Ignore the bird! Follow the river!

[mrissa]

Sometimes dealing with the world via a sensitive nose is not the best thing in the world. For about a week now, smelling things has nauseated me. Yes, things. Perfectly good foods, but also other things around the house. Trash bags. Newsprint. (Thankfully, not books.) Crayons, oh Lordy Lord, crayons. (I like the smell of crayons. But then, I like the smell of chili, too, and it doesn't bear thinking about right now.)

Usually I'm fairly big on listening to the body, because I'm not a dualist, so if I'm hungry, playing games about who is in control is silly, because it's all me and the bits that think they're not hungry are going to suffer soon enough if the bits that are don't eat. Eat when you're hungry, sleep when you're tired, move around when you're restless: these seem like fairly good policies, especially if you've learned to pay attention to what "hungry" actually means and not just "accustomed to eating." This week, it's been extremely difficult, because the body cues are telling me not to eat anything at all because it's all rotten and horrible and will make me sick, and then they segue into indicating that while simultaneously indicating that if I don't eat something right now, I will fall over. One would think that it would be polite to put a space between those things, but no. We go straight from food-averse to having hypoglycemic moments, with overlap, and the overlap is just not fair. And about half the time, having something to eat when I suspect I would otherwise want to is a good and settling thing, and the other half, it's horrid. So listening to the body sounds a lot better in theory than it's working out to be in practice here.

All this started with my period, and I had hopes that it would go away with my period. It did not. (I've also had spotting and cramping, oh, la la la yay.) My mom says that sometimes her hormones and her nose do this to her, too, so at least it's "normal." Unpleasant. But normal, and also more or less explained.

Those of you who are not yet 26: 26 sucks for hormones. It's like 14 but worse. If someone gives you a chance to do 25 twice and then skip on to 27, take them up on it. Really.

So I don't know what to do here. The timing seems to indicate that it isn't that I have a contagious virus, it's just various bodily systems being nasty. But I'm deeply cranky about it, and especially about not knowing when it will go away.

Comments

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I don't have as sensitive a nose as yours is, it seems, but I'm more sensitive than the average. At my last job, we had two small dorm fridges for putting lunches and things in, and something had gone bad in one and perfumed it horribly and made plastic bottles in it smell nauseatignly bad to me, such that I could not drink a soda from a plastic bottle that had been in there. Nobody else could tell there was anything wrong with it, and I spent part of one day marching a plastic bottle around to my coworkers demanding they smell it to prove that I wasn't crazy and of course nobody else could smell anything on this bottle that was making me sick. At least we had the other fridge, and I used that one exclusively despite the "FILM ONLY!" sign on the door. (Nobody else paid attention to the sign, either.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't ask anybody but my mom to verify smells for me any more. There's just no point to it for me. Either I'm very sure of what I smell, or I'm very sure other people aren't going to be able to smell it.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Yuck. I've had those straight-from-one-to-the-other moments, but at least I haven't gotten them with overlap. Or at least not for long. That sounds sort of what I used to get often, around or a little after lunchtime, which is why it took me a long time to realize that for me, caffeinated coffee in the morning was the culprit. If yours happens at a usual time, could there also be some food or drink trigger? (This sounds less likely if it goes on all day.)

That sensitive nose could be a problem when you do go and get pregnant - or maybe people who start out that way have the opposite effect? Good thing your mom has the same nose (and it sounds like you take after her physically otherwise) so at least she can give you some clue on what to expect.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yah, unfortunately Mom says I can expect more of the same if I take after her side, which seems likely from the data we have so far.

And yah, it's been going on all day for several days straight, and I haven't consistently had any one thing in particular.

[seagrit.livejournal.com]

Ummm, so what's particularly nasty about 26 (or 26 5/6 as the case may be)? Just in case I notice something in the next couple months, it would be nice to blame it on 26 rather than myself. :) Also, how do you know 27 will be better?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't, which is why I proposed doing two 25s instead of two 27s or just skipping to 27.

I wouldn't blame 26 if several of my friends who are older than that hadn't chimed in sheepishly awhile back saying, yah, they had similar hormonal roller coasters at this age. But really, roller coaster is the best word for it: UP! DOWN! UP! DOWN! My doctor said the Pill ought to help smooth it out if anything would, but she said clearly it hadn't in my case.

[gaaldine.livejournal.com]

To defend the poor, besieged age 26, I will vouch for having had a hormonally-sane year. Same for 27. And 25 for that matter.

[seagrit.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reassurance. If anything, I would probably encounter the hormonal unbalance at age 30, as I've always been a late-bloomer. :)

By the way, I friended you; I hope you don't mind. I'm fairly confident I've actually met you at least once.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You have indeed met her.

[gaaldine.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the delay in response. I don't mind, and yes, we have met. There was that whole witnessing the Mark and Marissa marriage thing (and the wearing of blue dresses to look pretty in photos). *grin*

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh, brag brag brag.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I know how you feel. My sense of smell is always unusually sensitive, but it goes completely over the top as a symptom of some kinds of migraine aura. (Worse, another kind of migraine/seizure aura is *hallucinating* smells that aren't there at all. I often can't tell if I'm hallucinating a moldy smell or if I'm actually detecting mold other people can't perceive.) It's occasionally useful. At outdoor concerts, it's easy for me to tell who's wearing insect repellent, when I'm deciding where to sit. And I can detect a lot of migraine triggers in food by smell.

Last year, I tried taking SAM-e. It's supposed to be good against depression and joint pain, but it made my sense of smell so much *more* hypersensitive I had to stop taking it. I couldn't find any documentation of that side effect, but the connection was very clear for me.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I think the tests for new meds probably pay very little attention to that kind of side effect, because it doesn't make very much difference to most people. It's just that for some of us, it's a huge quality of life issue. I really have no idea how people navigate the world without processing that those people are wearing something DEET-based and those other people over there have let their picnic salads sit out too long and so on.

Happily, my migraine aura smells are kind of bright and shiny and pleasant. They're the only pleasant thing about my (thankfully rare) migraines, except for the amazing sleep I get afterwards.

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

I've heard the same thing about the age of 26. I was pregnant most of that year, so my data is not very good, but I did notice hormonal changes after the pregnancy. (Of course, one would.)

Speaking of pregnancy, are you positive you aren't? (Actually, no need to answer that question, here...) Birth control fails sometimes, and weird periods, spotting, nausea, and odor sensitivity are also pregnancy symptoms. A large proportion of pregnant women have some kind of bleeding. Might want to pee on a stick just to be sure, hon. And if you've been taking antibiotics, run, don't walk, to the nearest pharmacy for a home pregnancy test. A good friend of mine got preggers because a course of antibiotics screwed up her birth control. She then proceeded to have *two* periods while pregnant. Life is strange. (They are supposed to tell you about the antibiotic thing when they prescribe bcp's, but I've never been warned of it and no one else I know has, either.)

If you're not pregnant, the spotting and nausea would certainly warrant a visit with the doctor. Perhaps something can be done. Good luck!

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

Oh, and cramps happen with pregnancy, too! :-)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I will pull Dr. porphyrin aside at some point. It's very useful to have a doctor for a close friend: she can help you sort things into categories. Mine are "totally normal, mention it next time you're in, get an appointment soon, and go in for urgicare."

I know about antibiotics and birth control, but without giving many details, let's say I'm pretty sure I'm not pregnant, yes.

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

Nice to know I have something to look forward to in a couple of months.

My nose pulled that recently, on a smaller scale--it decided olive oil was the enemy, and any whiff of olive oil would result in my stomach doing some sort of two-step dance. It decided this while I was in an Italian restaurant.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Just don't say I didn't warn you.

I'm a little nervous about dinner for that very reason. I'm really looking forward to the company, and the restaurant sounds divine, but it's a fish place. I love fish. Um. I love olive oil, too, and yet I'm devoting a fair amount of processor power to not thinking of the smell of olive oil just now.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

I feel like a deaf person reading a conversation about music.

I was dropped on my nose as an infant and don't notice most smells at all. (I have learned to distinguish the scent of fresh popcorn.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

In our society, people generally react strangely when I ask them how they've learned to cope with that, so I won't. It's a very different world from mine, though.

Occasionally I can now look back on events in my past and think, "Oh, I was processing scent data that Person X didn't have." I try to be more aware of it now.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

The process of learning to recognize how an olfactory sense - or lack thereof - affects my experiences is interesting to me. There's a lot I miss that people with normal scent perception take for granted, but there's also a lot that other people just ignore because of unspoken societal rules - so that my inability is not quite as odd or as much of a disadvantage to me as if I were some kind of animal that depends on its nose to find food. (I can read labels, and I know what wholesome food looks like.)

Still; It can be a real disadvantage in some social situations. I can 'lose track of myself' in a crowd and start feeling very vulnerable and defensive; I think a tacit awareness of one's own scent is important in more ways than I can identify.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It can be a plus or a minus for feeling vulnerable and defensive. Very few healthy human body odors feel like an attack to me, but there are some unhealthy ones (meth users, oh my heavens) who smell "unsafe" and who usually smell strongly enough to feel like they are "in my space" even when they aren't within arm's reach. Even when they've left the room, actually, if the smell is strong enough.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. Maybe Meth does something to human biochemistry that hits some instinctive button for 'threat.' You may be more aware of it than most others, but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people tense up in the same situation without really noticing that they are reacting.

There's a clear connection between scent and emotion - I get it mostly by working backwards from the emotion to guess at the chemistry behind it. I once got furiously angry near a passing horse that shied and reared for no other apparent reason than that it picked up the scent of my anger. I wasn't doing anything else (not moving, not speaking, not even looking in its direction) that it might have picked up on. Mysterious invisible forces.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

Somehow or other I missed friending you when you friended me so I'm catching up. I've been having weird food stuff lately too. I can't tie it to smells, but much food, even stuff I've loved deeply for years, seems revolting -- even the thought of it. I've been pretty much living on buttered toast and macaroni and cheese for the last couple of weeks. I'm hoping it's a hormonal thing (I'll be 53 soon) that will soon change again.

MKK

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I hope it will, too! I sympathize greatly.

Toast revolted me last week, which seems deeply unfair, but toast is not my default sick food. Grape Nuts is. (Are?) So that worked out, I guess. One of the frustrating things about timprov's health problems is that he doesn't have a default sick food, so we're left casting about rather aimlessly for one: "Stir-fry? How about Kraft dinner? Cereal? Stroganoff?" etc.