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April shifted uncomfortably in her seat and pinched her nose shut. There was a putrid smell wafting through the waiting room, and her face turned crimson as her stomach began to churn. When the medical assistant called her name, she jumped up and power-walked to the doctor’s office.

As she strolled in, Dr. Turner smiled and said, “What brings you here today, April?”

April took a seat next to the ear, nose, and throat doctor. She looked at the floor and whispered, “Dr. Turner, I know you’re going to think I’m crazy, but ever since I had COVID, I’m pretty sure I can smell cancer. You know, like those cancer-sniffing dogs.”

If this had been the year 2019, Dr. Turner might have sent April for a psych consult, but over the past few years, he had seen hundreds of patients with all sorts of bizarre taste and smell distortions post-COVID-19 infection. He wasn’t ruling anything out.

“What makes you think that?” he asked.

“Well, when I had COVID three years ago, I lost my senses of taste and smell…”

Dr. Turner interrupted, “That’s called anosmia.”

“Yes, Doc, I know. Then a few weeks later, I began smelling smoke all day long.”

“That’s called phantosmia.”

April furrowed her brows. “Yes, I know. Then about a year later, I began to smell and taste certain things again, but nothing was right. My coffee tasted like raw sewage, my pizza tasted like overcooked brussels sprouts, and my husband smelled like pine needles.”

“That’s called parosmia.”

“Yes, Doctor, I know.” Tears burned her eyes as she begged, “Please help me. I just want to be normal again.” She stared at the floor. “Here’s the thing, Doc. My mother-in-law has breast cancer, and even before her diagnosis, she smelled as if she’d been sprayed by a skunk. Nobody else smelled it. When I took her to see her oncologist, every other patient in the office smelled like skunk. It was awful. And your waiting room smells pretty bad, too. Does the woman sitting there have cancer?”

Dr. Turner opened the door and peeked out. “Yes, April, she does.” Intrigued, he said, “If you don’t mind, let’s take a walk upstairs to the mammography center and check this out.”

April’s heart pounded as she entered the waiting room of the mammography center, worried people would stare at her. When she realized most of the women were paying attention to their phones, it gave her courage. She began nonchalantly walking around the room, sniffing as quietly as she could.

She turned to Dr. Turner. “The one in the red shirt, and the one in the blue pantsuit. Both skunks.”

Dr. Turner excused himself to speak to the radiologist. She promised to send him a report. When they got back to his office, the doctor examined April’s nose and throat very carefully. As with all his other post-COVID patients who had lost their senses, there was little to recommend. April had already tried intensive smell training, but after three years, it was doubtful anything would help.

The doctor was just about to propose to April that they experiment with a course of decongestants when something occurred to him, and he thought, Would it even be in April’s best interest to get rid of this awesome talent?

He began thinking about the new pathways in research that could open up, and how many lives she could potentially save. He then suppressed a smile as he imagined his name being prominently featured in medical journals.

Soon after April left his office, Dr. Turner got the call from the radiologist. April had been correct; both women had cancer. The radiologist told Dr. Turner that she had almost missed one of the tumors because it was so small, but thanks to his warning, she’d rechecked the mammogram and found it. Early stage 1 cancer. The woman would be fine.

Dr. Turner grinned as he wrote in his journal, Day 1: One life saved.

The next day, he canceled all his afternoon appointments and arranged a meeting with some of his colleagues. When he called April to invite her as the guest of honor, she said, “Doc, thanks for thinking of me, but I don’t want to come. I hate being the center of attention, and I’m afraid I’ll have a panic attack.”

Dr. Turner promised there would be no pressure. He told her to just think about it as a small group of friends getting together for lunch. What convinced her to come was when Dr. Turner assured her that her best hope for a cure was if a team of doctors worked on her case together.

When she finally agreed, April asked, “Is it okay if I bring my toddler? It’s too late to call a babysitter.”

The next day, April arrived at the conference room, panting and out of breath. She was struggling to balance a squirming toddler in one arm and the heavy diaper bag in the other. Dr. Turner jumped up to help her and introduced her to the other guests. April looked around nervously and stammered a greeting as she plopped Sammy onto the carpet with some toys.

The doctors had catered an expensive lunch, and one of them turned to her and said, “April, this is for you. Have anything you want.”

April frowned. She felt insulted. “You did this for me? You know I can’t taste anything. That’s why I’m here. I can’t even remember what foods taste like anymore. I’ve been so depressed.”

She bent down to give Sammy a couple of cookies and kept an eye on him as he happily consumed his special treats. When she and Sammy were settled in, Dr. Turner turned to April and asked her to start from the beginning.

As she began explaining her symptoms, she noticed a couple of the doctors were sniggering. Her face turned crimson as her voice broke. “I knew none of you would believe me!” she cried.

Dr. Turner jumped up. “We’re not laughing at you, April. It just happens that there’s a very unpleasant odor coming from the direction of your toddler. It’s kind of like a gift that you can’t smell it.”

All the doctors laughed as April’s eyes flared. “You think that’s funny? I often can’t tell when Sammy has a dirty diaper. One time, he developed such a bad rash he needed medicine for a week.” She tossed the changing pad onto the floor and proceeded to change Sammy’s diaper right there in the room, smiling at her small act of revenge.

After spending an hour in the conference room, the doctors wanted to see April in action. They accompanied her to the mammography center and carefully watched her sniff around. Dr. Turner discreetly videotaped her, and the radiologist again confirmed her correct diagnoses.

Later that day, after April went home, the conference room thrummed with excitement as the doctors debated how to best use her talents. Should she work in hospitals with difficult-to-diagnose patients, radiography centers, and low-income clinics? Would it be ethical to tell people on the street they had cancer? Would it be ethical to not tell them? There were many decisions to be made.

Over the next few days, April was a guinea pig as the research team poked and prodded her. She was examined from head to toe, including MRIs and a CT scan. Nothing abnormal stood out. The doctors were baffled.

As the research team discussed how to best use April’s talents, they hired her to work in their own medical facility. They had her divide her time between the mammography center, their colonoscopy suite, and their low-income clinic. April found her new job to be very uncomfortable and insisted on carrying a large clipboard that she could hide behind. The only thing she was excited about was her work in the clinic. Though she was only there one day a week, she was proud to help people who might not be able to afford diagnostic tests. She sniffed out cancer in people whose silent disease might have gone undetected until it was too late.

After a few months of things going smoothly, April woke one morning, turned on the news, and discovered she was the lead story. Somebody from the research team must have leaked her name. People were immediately fascinated by her ability, and she began receiving invitations to be a guest on all the morning news programs. The producers wanted her to sniff the news anchors on the air as if she were a dog.

Dr. Turner knew how anxious April was to speak in public but still encouraged her to embrace the publicity, arguing that they could raise more money for research. “Think of all the people you could help.” It was what he always said. He promised April he would always be at her side and would do most of the talking. She refused. She was already beginning to develop an anxiety disorder from all the attention. So Dr. Turned accepted the invitations on her behalf. With April’s permission, he showed videos of her at work, and now people knew her face as well as her talent.

With all the unwanted publicity, April received an invitation from the White House. The president wanted to meet the woman who was saving lives with her nose. Though she wasn’t sure how she would get through it, she accepted on behalf of her husband. She understood how many sacrifices he was making and how his whole life had been upended, as well. Besides, her mother told her she would kill her if she turned it down.

When they arrived at the White House, April grasped onto her husband as if he were a life raft. She trembled when she shook hands with the president, and her eye began to twitch when she discovered the First Lady smelled like a skunk. It took every ounce of her courage to whisper it to the president’s wife, who made an emergency appointment with her doctor. When she received her diagnosis, it was the top news story for a week. It was then that the media dubbed April “the Cancer Whisperer.”

As she became more recognizable, April’s eye twitch became permanent. She felt anxious and frazzled every single day and began taking antidepressants. She felt like she was living in a pressure cooker and didn’t know how much longer she could keep it up.

Then one morning, something remarkable happened. April woke up and her coffee tasted like coffee, her breakfast cereal tasted sweet, and her pregnancy test came out positive. She called Dr. Turner immediately.

“Come to my office right away,” he told her.

When April arrived, she noticed the doctor was sweating. He sat her down and had her smell several essential oils and discovered her senses of taste and smell were definitely coming back. When he asked about her husband’s mother, she told him, “It’s wonderful not having to retch when your mother-in-law is in the room.”

Dr. Turner didn’t know how to feel. On the one hand, he was joyous that his favorite patient was returning to normal. On the other hand, April was losing her ability to sniff out cancer. She was losing her ability to help people, and he was losing his best research subject.

He suspected this might happen if she became pregnant, but he wasn’t prepared for it to happen so soon. April’s body had begun repairing itself and returning to normal. His mind raced as he tried to come up with solutions.

“April, maybe I can do something to help,” he said.

She furrowed her brows. “Doc, I hoped you’d be happy for me. I am beginning to feel like myself again. For the first time in a very long time, I was actually able to enjoy food again and smell my toddler’s sweet head. It was amazing. Why would you want to take that away?”

Dr. Turner stood and rocked back on his heels. He took April’s hand. “You’ve helped so many people. Are you sure you want to give that up so that you can taste some pizza? Your amazing gift has saved lives. You’re a hero.”

April put her head in her hands and sniffled. “Don’t you think this is torturing me? But I don’t want to take my meds while I’m pregnant. And yes, I know exactly what I’m losing. I’ve also been miserable for such a long time.” She looked up and dried her tears. “Listen, I’ve spoken with my clergyman, and he told me it’s not my obligation to do something that can harm me, either mentally or physically.” She took a deep breath and asked, “Besides, what could we do to stop it?”

“I’ve been experimenting with a procedure that might be able to reverse your new gains,” Dr. Turner said. “I can do it right in my office.”

April frowned at the thought of minor surgery. “If I have the procedure, can you guarantee that I’ll still be able to smell cancer?”

Dr. Turner looked at the floor. “No, April. The procedure is experimental. It would reinjure the neurons in your nose, and we would hope the regeneration brought the same results. It’s impossible to predict if it would work.”

“If I don’t regain the ability to sniff cancer after the procedure, would my smell and taste eventually return to normal?”

“I don’t know. We’ve only done this procedure on mice. It might take away your senses for good.”

April sighed. “Would you be willing to have the same procedure so we’d be in the same boat? It seems fair.”

Dr. Turner closed his eyes and steepled his fingers. The room was silent as doctor and patient remained deep in thought. Finally, he said, “Why would you ask me to do that, April? I will never have the ability to sniff out cancer. I could never do what you do.”

April shook her head. “That’s what I thought.” She hesitated a moment and added, “I’m in the process of writing a book, which I’m calling The Cancer Whisperer: Gift or Burden. I’d like to include you in the book. Is that okay?”

Dr. Turner wrinkled his forehead. “What are you going to say about me? You know what I care about most is that together, we saved lives. I hope you’re going to say what great work we’ve done, and how I helped you become a hero for so many people.”

April looked at Dr. Turner with tears in her eyes. “The stress is killing me, Doc, and I can’t have that while I’m pregnant. Maybe the pregnancy is why my senses have returned so suddenly. Maybe not, but either way, no more tests. This year has been hellish for me, and I’m moving out of town with my family. Please don’t try to make me feel guilty for wanting to be able to smell my new baby’s head, and yes, to even taste pizza again. I just want to be normal, and I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”

Dr. Turner smiled sadly, knowing that he’d lost this fight. “I wish you and your family the best of luck,” he said. “I’m delighted you’re regaining your senses and am proud of the work we’ve done together. You have my full permission to include me in your book, and I’ll be the first in line at Barnes and Noble to buy it. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call. Best of luck with the new baby.”

April stood on her tiptoes and whispered in his ear, “There’s going to be a picture of me in the book sniffing the First Lady. That’s because of you. I met the president and the First Lady because of our work together, and although it was a terrifying experience, I’ll always be grateful.” She kissed Dr. Turner on the cheek. “Thanks for everything, Doc. It’s been surreal.”