Sense of smell weirdness

[A66eyroad]

My husband asked me to post a question about my super-duper sense of smell, and about the times when I can smell a phantom odor.

Does anyone else have this?

I can smell skunk or burning wood from miles away. One of my co-workers only washes her hair every other day and I can hardly stand to walk behind her down the hallway. One of the other girls here wears this horrible perfume called Angel that actually hurts my nose. I avoid going past her desk and I know she thinks I'm stuck up.

I can tell the difference between a wood fire outdoors and a burning house or burning leaves, even from a distance where my husband says he can't smell a thing, like if we're driving down the interstate. I can smell when the cat has walked behind the couch if I'm sitting there. I can smell someone cooking lunch in the microwave in the office kitchen, and I'm way on the other side of the building.

But then there are times when I smell something that isn't there. I can often smell what smells like an electrical fire near my desk and had a couple of the girls standing around sniffing the air like bloodhounds and nobody smelled anything. This particular smell happens only in my office and only late in the afternoons and I'm the only one who smells it, so I'm thinking it's a phantom odor.

Or I'll smell something awful and wash out all the trash cans in the house with something strong-smelling like Fabuloso and I can still smell it. It's like the smell is stuck inside my nose, I can't really explain it.

Anybody? Anybody?

[A66eyroad]

(About the cat -- I can smell the scented kitty litter smell clinging to her paws. She's not stinky.....)

[Happy]

As badly infected as my sinuses and salivary glands are, I am the same way, I can smell just about anything that cant, I know when a new bar of soap is put in the shower by someone, I can smel it from teh living room, blessing and a curse

[Carebear]

I have exactly the same experience, A66eyroad.  My smeller is so acute at times that it shocks those around me.  I used to say that I could hire my nose out to law enforcement, but I'm too sick to work these days. 

And for me, mostly in the evenings, I will smell these "phantoms".  The one consistent odour defies description...kind of like burning electrical wires mixed with rotten meat (ugh, I know it sounds terrible  ).  And it's much worse in the winter, which makes me believe that it may be due to the dryness.

[Jellyb]

Oh my gosh! Me too!

Bionic sniffer

[AprilFool]

Yes!!  I have been wondering if anyone else experiences this.  I smell a phantom odor of cigarette smoke, although there is no one in my house who is smoking.  No one ever smoked in my house.  It is annoying and weird!

[Scottietottie]

Hi 

I also have super sensitive smell - but not the phantom odour thing. I always thought it was my way of compensating for not hearing so well. I can smell when someone comes into a room. I smelt an electrical fault in the building at work and got it investigated. If it hadn't been spotted it could have resulted in a fire but no one else could smell it until they were a lot closer to it than I had been.

I never assosciated it with SjS.

Take care - Scottie 

[engy]

ok, that is hysterical because my sniffer is so sensitive & started when I was pregnant. Probably same time sjogrens started!

My hubby says I can smell a fart in the next county. haha

I can tell you some funny smell stories & all about my bloodhound nose!

Carie

[Bobbie]

Same here.  In my family we say that I can "smell colors".  Ha ha.  It is a
blessing and a curse.

Bobbie

[Autoimmunity]

One of the things (when I was on it) that leads to being extremely sensitive to smells,  just as if I were pregnant, is methotrexate.  Extremely nauseas, extremely sensitive to smells.  I know the op and some of you are not on it, but some are and that is a biiiig factor.

[irish]

I have always had an exceptional sense of smell and could smell everything and anything. I always feel like I have a "snoot full" as in congested now and sometimes I can smell very well and other times I can't.

There are times that I just can't eat meals cause I can't stand the smell of the food. I am usually ok when we go out to eat. Go figure!!

I have trouble telling if something has gotten old in the refrig so I find myself thowing out more food than I probably should. I still haven't gotten the hang of just cooking for 2 people so always end up with leftovers.

I also get those weird phantom smells and my hubby will think that I have lost my everyloving mind. I am always imaging that I smell a hot wire in the house and run around room to room checking out outlets, lamps, dryer, washing machine, the whole house. I sit on pins and needles many times just knowing that the whole house is going to burn down. Hasn't happened yet but doesn't mean that it won't.

I think the burning smell is my most common smell but also smell propane at times. When I drive the car will swear that I smell something with the engine. Check the oil level and temperature. Drives me crazy.

Guess it is part of the CNS problems that we have. There is a place in the upper nasal passage where a bunch of nerves come together (can't remember the name of it right now) and this is the area that will get affected and cause us the grief. This is also the place where bad infections can migrate up into the brain so it is always wise to make sure the sinus infections are treated.

How many of you feel like you nasal passages are so swollen that you can hardly blow your nose. I find I have to use my Astelin and steroid nasal spray in order to reduce the swelling so that my nose will drain a little bit. Have to irrigate a lot to get the mucus to move out. Irish

[newhorizons]

Tell hubby he smells like the barn animals!

My smell has expanded out of the nose and nowdays can hear a pin drop, as my hubby tells others!

Though, am imaging I hear the doorbell ring... must be imagination as when I go to door, nobody's there???

Any one elses hearing has increased or decreased?

Ain't no fun... and, to boot, I have become sensitive to the feeling of clothing on my bod. Am wearing Supima cotton. Everything else makes me itch..

One more oddity: If I want my digestive system to 'behave', I must wear some type of dress... no slacks.  In other words, nothing binding around my waistline.

Yes, I feel like one of a kind... and , a strange one at that! 
I suspect it is peripheral neuropathy doing ITS thing!  

[Danielle28]

I'm SO glad someone mentioned this. Oh my word. I will walk in the house sometimes and it's like my nose radar goes off.  I'm walking sniffing from room to room trying to figure out where the smell is coming from. It's bad when we are driving somewhere, I'll smell something from another car (like a hot smell or brakes or diesel) and I'm always scared that it's my car making the odor. 

I do have days when I can basically not smell anything though-  I get this weird real dry, numb sensation in my nose.  However, most of the time my nose is in overdrive. I have a really hard time, as someone else mentioned, smelling foods to tell if they've gone bad- like milk or yogurt-  It all smells icky to me.  The other day I thought my 5 year old had not wiped well, I was telling him how important it was to wipe properly and he kept swearing "Mommy I didn't go to the bathroom" then a little later, I smelled it again- turns out one of the dogs had gone to the bathroom outside, and that was what I kept smelling. Poor kid, but it seemed like it was coming from right where I was sitting.

[susan]

This is all fascinating! I have had the super sense of smell always and phantom smells have occurred intermittently.
Recently, during a flare this summer, my sense of hearing decreased to an alarming degree. Rheum. increased the prednisone and the hearing returned to "normal".

This summer the Sjogrens symptoms have definitely progressed for me, hoping for more stability soon!

[irish]

This was a very bad summer for people with autoimmune diseases. My immunologist and neurologist both told me that.

The stress that the heat puts on the body is very bad and this causes an increase in symptoms. I thought I would die some days with my stress and myasthenia weakness and last weekend it cooled off and by the next day I was even more improved.

Today was the best day I have had in months and months. I worked much of the afternoon and even did a couple of windows. For the first time in a long time I didn't have the weakness, muscle spasms and feelings of worms crawling in my thighs and upper arms.

I could lift the frying pan and even carried the ladder around outside. Two weeks ago I could hardly get up and down stairs and had to sit and rest a lot plus my head felt like it was full of fuss. These darn stressful moments are not good. My neuro said I will have to move to Alaska next summer and I would love to.

Good luck and remember the get as much rest as possible to help youo heal faster. When it is hot our metabolism speeds up which really makes out body race. The autoimmune disease plaaces us in high gear already as the antibodies are trying to increase and kill us off. It really is a no win situation. Irish