handy
Member
So, it's been since last summer since I could smell anything at all.
I have put a bottle of straight bleach under my nose...nothing.
I have completely lost my sense of smell.
I do need to go back to my GP and...I don't know, get a referral to a specialist or something.
One might think that losing the sense of smell isn't all that big of a deal...not like losing one's eyesight for instance...but it's amazing once it's gone how much of an impact it is.
For instance, food tastes really bland and kind of funny. I had a peanut butter cookie the other night and honestly, if I had been blindfolded, I would have been hard-pressed to say exactly what it was that I was eating. A cookie, yes, consistency and overall sweetness would have clued me in that it was a cookie...but no sense of it being a peanut butter cookie. Unless I'm eating something that is over the top spicy...I really can't taste much, except to determine if it's salty or sweet or bitter etc.
The lemon taste I had for a while is gone (thank goodness!!!) but sometimes I will just carry a "taste" in my mouth that has nothing to do with anything I've ate or was within my environment. For instance for a good several hours yesterday I "tasted" cigarette smoke...don't ask me why, I've never smoked a day in my life. It's bizarre and to tell the truth, unsettling.
It also is making it hard for me to cook for my family. I never realized how much one needs a sense of smell to cook. The tongue tastes basic things: sweet, salty, bitter, sour...but it takes the olfactories to gain an enhancement of flavors...and I've lost that. Now I'm either over-spicing foods, or not putting in enough so that things taste bland. My hubby, sweet man that he is, told me dinner last night was delicious...the kids are more honest, they didn't like it much because it tasted really bland. I put the salt and pepper on the table and everyone salted the casserole down and added a liberal amount of pepper as well. Being a good cook for my family is important to me and it really hurts and depressing me that I'm failing in this right now.
Another thing is that I do have asthma. And, there are certain things that trigger asthma, many of these things would have smell as a sort of advance warning. The other day I had a full-blown asthma attack...the sort that caused me to stop breathing, and need the rescue inhaler for ...and I have no idea what triggered it. I must have been around something that caused it to happen, but I have no idea what it is. It's possible that my daughter had some perfume on a shirt that I gathered up for laundry...I just don't know.
Anyway, I'm calling my GP back and am going to see if there is anything further that can be done.
Please pray for me in this...this is really a lot worse than what I thought it would be. If I can get the sense of smell back, it would be really cool.
If it's gone and gone forever, I need to know and need to deal with that. And, that won't be easy.
I have put a bottle of straight bleach under my nose...nothing.
I have completely lost my sense of smell.
I do need to go back to my GP and...I don't know, get a referral to a specialist or something.
One might think that losing the sense of smell isn't all that big of a deal...not like losing one's eyesight for instance...but it's amazing once it's gone how much of an impact it is.
For instance, food tastes really bland and kind of funny. I had a peanut butter cookie the other night and honestly, if I had been blindfolded, I would have been hard-pressed to say exactly what it was that I was eating. A cookie, yes, consistency and overall sweetness would have clued me in that it was a cookie...but no sense of it being a peanut butter cookie. Unless I'm eating something that is over the top spicy...I really can't taste much, except to determine if it's salty or sweet or bitter etc.
The lemon taste I had for a while is gone (thank goodness!!!) but sometimes I will just carry a "taste" in my mouth that has nothing to do with anything I've ate or was within my environment. For instance for a good several hours yesterday I "tasted" cigarette smoke...don't ask me why, I've never smoked a day in my life. It's bizarre and to tell the truth, unsettling.
It also is making it hard for me to cook for my family. I never realized how much one needs a sense of smell to cook. The tongue tastes basic things: sweet, salty, bitter, sour...but it takes the olfactories to gain an enhancement of flavors...and I've lost that. Now I'm either over-spicing foods, or not putting in enough so that things taste bland. My hubby, sweet man that he is, told me dinner last night was delicious...the kids are more honest, they didn't like it much because it tasted really bland. I put the salt and pepper on the table and everyone salted the casserole down and added a liberal amount of pepper as well. Being a good cook for my family is important to me and it really hurts and depressing me that I'm failing in this right now.
Another thing is that I do have asthma. And, there are certain things that trigger asthma, many of these things would have smell as a sort of advance warning. The other day I had a full-blown asthma attack...the sort that caused me to stop breathing, and need the rescue inhaler for ...and I have no idea what triggered it. I must have been around something that caused it to happen, but I have no idea what it is. It's possible that my daughter had some perfume on a shirt that I gathered up for laundry...I just don't know.
Anyway, I'm calling my GP back and am going to see if there is anything further that can be done.
Please pray for me in this...this is really a lot worse than what I thought it would be. If I can get the sense of smell back, it would be really cool.
If it's gone and gone forever, I need to know and need to deal with that. And, that won't be easy.
)
