Secret pleasures (OK, within reason ;) )

[elisedance]

how did you guys lose your sense of smell?

Mine is fine now, but I grew up mostly without it.  I had a lot of trouble with sinus infections as a young child.  Then, to add to it, when I was 14 I got my nose broken in a basketball game.  The septum (the part that divides your nostrils) grew back wrong, completely blocking one nostril and about 90% of the other one.  I could not breathe through my nose -- if someone had tied me up and gagged me, I would have suffocated. 

When I was 25, I finally decided I'd had enough of that.  I had surgery, and they had to pretty much totally rebuild the outer part of my nose.  A bunch of cartilage was taken out; bones were broken, tissue was removed, the whole bit.  After it healed for about a month, I could really smell (and taste) for the first time in my life.  I celebrated by going on a cuisine binge, trying out as many different types of food as I could find.  I discovered that I really liked Mexican food, which I had never cared much for before.

I've had my nose operated on several times since, but nothing like that first one.  Over time, tissue grows back around the scars from the original surgery, and every few years I have to have that cut out.   It's not that big a deal; the last time I had it done with just a local anesthetic.  And it's worth it to be able to breathe, smell, taste, and sleep at night.  I still have a few weird side effects from my childhood without smell.  Every now and then, I'll wake up in the middle of the night with an olfactory hallucination that I smell smoke.  Sometimes it's so strong that I have to get up and walk around the house to convince myself that nothing is wrong.  I was really afraid of fire as a child, and I guess this is a psychic leftover from that. 

amazing story - but what (speaking of secret pleasures) about smells other than food - flowers, spring, - the scent of a lady, not to mention offensive smells  - these must have been heady experiences the first time...

[Bordertangoman]

ah yes and proust identified the link between smell and memory

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2001/06/28/313347.htm

I had a dog once who had no nose.

You may ask " then how did he smell?"

Terrible.

[Lioness]

Losing myself in the plot and words of my story and writing 4K today. I broke 10K!!!!!!!!

[samina]

Mine is fine now, but I grew up mostly without it. 

that's quite a story, cornutt! i'm glad it's returned to you now... interesting parallel between your experience and drj's! and very curious about the smoke smell. scent is such a primal trigger that can take us back to our earliest ways on such instinctive levels. i wonder what in your mind causes the smoke-smelling trigger. have you ever identified a trigger, or does it just show up seemingly out of the blue?

[drj]

Mine is fine now, but I grew up mostly without it.  I had a lot of trouble with sinus infections as a young child.  Then, to add to it, when I was 14 I got my nose broken in a basketball game.  The septum (the part that divides your nostrils) grew back wrong, completely blocking one nostril and about 90% of the other one.  I could not breathe through my nose -- if someone had tied me up and gagged me, I would have suffocated. 

When I was 25, I finally decided I'd had enough of that.  I had surgery, and they had to pretty much totally rebuild the outer part of my nose.  A bunch of cartilage was taken out; bones were broken, tissue was removed, the whole bit.  After it healed for about a month, I could really smell (and taste) for the first time in my life.  I celebrated by going on a cuisine binge, trying out as many different types of food as I could find.  I discovered that I really liked Mexican food, which I had never cared much for before.

I've had my nose operated on several times since, but nothing like that first one.  Over time, tissue grows back around the scars from the original surgery, and every few years I have to have that cut out.   It's not that big a deal; the last time I had it done with just a local anesthetic.  And it's worth it to be able to breathe, smell, taste, and sleep at night.  I still have a few weird side effects from my childhood without smell.  Every now and then, I'll wake up in the middle of the night with an olfactory hallucination that I smell smoke.  Sometimes it's so strong that I have to get up and walk around the house to convince myself that nothing is wrong.  I was really afraid of fire as a child, and I guess this is a psychic leftover from that. 

My septum was a mess, too, and having that straightened was an enlightening experience. As in I saw stars, lol. You went through all that surgery: good for you. Wasn't it amazing when the scent appeared? An entire world of sense was returned to you, and for me, it was a little overwhelming at first. I also had phantom scents, but not smoke -- chocolate! 

[samina]

I also had phantom scents, but not smoke -- chocolate! 

clearly, you had a crush on the easter bunny... or your neighbor's.

[emeralddancer]

watching old silent movies ...

[elisedance]

watching old silent movies ...

are there any new silent movies

[cornutt]

are there any new silent movies

There was Mel Brooks' "Silent Movie".  Trivia question: there was one spoken word in the movie.  Who spoke it?

[elisedance]

the cleaning woman who did not realize the mike was on?
(of course, that begs the question: why was the mike on if it was a silent movie?... but I digress )

[cornutt]

It was Marcel Marceau!   

[Bordertangoman]

It was Marcel Marceau!  

I knew that!

he said "non"

[elisedance]

It was Marcel Marceau!   

oh of course, I wish I knew that (see, now you can tell me from BTM )

[cornutt]

interesting parallel between your experience and drj's! and very curious about the smoke smell. scent is such a primal trigger that can take us back to our earliest ways on such instinctive levels. i wonder what in your mind causes the smoke-smelling trigger. have you ever identified a trigger, or does it just show up seemingly out of the blue?

I've never had a traumatic experience involving fire, so it isn't that simple.  It's probably a function of anxiety; it started during a time in my childhood when everything was going to hell (and I'll leave it at that).  Although I did once tell this to a therapist, and then she asked me if I had epilepsy.  Apparently a smoke smell illusion is a precursor of a seizure for some epileptics.  I've never had a seizure, though, and there's no history of it in the family.

[elisedance]

I think that would be temporal lobe epilepsy - the sure sense of a smell that does not exist....  as I understand it (it is outside my field) that kind of epilepsy may not cause other more characteristic symptoms like loosing ballance or consciousness...