I have wanted to post this for so long but somehow I couldn’t get around to it. However I’ve been reading all the comments and sharing your pain.
The good news is things are getting better. I’m still taking my daily vitamins and Alpha Lipoic Acid. I don’t know if they have anything to do with the progress, but there is definitely good amount of progress.
Things I couldn’t tolerate smelling or eating before such as orange juice, hot tomato sauce, chicken, meat, baked goods (and a lot more) taste much better now, some of them pretty close to the actual taste like pizza. I remember having a hard time walking into restaurants and pizza places in the first months following my head injury because of the horrible smells. Now I can even enjoy the smell of pizza once again.
Chicken and turkey are still hit and miss but I can eat them better. Fish is another story though. I’ve been eating mostly fish since my accident since it was one of the few things that didn’t have any bad smell or taste for me. However recently I’ve been getting a bad fishy smell from both raw and cooked fish which isn’t appetizing at all. It’s very weird how my sense of smell has been changing over the months. I really hope this bad smell doesn’t last as I really like fish. That’s about the only negative change over the past weeks.
I can finally tolerate the taste of onions in food. Garlic is ok too. I even started eating some meatballs (from red meat that I stayed away for months).
I also started drinking coffee for the first time after months as coffee had an unbearably strong spicy smell for so long. Now it smells somewhat pleasant but still far from the actual smell I should be getting. Still, there’s progress.
Sweets are still not very pleasant. Rarely, I’ll find something that I enjoy eating (like tiramisu) but most cookies and cakes still taste funny, and so does chocolate. However most everything is edible by now except for some weird tasting greens and spices. I can even eat some fried food although there is always that unpleasant after taste. It usually depends on the food and who makes it.
Oh, I still can’t stand the taste of coke. It tastes like some bad medicine!
So hang in there, there is definitely hope. I could smell hardly anything right after my accident and then went through the horrible stages of bad and distorted smells. Now things have calmed down and got much better. I still have a lot of distorted smells but they are more bearable and you get used to them. I can still detect cigarette smoke as soon as I walk into a restaurant even with the new distorted version of it. It’s still a very disturbing smell. On the other hand, there are times that I still have a hard time detecting my son’s poopy pants. Or that I get bad stinky smells from some cereal. But I feel that I’ve come a long way and I’m happy for it. Please don’t lose your hope.
10 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 24, 2008 at 11:30 am
Doug Cress
Good to see you making progress!
March 26, 2008 at 10:49 am
mary
Hi Doug,
My name is Mary. I just happened to find this site, because about 3 weeks ago I became sevearly sick with the flu, it lasted around 10 days with running high fevers for about 8 of those days. About 4 days into being ill I noticed my sence of smell & taste was gone. I knew right away it was very differant than as if I had a cold. I could not at all smell or taste anything. Then things that used to smell good to me were smelling extremly rancid and taste the same. You mentioned coffee, I used to love coffee and now I cannot stomach even the slightest smell of it, you hit it right on the nose exactly how it smells to me. Everything you spoke of is what I am now going through. I have not gone to the docter yet, I keep hopeing that both sences will still come back. I have felt very alone with this, my family (Aunt) does not understand what I’m going through, this is very depressing, I never thought not being able to taste or smell could make such an inpact on your life. Do you have any advise you could give me? I will try anything on my own first, before running to docters. Also, can you let me know how your coping? Thankyou for your time. Do hope to hear from you. Thanks
Mary Self
May 15, 2008 at 9:04 am
Chris Pruet
Heya, I’m a med student and just spent some time learning about phantom smells. As it turns out, the medial portion of the temporal lobe (the amygdala) of the brain is linked to the hypothalamus and is used in the processing of emotionally linked memories. In addition, the amygdala is the site of initial processing of smell. The olfactory bulb, (your smell sensors in your nose), are the only sense to be processed through the amygdala; your eyesight heads through the optic radiations to be processed in the back portion of your brain, hearing gets processed in the lateral temporal lobe, touch goes through the thalamus, a central portion of the brain, and I don’t know too much about taste yet.
That said, if your amygdala becomes hyperactive, you may begin smelling things that aren’t present. Specifically, if you have seizures of the medial temporal lobe, you could experience very potent smells. A seizure is when the neurons in your brain start being over-excited and triggered too often. The excited neurons excite other neurons, then those excite others, and suddenly there’s a massive amount of activity in one portion of the brain, which may spread to other areas or may remain contained.
If you are having seizures of the amygdala, it will likely have an effect on your memory. The amygdala is closely linked to the hypothalamus, which helps in the processing of short term memories. Have your friends / family noticed any changes in your ability to remember things? Have you noticed a change in your ability to remember things since the accident?
Being that your symptoms are continuous and began after your brain had some time to reform / regroup after your incident, the following scenario may be more likely.
Sometimes a damaged area of the brain will experience a regrowth of neurons from other areas into the area that was damaged. If part of the area of the brain that processes smell was damaged, other areas of the brain will begin processing information there instead of smell centers. In this case, your smells could be stimulated by specific triggers, such as when you see a certain object, feel a certain emotion, or hear a certain sound.
In the former case, (the seizures), it may be of use to talk with your doctor about being on an anti-seizure medication, as this could lower the likelihood of your neurons self-activating. In the latter case, I don’t know how you could address your symptoms.
Of course, I am only a first year medical student and am in no position to make medical suggestions. Anything you choose to pursue should be done under the supervision of a medical professional.
Those are my thoughts and ideas, hope that’s of value,
Chris Pruet
September 11, 2008 at 11:37 am
obee
I developed Parasomia after a severe sinus infection. I went from bloodhouse status smell ability to debilitating and no smells in a week. I also noticed right away that something was different about losing my ability to smell and that things smelled bad. It has been four months and my smell has improved some and I can taste tomato based products just fine, but all smells are distorted. I also cannot taste much foods as they are distorted or I cannot detect the full flavor. I like most of you did not realize how much we rely on our ability to smell and taste. It makes me very depressed. The only thing I have noticed is that the ability to taste/smell improves somewhat with Prednisone, which I do not want to stay on. I tried Nasacort, but to no avail. I am also taking Zyrtec at night, but really to make me sleepy because the Prednisone keeps me awake and hyped up.
August 3, 2009 at 8:30 pm
lindi
Has anyone out there regained their sense of smell after head trauma? has anyone regained it after a year of no smell following head trauma? Feeling desperate here.
September 24, 2009 at 9:18 pm
michael
I had a head injury in june of 2008, lost my sense of smell, haven’t regained as of yet. I also am having very rancid smells at times. If you find any answers let me know also. thank-you Not alone!!!!
September 3, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Pat NS&T
Has anyone regained their smell and taste from a viral cold. It has been 3 months for me. Yes I went to the doctor and no results.
September 8, 2009 at 2:12 am
Mia F.
I just recently had the sinus surgery and now I am starting to lose my sense of smell and taste. It is so frustrating and depressing for me because I cannot even smell and taste what I am cooking for my family. This makes me feel bad all the time. Everyday I have to sniff something to find out if my smell is back to normal.
My EENT doctor looks like he’s giving up on me. He recommended to see another specialist in the frontal sinuses which he said is still blocked.
I don’t know how much longer am I going to suffer with this problem. I just hope and pray that one day I will wake up feeling normal again with my sense of smell and taste. It has been 3 weeks now that I have no ability to smell and taste anything.
I wonder if anyone could recommend anything for me to take so I could regain my normal smell and taste. Please help…….
September 8, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Darryl
Hi I am not a doctor and have no idea if this procedure is right in this situation but thought I would mention it. A friend at work has been having sinus trouble forever and he came into work last week after having a cat scan and said he was given two options: sinus surgery OR balloon sinuplasty.
That procedure was certainly new to me but he seemed very encouraged because recovery time is supposed to be less and it is less invasive.
I just thought I would mention it though because like I said at the beginning I do not know when it is recommended or not.
Thanks and have a good day.
September 23, 2009 at 6:56 pm
sarah miller-weldon
Wow that’s great to hear Darryl. I am going to see a dr about my sinus problems and will definitely ask about that balloon procedure.