I lost my sense of smell four years ago. The doctors told me that it is natural and that it is not a sickness

case 0293

I started smelling cigarette smoke last summer. For a long time I thought it could be explained by people secretly smoking around the house. But recently I've had a slight smell like old cigarette butts which I thought might have been coming from my mouth. It gives me a bad taste in my mouth as well. Then, yesterday I was in a large auto supply/repair facility and I strongly smelled cigarette smoke for the many hours I was in there. It came on suddenly and was very strong. No one else smelled it but me. When I came home I looked it up on the internet and was surprised to find so many people dealing with this same thing. The one thing that I noticed with all the other people on the internet forum that I found online is that others dealing with the same problem, like myself, all have a history of some type of respiratory problem, whether it's bronchitis or sinus problems. Either way, this is definitely quite bizarre.

case 0294

Seven months ago I began to smell an earthy smell that I thought was in the air. Then I realized that I smelled it indoors and outside. When I smell my skin, it has the same odor. As an experiment, I held a blanket up to my nose and the smell was stronger, so I deduced that it was something inside my nose. I saw my doctor yesterday. She thinks it's a sinus infection. The odor is always there and tolerable but annoying.

case 0295

I had a very bad cold at about age 18. After that for a couple of weeks everything around me smelled awful, even the water I drank. That happened a couple of times over the years, but never that bad. Then, I had chemotherapy for breast cancer when I was 45. That caused some problems again. Especially when food was hot it smelled so very bad. But, even fabrics smelled bad. Now I'm 64 and taking chemotherapy for ovarian cancer and one of the most distressing problems is the bad smell of my food, and the fabrics in my home. I take chemotherapy treatments each week so there are very few days that I don't have this problem.

case 0296

I had pneumonia three months ago. I notice since then that my sense of smell is weakened and less discriminating. I am wondering if this will be for good.

case 0297

Sometime around the middle of seventh grade, my sense of smell degraded. I probably had a cold, and recovered without noticing my partial anosmia. I get colds a lot — three or four times a year, usually lasting between two weeks and a month. Anyways, my sense of smell seemed to be getting better about a year after it first worsened, but then I went back to partial anosmia. I can usually smell fine — if what I'm trying to smell is within an inch or so of my nose. I can smell stronger smells from farther away, and I can pretty much always smell the more penetrating scents (such as dog feces).

case 0298

From what I can remember, I never had a sense of smell. Once in a while, I could smell gasoline. I remember one time when I smelled ham baking in the oven and knew what that was. Other than that I never smelled anything. I can't even smell a skunk. I have had sinus problems throughout my life, but not bad enough to need medication all the time.

case 0299

About a year ago I had a head injury from an accident. Over the next few days I slowly started to recover. One day when I was starting to feel better my sister asked me to smell one of those perfume ads that are enclosed in magazines. I couldn't smell it. Next she got scented candles, garlic, and just about every other odorous object she could find in the house. I could smell nothing. For some time I had noticed that food didn't exactly taste right, but I didn't care much at that point. It suddenly became very clear: I had lost my sense of taste and smell. I asked the neurologist if this was common, he said it can be a result of head trauma. He offered me some optimism and informed me that it could return within the year. Life has been difficult over the past year. I still have no sense of taste or smell. I am told that after a year it is not likely they will come back. A year and a half ago I was training to be a sommelier. Today I am unemployed, unhappy, and inconsolable.

case 0300

When I was 19 I was on a streetcar that was passing a slaughter house. I noticed a lot of the streetcar passengers were covering their noses and from their facial expressions, I knew the stench was pretty bad that day. That is when I first noticed that I could not smell anything. I did see a doctor about this concern but nothing was really known so I have just put up with it all my life. It was really great at "diaper" time but not so good when food was burning.

case 0301

I was in a road accident four years ago. I fractured my skull and was in a coma for a week. I noticed at a later date that I had lost my sense of smell.

case 0302

For twelve years I have had periodic phantosmia episodes. The episodes are triggered by coughing, shouting, and sneezing. While the common denominator here appears to be a sudden increase in pressure within the sinus cavity, introduction of water into the nasal passages/sinus cavity (underwater swimming, saline nasal rinse, etc.) can also trigger an episode. In rare cases, onset is spontaneous with no apparent triggering event. The phantosmia episodes will always last the entire day. Each episode has resolved only after a full night’s sleep. Frequency of occurrence is three to four times per month, sometimes spaced apart as closely as two or three consecutive days. The smell consistently associated with these triggers is of rotting garbage and the episodes themselves are frequently accompanied with an emotional state characterized by irritability and a sense of depression, given that the day is largely ruined by the temporary loss of the two major sensory inputs of taste and smell.