I was very young when I underwent a series of doctor visits. I would complain daily of bad headaches and pains. I could smell things I knew I wasn't supposed to be able to smell. Things from rooms away, things in closed packages even. Often, things that had a displeasing smell to me would cause my headaches. But it could be more than a headache - it could be more than a migraine, if the smell was offensive enough my whole body was affected. My mom didn't believe me at first. After MRIs, CT scans, and many other tests I did not enjoy or understand, a doctor administered a scratch and sniff test. I finally had a diagnosis, acute hyperosmia.
Hyperosmia is a form of dysosmia in which one has extremely sensitive olfactory glands. Basically, my sense of smell is like a superhero level sense. However, I don't just have a "Super Sniffer," unfortunately, my brain scrambles many smells and the intensity of them often affects my central nervous system causing varied reactions. Pleasant smells make me feel warm and almost joyful - it feels like a soft blanket on my insides. Things I do not like the smell of cause my headaches all the way to making me feel pain in my body. While the extreme physical reactions are incredibly rare, the doctor said it is not unheard of and there is no cure.
After a series of scratch and sniff smell tests the doctor defined my scent profile. The smells that cause me pain and I need to avoid are those associated with scented cleaners. The fake scents in dishwashing liquid, ammonia, lysol, clorox, anything like that are the main offenders. The scents I can live somewhat regularly with include natural smells that aren't very strong such as flour, potatoes, tap water, etc. On the plus side, I also know the smells that cause me pleasure now: earth scents like mushrooms, clay, most raw meat and fish - things that can be described as having umami.
While there is no cure, luckily, there is a treatment. I was given a prescription and with just one pill a day my sense of smell was dulled almost to the point of not being able to smell anything and all my headaches and pains went away. After beginning the prescription, my whole life changed for the better. I went from being in pain all the time to being normal. I could make it through a school day. I could go places and to friends' houses. It was literally life-changing.
It could be kind of a bummer having virtually no sense of smell, but no ability to smell certainly beat the extremes that I had experienced before the prescription. Several years went by and it just became normal to take a pill every morning and never really smell anything. One summer week with my best friend things changed.
I played baseball and ran Cross-Country with David, my best friend. We were in our senior year, 18, and both varsity. The summer of 2004 my parents were going abroad and they arranged for me to stay at David's house because they were worried I'd throw a party if they left me home alone, even though I was technically an adult at 18.. We stayed at each other's house all the time, I figured this time wouldn't be any different.
I noticed a change in my ability to smell on day 3. I immediately realized I had not taken my prescription in 2 days and I didn't have it with me. I drove to my vacant house, but it was not there either. I must have misplaced it when packing. I looked everywhere and couldn't find it. I couldn't reach my parents. I went back to David's and told him I'm not sure what to do.
"It's a pill to stop you from smelling stuff. It can't be that big of a deal." David said.
"You don't understand. When I was kid, the smells would be so unbearable I'd have migraines. My body would physically hurt. It isn't just that I have incredible super smelling - my brain interprets the smells in a way that affects my sense of touch." I tried to explain.
"It has been years, right? How do you know you still have a problem? Maybe you remember it worse than it was. Either way, you have like 5 days left before your parents can get you another prescription." David reasoned.
"I guess you're right. If it starts to get bad maybe I can explain to your parents I'll have to stay at home for the last few days because I think my parents still try to keep the house void of the bad smells. I can already tell my sense of smell is coming back. I can smell your shampoo from here." I said with a grimace.
"That's the good stuff!" David said.
"No, you don't understand. Artificial scents are the worst. They are the ones that cause me pain. On the flip side though, earthy scents cause me to feel comfort." I explained.
"Let me get this straight, it would be better for you if I smelled like dirt than soap?" He asked seeming somewhat interested.
"Correct! All detergent, soap, cleaners, etc. are very painful - natural scents that are muted are kind of neutral to me - natural scents that are described as like earthy, woody, musky, umami, etc. cause me to feel physical pleasure." I really needed him to understand this.
"Pleasure? Like how?" Dave becoming increasingly interested.
"It's hard to explain. It would feel like my insides being tickled maybe." I was straining to think back years and put an abstract into concrete words.
"Like cumming?" David asked and he gave me a super weird look. "Imagine smelling dirt and you get the feeling of jerking off but you don't have to actually jerk off or cum or anything. You just get the sensation with none of the other parts?!" He was super excited.
"You're fucked up man. It's not like that and even if it were, I wouldn't want that." I said.
"Please. Do it for me. I just want to know. I'll rid my room of all smells that will cause you pain. I'll stop showering with soap. I'll do everything I can for you. Then you smell some dirt or leaves or whatever and tell me if it makes you want to blow a load. It's for science. Then your parents get back and you're all back to normal." Dave said.
"I don't have much of a choice I guess, but you're going to be very disappointed." I chuckled. Truth was though, I didn't know and David had me wondering. My sense of smell was growing by the minute it seemed like. If I focused, I felt like I could smell 100 things in his room that I couldn't when I woke up that morning.
An hour later we were still going through things in his room and the connected bathroom. He had already removed all the cleaners from under the bathroom sink, the soap in the shower and at the sink, the shampoo, and the mouthwash. Not just the toothpaste, but also his toothbrush had to go - I could smell it from across the room and the minty smell wreaked havoc with me. Luckily, since my teen friend was the only one who used that bathroom and was in charge of cleaning it - it most certainly was not kept in the cleanest state and there were no strong traces of cleaning agents from any recent scrubbing.
We had stripped the sheets and blankets from his bed and hung them up outside to try to get the detergent and fabric softener scents out before nightfall. We did the same with his futon mattress in his room which is what I usually slept on when staying the night at his house. We carried his chest of drawers out into the den because the scent from the detergents in his drawers of clean clothes was like a concentrated scent explosion to me. The few minutes it took to move the chest of drawers was almost too much to bear. "Are you okay," he asked me as we returned to his room.
My eyes had filled with tears, being so close to all his clean clothes for a few minutes was horrific. "Dude, I think I am back to like full sense of smell and just those few minutes with that much of a detergent smell is literally like knives to my brain, eyes, and like everywhere really. I am not going to make it. I think I might have to go to the hospital and they will see my medical history and get me my prescription." Just then my knees started to give out. I got dizzy and went down to the floor. I could feel myself start to shake. The pain was excruciating.
I could hear the fear in David's voice. "Calm down, try to focus and clear your nose. Can you pinpoint a scent that helps? Like something in the room that has the good effect and focus on it? I'll text my dad to let him know we're going to the hospital - can you hear me?!"
I opened my eyes. "There! Take off your shoes!" I screamed at David.
"I called 911. I think you like passed out for like 20 seconds. Listen to me, you're going to be fine. Just keep breathing. 911 is on the line and they said to just keep breathing and stay calm."
David was kneeling on the floor beside me, I could smell something amazing and I was trying to hone in on it. "Take off your shoes." I yelled while reaching toward his feet.
"Stay calm J. They are on the way." He said back to me clearly just in a state of freaked out and not really listening to me.
"I am calm, David. I'm getting better. Listen to me, give me your shoes." I said finally making eye contact with him through my watery eyes. He finally understood me.
"Yeah. Yeah whatever helps man." David said as he pried the Nike high top off not bothering to untie the old shoe he mostly wore around the house for chores.
I snatched it from him and buried my face into the shoe. I fully inhaled with all my might. It was the best smelling thing I could even remembering ever smelling. "Oh fuck!" I screamed. I can't describe how fucked up the feeling was going from excruciating pain to almost complete euphoria. My body began to shake again but this time it felt good. "Thanks David. I am good. It is so good." I said into the shoe, not bothering to look up at him. I could hear sirens - the paramedics were pulling up front. I sat up keeping the entrance to the shoe tightly sealed around my nose and mouth. I slid it down far enough to be able to see in front of me and there was my lifelong best friend with the most bewildered look I could ever imagine. The struggle his brain was having trying to reconcile how his old, smelly shoe was saving my life had smoke pouring from his ears.
David's dad along with 2 paramedics walked into the room and were obviously confused as well. I was holding the shoe to my face and held up my free hand in a stop motion to keep everyone back. "Stop. Stop walking toward me. Listen to me. I have a condition called hyperosmia and my brain does not interpret the smells correctly. I have been off my medication for three days. I know this looks messed up, but the smell of this shoe drowns out the smells that, for lack of a better way of putting it, I am allergic to. Detergents, soaps, fake fruit scents, things like that destroy me. I need to get my prescription and I'll be fine, but I can't get ahold of my parents in Europe. So, is there anyway you can just call my doctor, have him call in my prescription as an emergency? I don't need to go to the hospital now. I have it under control right now, I am just afraid to remove the shoe until I get my prescription." I explained - I thought it all sounded perfectly reasonable.
One of the paramedics introduced himself and said, he was worried that I might go into anaphylactic shock if I am that allergic and thought it best to take me to the hospital. He began approaching me, "No. Stop!" I yelled through the shoe. If you have on strong deodorant or some other scent - you'll mess me up. Just stay back for now. I have it under control. Can you just call my doctor and figure out how to get my prescription?"
"This is a completely new one for me." He laughed. Everyone seemed to be pretty calm and seeing the levity in the situation where I had to hold a shoe to my face. "Let me call my supervisor and see what we should do."
