To be fair, I’ve always had a sensitive nose. I am the designated family sniff-checker when it comes to milk drinkability. I’m the reigning champion of the refrigerator game “Safe or Salmonella.” So this isn’t technically a new gift.
But it kind of is. Somehow, over the past few weeks, this gift has dialed up to 11 and I can tell when the refrigerator door is open when I’m not even in the kitchen. I can smell things from across the house. If it has an aroma and it’s in the house, I’m smelling it, good or bad. For every donut and poptart I can sniff, there’s a dirty sock or mildewed towel. Which, I realize, makes it sound like we eat all the time and never do laundry but we have a teenager.
Even weirder is that I’ve noticed when the disease is active, my hair smells different. It’s not a great different, either. Nobody wants to buy the shampoo I’m selling, if you know what I mean.
I spent an entire afternoon asking my husband and son to sniff the top of my head. That was a really long afternoon. They insisted they couldn’t smell anything, and I insisted on wiping down the couch cushions and washing my pillowcases in scalding water. They began leaving the room as soon as I entered… it was not fun. After much pestering, my husband finally said “It just smells dry.” Dry.
I wonder if anyone else experiences this, or if it will go away after a while as I adjust to medication. Or maybe I’m just losing my mind. That’s a strong possibility.
Either way, I may need to make myself a cape.
