How good is your sense of smell? If it isn’t that great like mine, what has been the funniest instance when you mistook a hideous smell for that of a pleasant one? I would love to be able to appreciate fragrant smells more completely but I can’t tell you the many times I thought night blossoming flowers smelled like cat pee or a delicious beef stew that smells just like dog food to me. Also, I cringe to the times I followed the smell of freshly made quesadillas to the location of my beautiful daughter’s freshly tossed-in-the-closet shoes (eeeek!).
On the up side, I can keep unpleasant odors away very easily by breathing through my mouth and not having lingering effects afterward. However on the downside, when one of those hideous smells tricks its way into my nose, I can’t get rid of it for a long period of time. Once I thought my husband was warming up tortillas only to find out smoke from my neighbor’s cigarettes was blowing through the window. I ended up smelling cigarette smoke for days! No kidding. I almost had an anxiety attack when my trusty google medical search told me I probably had a brain tumor.
There are times when I definitely don’t trust what I smell. When the source is dubious, I quickly switch to breathing through my mouth. It may sound weird, but it works just fine for me.
TyroCharm 
For the most part, I have an excellent sense of smell. I smell things earlier and easier than my family and friends.
But for some reason, I often confuse roast beef in the oven with baking yellow cake. Weird.
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I’m a sweets kind of person, I would cry if I found roast beef instead of cake in the oven. lol
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I’m the same way too, I have a very sensitive nose and once it’s in? Yep! It stays :O
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Mostly bad odours, though. lol
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Gotta smell something nice immediately after, take a BIG whiff of it XD
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Ah, see? If I do that, I get a headache. I prefer to just ride it out.
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ah right sensory overload, that can get too much :O
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I think it may have been the blow to the head when I fell off a horse as a kid, but my sense of smell is better left somewhere else – I have to trust the word of others, because I always get it wrong! I pretend I know what they’re talking about, I nod in all the right places, and I try to remember, but the ability to smell is gone, and all I can do is imagine …
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I don’t know if you struggle with this, I don’t mean to be insensitive but from some of the things I have smell, I do believe you are so much better off!
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Sometimes I agree, but the world is made up of senses, six of them, and when one is missing and people say that one of the other senses will kick in and be stronger – well, I’m still waiting. Bad eyesight, bad hearing, lack of taste (associated with sense of smell), don’t realise sometimes that what I want to touch is giving me warning signs from a stink – just a little of the sense would be good. Just a tiny, little smidge, a 2% sense of it – pleeeeeaaaase.
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I agree, a little bit would be better. In that sense
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I agree, a little bit would be better. Do you remember any smells from before the accident, have they all faded out completely?
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faded … into all such memories prior to 5yo …
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I have a cousin who also had an accident and lost all sense of smell. He said long ago that the hardest part to adjust to was when someone around him farted and everyone thought it was him because he wouldn’t even flinch.
As humorous as that may seem, I’m sure it’s not all funny. Besides feeling left out of conversations, is there anything else that was difficult for you to adjust, or were you so young it just sort of blended into your daily life?
I don’t mean to be nosey, I just find your story interesting. Feel free to change the topic or just say bye.
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Imagine seeing the most wondrous feast laid out on the table – but you get no sense of it because there’s no smell; imagine the same scene in the kitchen preparing the food, and if it were me cooking, would I put the ‘bad’ food into something? Would I poison everyone? I don’t cook anything I haven’t picked or grown myself for that reason. How can I trust that I won’t kill the people I love because …
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There is a certain brand of orange spice tea I tried once. It smelled so much like cat pee that I just couldn’t drink it. It actually had a good taste but that smell…. it was just too much like the litter box of a tom cat!
I had to laugh about your google search telling you you had a brain tumor. Once a squirrel died up in our attic. I smelled it two full weeks before any of the men in this house ( a husband and two tween sons) smelled it! I thought I was going crazy and diagnosed myself with a brain tumor too! I was ready to vacate the house and move when my men finally started to smell it!
I enjoyed your post!
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Thank you for sharing your near death experience. I talk about little pieces of my life hoping other people can relate. You made my day, I can totally relate to your self diagnostic methods. lol
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One of these days I will learn NOT to google symptoms! Scares the crap out of me every time!
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Diddo. lol
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And what is it about flowers smelling like cat pee? Seriously, nature should not play dirty games like that. I’m beginning to think unicorn poo is not all glitter and rainbows.
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Haha!
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I’ve never looked at it that way before. I don’t think people at large are familiar with anxiety as a result of the loss you experienced. Honestly, before your comments, my impression was more of an inconvenience rather than a real issue you have to deal with on an everyday basis. I’m not sure that my cousin really wanted to share what he felt so he always put humor into the little anecdotes he told. Your thoughts are enlightening. Thank you so much for sharing!
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You also reminded me of a time when I was cooking pork. I was alone at home with my small children and since I don’t like the way it smells when meat is boiling, I tried to stay away for a while. When my husband came home, he nearly puked from the bad smell I the house. I was cooking pork meat that was already spoiled. To me, it always smells bad anyway, but I did not catch the decree of foulness my husband described. If my husband had an arrived, I would have been none the wiser feeding spoiled meat to my little kids at the time.
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