Sjogrens and Taste changes

[deeindiana]

I agreed with everyone here. Everything taste bland. And things I used to love - especially chocolate - no longer interest me. Anything with a slight bit of spice makes me choke. Food that is merely warm feels boiling hot in my mouth; food that is merely cold feels freezing. The good news is that I don't eat for pleasure anymore and have lost weight. But it certainly takes the fun out of life.
Deb

[ottawagirl]

Hi all, 

I have the same issue.  I've lost my sense of taste and smell.  Things my family says taste really good, I find bland.  Also, I only seem to be able to smell certain things that are strong (someone sweating, kitty litter box, etc.) and sometimes I confuse smells too!

[puccini914]

Since my youngest is still in diapers, I wish that was a smell that would go away.  I'm still getting those phantom burning smells that don't exist.  I smell spills that cleaned up months ago.  My dogs smell really bad, even when they're not dirty.  The worst has got to be either the diaper or my 12 year old dog's breath.  I haven't lost my smell yet, instead I'm a bit more sensitive to it.

Guess I just have to be the weird one out.

Peace be with you.
Jennifer

[Prairie Gal]

My taste buds still work OK, but every once in a while I get a strange metallic taste that takes a few hours to go away.   I had to take Flagyl a couple of years ago and it's common to get the metallic taste while on it but I've only had to take it once (for 2 weeks, as I recall).   These metallic episodes are not too frequent, for which I am grateful.

[paperdoll]

Hello there,

I'm on my third full day of smelling "cigarette smoke".  Do any of you have odd smells/scents?  I am really sensitive to chemical smells but when I am dry sometimes I cannot smell even dog poops LOL It has happened before but it only lasted minutes or an hour or less.

Links I just found:
http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2009/11/10/4380036-phantom-smells-may-be-a-sign-of-trouble
http://www.smellandtaste.org/index.cfm?action=info.chemo

Any input appreciated!

Dolly

[hollowoakfarm]

I also have absolutely no sense of smell these days, and minimal taste.  Taste is limited to burn, bitter and sweet.  Within those categories, I can't identify anything.  For example, I might be able to tell you it's sweet, but not whether it's chocolate or raspberries.  My sweet consumption is pretty much limited to chocolate milk these days.  I get the "sweet" and some calcium to go with.  But to taste the sweet, it's got to be super-sweet to the normal person.  Anything less and it's bitter to me.  Another reason to go with the chocolate milk, as I can adjust that.

As far as the odd scents, I did have the cigarette smoke issue for nearly two years before I lost my sense of smell.  I'd smell cigs out of the blue.  It was weird.

[newhorizons]

Now that my eyes are bone dry and my mouth is following, the sense of smell has heightened.

[gphx]

It's late February. The other day I bought some frozen shrimp from the local grocery and, after defrosting, sat down to eat them while distracted by reading. They didn't have much taste but I ignored that because that's a problem sometimes. Around the fifth one I noticed they had the consistency of sponges. Looking at them I noticed they were pure white with none of the orange stripes I've always seem in shrimp. I smelled one and it smelled fine but then I stuck it right up to my nose and it smelled bad finally. Pulling the packaging out of the garbage I discovered they'd expired, not even the 'Sell By' but the 'Use By' date was August 2010, the summer of the year before.

Taste and smelling problems stink.

[dainbramage]

I agree with most of ya'll, it is the metallic taste I get in my mouth and I am not sure if it was my sinuses or meds. I notice don't smell things as I remember, but some bad smells are so much stronger and really bad. Sometimes I will keep smelling the bad and I look for it on myself or around me. Strong perfumes or cleaners hurt my nose and I smell it for a long time.
My nose hurts right now and my mouth is dry and my tongue is burning

[Smudge]

I hadn't realized how bad my sense of taste had gotten until I started taking Salagen two weeks ago.  Since then, it's been like going from tasting in black and white to tasting in color - or even 3D.      I'm having fun re-tasting all of my old favorites, but I'll have to be careful and not overdo it. 

My sense of smell is diminished as well, with some stronger smells burning my eyes before I actually smell them well enough to identify them.