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Have you ever lost your sense of smell?

post #1 of 17
1/8/11 at 7:46pm
Thread Starter 
I recently had the cold-from-hell and couldn't smell anything for more than a week. Not my grapefruit shower gel, not my favorite vanilla caramel tea, and not my perfume.

Nowadays I am much more aware of scents around me, and I have to say, while in the grips of this stupid cold, that I was really worried that I would not be able to smell as well as I did before the cold. What would I do? How would I cope? How sad that I just had begun to hone my ability to pick out scents, and now it might be gone!

Happily, I am back to normal (well, normal for me which is probably not normal for the rest of the world ). My ability to smell is back, but I was really concerned for a while. Has this ever happened to you?
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post #2 of 17
1/8/11 at 7:57pm
Yup, last month during... A cold from hell, too.
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post #3 of 17
1/8/11 at 8:09pm
Yup, me too, same story. Interestingly, my receptors came back online at different rates, so frags smelled different during recovery. I also got super-sensitive to certain notes after recovering, too. So I think that recovery may be able to clean out the cobwebs a bit, in some way.

I recorded my experience after my recovery, in a blog post here.
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post #4 of 17
1/8/11 at 8:18pm
Thread Starter 
That was an interesting blog, RP. Thanks for including it. It was so strange that I couldn't smell my SotD for days at a time - At. All. I kept wearing something, every day, in the hope that I could smell it. But I couldn't, until the cold decided to leave. Weird feeling, isn't it?
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post #5 of 17
1/8/11 at 8:34pm
Yes, it's a bit scary. I'm OK with it now, but it was actually a bit depressing the first time it happened, because I wasn't so sure it would end.

There's another thread going on here somewhere (maybe on the men's side) about plastic surgery on the nose. Supposedly there is some risk of anosmia. DON'T DO IT!!! Not worth the risk!! (JMO)
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post #6 of 17
1/8/11 at 8:46pm
well since it's sometimes fairly cold here in Canada, i find it happens where some days i walk into a store to smell things and my nose is sort of 'frozen', so i really just can't smell much, plus with all the dry air and dust i'll get stuffed sinuses so... yeah, it just happens. and once i start sniffing and get almost nothing, i know it's pointless so i just go do something else. it seems like I have 'on' days where i can smell anything and 50 frags without getting plugged up, and other days where after a few i'm done for the day. but that's all part of the adventure
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post #7 of 17
1/9/11 at 12:43am
I suffer from bronchical asthma since childhood. So I seem to catch colds alot which always well 99.9% of the time turn into either sinus or chest infections. The weird thing is, I have never lost my sense of smell!!!! I will get bad tastes in my mouth from the cold, sort of sour thing. But the nose still is able to fragrance.
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post #8 of 17
1/9/11 at 2:32am
I lose the ability to smell during a heavy cold, but apart from that I
have never been unable to smell. I do find as I am getting older (50+)
that my sense of smell is diminishing slightly, which is sad. I try not to
overapply to compensate!

My poor husband has been totally anosmic for the past six years and has
polyps in his nasal passages. They have been removed twice by surgery but return soon afterwards.
He can only smell if he takes a strong course of steroids, which shrink the polyps, although
he is reluctant to take these on a regular basis. Sadly he can't smell his "fragrant" wife at all.
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post #9 of 17
1/9/11 at 3:42pm
Thread Starter 
Ooh, that's sad that your husband doesn't know how good you smell! I, too am getting (just a smidge) older and wondered if that might be the case for me, too. I seriously didn't pay much attention until the last year, though, so I am going to be more aware from now on.
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post #10 of 17
1/9/11 at 4:43pm
I had this happen to me years ago.....One of those mega colds.....It's been a long time and I hope it never happens again!!!
Gary
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post #11 of 17
1/12/11 at 6:06pm
I had that same cold last fall. I also lost my sense of smell for a few days. It was strange. I don't think I've ever had that happen before. Either that or I've never noticed it. It was pretty frightening. I guess the nasal tissues were just swollen and non-functional.
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post #12 of 17
1/12/11 at 8:55pm
I thought i did a few months back when i smelled my beloved opium i thought
i couldn't smell it anymore it was with other perfumes also but i did'nt have a
cold my mind was freaking out i'm i losing my scent isn't my inmunity can you explain?
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post #13 of 17
1/12/11 at 9:21pm
Could it be allergies?
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post #14 of 17
1/12/11 at 9:28pm
No i don't think it's allergies i think is when you smell the same scent
for a while and get immune to it's strength
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post #15 of 17
1/12/11 at 9:32pm
Oh, I see what you mean. I think you do become accustomed to a scent. Even if it is a powerful one, you may not notice it after a while if you have worn it a long time.
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post #16 of 17
1/12/11 at 9:43pm
A lot of the time I can't smell properly. I have a problem with my nose that requires surgery, but I've been postponing it because there is a very small risk it could cause permanent anosmia.
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post #17 of 17
1/12/11 at 10:02pm
A couple of years ago I lost all sense of smell for a few days following a mild cold. It's the only time this has happened to me, and it was a weird experience. I couldn't smell anything at all and could only vaguely taste food. I barely sensed if it was salty, sour or sweet, but nothing else.

Truly depressing.
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