Smelling a smell... argh.

Ive always had a VERY KEEN sense of smell. I identify things better and sometimes first with this sense and have since I was a kid.... but lately its been ridiculous.
Ill smell something in the house or yard and hunt it down. I mean its not just me smelling it, but I smell it overpowering. My husband teases me.. " The hound is hunting again" (point and laugh with me kids). Im usually not wrong. I made the husband tear down a ceiling in the basement to see a smell I was smelling and he found it was a wire smoldering. 100+ yr old house.. keeps me on my toes. Im NOT CRAZY DAMMIT! LOL! Maybe I was a cadaver dog in my previous life...

Well, last night I smelled a smell... and forced them ALL to help me track it. #1 I have a torn ACL, in a brace and just got a nasty cortisone shot. Wasnt too thrilled with moving around. The funny thing is that the smell was super strong and moved from one room to the other. I had the family tear up 2 rooms looking for what was making the smell and never found it. It completely disappeared! Now, they claimed they could smell it, but they could have been humoring me. Im pretty serious about tracking stenches... considering Im sort of a germ freak.I smell things so intensely its very uncomfortable when its strong like that. I KNEW nothing was gross in the rooms.. brace or no, I clean deeply. I swear it smelled like death. LIke a critter crawled in there somehow because its so cold here and died.. then reanimated, walked around flinging its stink everywhere.. and disappeared. Nope.. no critter, no NOTHING. I cant smell it today either.

So.. you guys know of any brain conditions that cause phantom death smell?? Like a brain tumor or alien implant? LMAO!! Can cortisone make a person with a sensitive olfactory gland work overtime? Now.. Im kinda weirded out.. Ive walked in the 2 rooms numerous times already... if I smell it again Im going to tear up floorboards!

reply to post by Advantage


Advantage, smelling strange smells can be an aura either by itself or preceding a seizure. I hope it isn't the cause in your case!

Grand mal (tonic clonic) seizure symptoms

Like you, I have a very keen sense of smell. It's God's little joke to give women a better sense of smell than men have.

graceunderpressure
reply to post by Advantage

 

Advantage, smelling strange smells can be an aura either by itself or preceding a seizure. I hope it isn't the cause in your case!

Grand mal (tonic clonic) seizure symptoms

Like you, I have a very keen sense of smell. It's God's little joke to give women a better sense of smell than men have.

I hadnt considered that. You could very well be right. I turned down the vicodin yet again for this dumb knee and went on tramadol.. which does NOTHING and lowers your seizure threshold. Ugh.. Either that or Im tracking a zombie squirrel... I think I prefer the seizure.

Yes, concerning traditional female roles.... not only to we have a better sense of smell, BUT we do the laundry.

reply to post by Advantage


Maybe it's your upper lip that smells?

Aphorism
reply to post by Advantage

 

Maybe it's your upper lip that smells?

NooOOooo!!! Lemme go check and see if there is a dead animal on my lip. BRB.

reply to post by Advantage


Well, I know you read my smell story yesterday. Could it possibly be from one of the members of your household? I live with 3 males and a big dog and sometimes they alone are the cause of a stench in my house, that might account for the fact that it disappeared. Maybe they just aired out while you were looking. And yes the smell of death is not over exaggeration when it comes down to it, especially after we have taken the dog with us to the bogs to go berry picking.

Otherwise, good luck! It's not a fun thing to try and figure out sometimes, but I really hope that its not a precursor to a seizure as you mentioned. I hope you feel better too!

woodsmom
reply to post by Advantage

 

Well, I know you read my smell story yesterday. Could it possibly be from one of the members of your household? I live with 3 males and a big dog and sometimes they alone are the cause of a stench in my house, that might account for the fact that it disappeared. Maybe they just aired out while you were looking. And yes the smell of death is not over exaggeration when it comes down to it, especially after we have taken the dog with us to the bogs to go berry picking.

Otherwise, good luck! It's not a fun thing to try and figure out sometimes, but I really hope that its not a precursor to a seizure as you mentioned. I hope you feel better too!

HAH! Nope.. not the members of the house. The house it just about 3K sq ft.. if I was smelling one of them in the front part of the house.. that would be pretty bad! LOL!! They were in the front of the house, dogs were asleep. Id considered one of the dogs brought something dead in.. but I didnt find anything weird.. or dead. I was in the kitchen on the laptop. I got a whiff of death when I walked in the laundry room.. then it came to the kitchen itself. I tried to see if the dogs would help me track it, but unless its a brownie.. they arent tracking anything. Thats when I got the husband and kids tossing the laundry room.

I dont know.. it was just so weird I thought it would be funny to post it on here. Phantom smells are the stuff of ATSery.

One thing I didnt check was the back outside stairwell.. hmm... I also need to check the dryer venting to the outside. If something crawled in there and croaked.. holy god..

Aphorism
reply to post by Advantage

 

Maybe it's your upper lip that smells?

That was tacky but still made me laugh.

A classic's a classic (insert old timey ATS "thumb up" here)

reply to post by Advantage


You may be on to something with the dryer vent. Things like that happen up here when it's really cold. A critter will curl up wherever they can find warmth. We found a squirrel in my husband's engine compartment once, and not until after the drive. But if your vent cover has come loose from the outside maybe something did crawl in there.

It could be the medication you're on, especially if the smell started at the same time as the new med. I had an IVP (intravenous dye for kidney surveillance) and tasted and smelled metal, (nickel, I think) for days afterwards.

But I'd check the dryer vent just to be sure.

I've had the same issues at times, but it does come in handy. I found a natural gas leak in my in-law's front yard at one point; every time we'd go visit, I'd smell gas just as I was passing the bushes on either side of the front door. When they finally called the Gas Company who brought one of those 'sniffers' with them, the guy told me I was better than his machinery. Made me proud... Not that they offered me a job or anything.

The yard was dug up, leak repaired, explosion averted.

Ewww that smell! Can't 'cha smell that smell? Eewww that smell... - Jethro Tull

Advantage

graceunderpressure
reply to post by Advantage

 

Advantage, smelling strange smells can be an aura either by itself or preceding a seizure. I hope it isn't the cause in your case!

Grand mal (tonic clonic) seizure symptoms

Like you, I have a very keen sense of smell. It's God's little joke to give women a better sense of smell than men have.

I hadnt considered that. You could very well be right. I turned down the vicodin yet again for this dumb knee and went on tramadol.. which does NOTHING and lowers your seizure threshold. Ugh.. Either that or Im tracking a zombie squirrel... I think I prefer the seizure.

Yes, concerning traditional female roles.... not only to we have a better sense of smell, BUT we do the laundry.

OH MY GOD get off the tramadol now. im serious. my ex was on tramadol for a cyst at the base of his spine and he had the absolute worst withdrawal ive ever seen. it was like he was coming off a heroin kick. he had the shakes and cold sweats and could not sleep. in fact when i looked up how to help get rid of a tramadol withdrawal someone said that tramadol is seriously dangerous and the only reason doctors prescribe is because they get paid big bucks every time they get someone to take it. its messed up.

Pharmacologically, tramadol is almost identical to the SNRI antidepressant venlafaxine. So yes, it can mess with your senses and your mental state. Hallucinations of all kinds, including phantosmia (smell hallucinations) are possible.

I also have problems at times with persistent smells I can't identify. This is quite possibly related to my OCD (I was surprised to find that a link between OCD and 'olfactory obsessions' is common). I had a particularly bad episode when I was recovering from having my appendix out: for two weeks, I was on my regular dose of venlafaxine and tramadol. It certainly zapped the pain, but it's not a combination I want to try again in a hurry.

I hope you get to the bottom of this or that the smell goes away and leaves you in peace.