Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Anosmia...

an⋅os⋅mi⋅a  [an-oz-mee-uh, -os-]
noun
Loss or impairment of the sense of smell (as by damage to olfactory nasal tissue or the olfactory nerve or by obstruction of the nasal passages).

Sounds like fun, eh? This is what I have been dealing with for the past 3 days (that's equivalent to 72 hours, or 4320 minutes, or 259,200 seconds if my math is correct) ....the complete inability to smell or taste ANYTHING. I am hoping this is merely a temporary side effect of whatever sick bug I've been battling for the past week, because I do not think I could handle dealing with this impairment permanently. Before this week, I had never really thought about what a difference losing one or two senses causes. Sure, I've wondered what it would be like to be deaf or blind (I think everyone has at one point in their life). I cannot, however, say that I had even once considered what it would be like to NEVER taste or smell anything. The past few days have been absolute torture as I have come to realize that life would be a very sad thing without being able to smell freshly cut flowers, or to taste sweet, juicy oranges...or smooth, velvety chocolate...even water tastes different now!! The best way I can describe this is entire experience is....it's weird...very, very weird.

After this experience, I vow never to take my senses for granted. Ever.

(Your challenge after reading this, should you choose to accept, is to go and indulge in whatever taste or aroma you enjoy most....enjoy it for me, because I have a feeling it will be a few more days before my senses of taste and smell will return).

2 comments:

  1. I hope your sense of smell returns quickly! Not fun! The only time this comes in handy is when you have to eat a food you don't like. My mom used to tell us "just plug your nose and eat it!" if there was something we didn't like! :)

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  2. I've had Anosmia for about 5 years now, I hope yours go away soon. If not, believe it or not you can adjust. you have to get into food textures and spicey hot foods help to give you something. I still have problems with the not being able to smell environmental smell like the way fall smells, the ocean, pine trees, etc. I really miss these smells. Hang in there.

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