offensive odor, I'm not saying the world should drop the use of deodorant all together, I'm just saying it's not that noticeable if people aren't wearing any.

On the note of people and odors, I fucking swear, last Sunday there was a woman in the coffee shop who smelled like a gatdamn port-a-potty. That was rank. I mean, did she put on Eau du Biffy that morning?

Jasmine P.

Important links

Matthew McConaughey on (1)not using (2)deodorant - two links
Wikipdeia on Hidradenitis suppurativa (warning, kinda gross)
My blog about surgery and hidradenitis (ranty, angry and gross)