Hickory smoked tongue
Well, it’s back. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before but I have this strange phantom smell (also known as olfactory hallucination) that shows up now and then that settles in my nose, mouth and throat. This wonderful scent? A putrid odor spectrum ranging from campfire to cigarette smoke. The problem is it’s there no matter where I am, I’m not around smoke and no one else can smell it.
I’ve googled this extensively — so much so that after 32 pages into the results, Google assumed I must be a bot and suspended my search capabilities for an unknown period of time. Apparently they assume no one delves that deeply into search results unless you are a bot originating from Bangkok with nefarious intentions.
I was hoping to find that others have suffered the same plight as I and while they exist, they are useless to me. While many have reported to experience this, few have had any real answers from their doctors. The most common reason for phantom smells seems to be BRAIN TUMOR!!!11 but most people commenting had some sort of magnetic or other type imaging performed with negative results. And by negative I mean they didn’t find anything and not negative oh-my-God-I’m-going-to-die-type results. The most common diagnosis for phantom smells? “Uh, dunno. Guess you’re nuts. Bye!” (I’m not sure how they code that with insurance.) I did see one person mention it being indicative of sinus infection but they didn’t really elaborate. Useless bastard.
As useless as the bastard was, however, my bets are on the sinus infection. As you read last year, I have nasal issues between the CPAP, turbinates, sinuses and deviated septum. There’s lots of playground room in there for funky things to happen so I’m guessing that is the culprit. Maybe I have an infection slight enough not to knock me out but enough to cause the phantom smell?
I’ll eventually make an appointment with my ENT. I’m hoping she doesn’t give me the sideways glance. I do have a fairly recent MRI (or was it a CAT scan?) of my sinuses from the summer with no indication of any tumor so I’m not pulling out the fainting couch for this one. I’d just like it to go away. There’s nothing at all pleasant about the smell of dive bar lingering in my head. Blech.
