Get plugged in!

Hello again I thought I'd try being a bright spark, get it, bright spark, plugged in.....ok maybe not!! Remember me saying in my last post that I would do some research into nose plugs?
Well somebody I know on an Anosmic Community website I'm a member of,  said, why don't you make one yourself......em I mentioned this to my husband, oh what the hell, why am I keeping this quiet, his name is Ruck. Cool eh!
Anyway I digress. He looked at me in astonishment and said 'what, are you joking?' So I kind of thought well I suppose it is a bit too much to ask, but you never know.
So.....I decided I'd carry on with my research.

Ok so nose plugs......we have nose plugs for swimmers, nose plugs for athletes, nose plugs for snorers, (Ruck could do with some of those!), and nose plugs for nosebleeds. Guess what no nose plugs for Parosmics, unbelievable, in fact when I put it in the search engine, it came up with nose plugs for insomniacs!

Anyway, as you can see that was no help at all, look at the skinny bugger above, (or starting to get that way anyway). In fact I'm even more skinny now ugh, I probably should have put this photograph in the 'Skinny little me' post but I couldn't work out how to upload photographs at the time!
Oops I'm digressing again! So no joy there. Nagged at Ruck a second time, and once he saw where my research had led me, he actually said he'd look into making a nose plug after all.  He's good with his hands, you know!!
Hmm so how?  What about clipping it on the side of your nose, so it looks like a nose ring then the plug part of it which is in your nostril, cant be seen.  It just makes you look like a rock chick or rock god depending on who wears it, and how rock an roll would an older person look with a fake nose ring?  What I'd be a good advert for the older person, thanks!
Do you guys have any ideas? Let me know if you do, but, be warned I might pinch them. See you next post.

P.S. If you find that you get this blog posted on your Social Media or privately 100 million times (ok a slight exaggeration), its not that I'm holding a gun to your head saying read this or else! It's just because I'm still working out how to post this to everyone once only instead of pressing any old buttons.  I'll get there just bear with me.

Nobody nose.

I've just realised something that I haven't told you guys about.  It's crazy because it's a really big part of my life now!

Finger against the nose thing......you're probably thinking what? I think the reason I forgot to tell you is that it's become a routine I go through every day.  A bit like washing I suppose, actually nothing like washing, (which I do a lot of these days just in case.....see blog number five for that one)! Let me tell you what I mean.
When this all started my sister bought me an amazing book called 'Season To Taste'. About a women who got Anosmia due to head trauma in a car accident she was involved in.  At the time I didn't want to read it, but in the end I forced myself to, and even though it was very close to home and made me cry a bit it was also a real eye opener as I was going through so many identical things.
In one episode of the book she was talking to an expert in smell deprivation who after doing some tests, said that she may be suffering from Anosmia and Parosmia at the same time, and you couldn't tell unless you smelt from one nostril then the other to see if there was any difference.

Anyway it was quite a revelation when I tried this out as it is exactly what I have, When I pressed down my left nostril I could smell nothing from my right, and so taste nothing either, but when I did it the other way round, pressing down my right nostril, all that I could smell and taste from my left was disgusting  I'm still doing that now it seems to help a bit, what a complex life I lead!  I'm considering trying to plug my left nostril up, (the Parosmic one). Maybe I'll try a nose plug as long as I don't breath it in and choke. Or maybe my husband could invent a nose plug for Parosmics, he could patent it and make a fortune.
Sorry I'm not making light of this at all, but it would be a good thing to have for Parosmics.  I'm sure there must be something out there. I'll let you know.

Share and Share alike!

I'd like to tell you about my husband.......he is so generous that sometimes he lets me share his nose.  I know it sounds crazy, but think about it ....there's a towel that I haven't washed for a bit, or my lovely slob out jumper that I wear all the time.  Well I don't know if they need washing, I cant smell them. So this is where my husbands nose comes in handy! I am constantly asking him 'does this need a wash, do I need a wash?' (Only joking I still know my hygiene)!  What is that horrible, remember my Parosmia, smell in the air? Because I know there's something there, and I want to know its true smell! It's frustrating not to naturally be able to do these things on my own, as when he's out, I have no way of knowing. I feel very vulnerable sometimes, if I forgot to switch the gas hob off, I wouldn't be able to smell it on my own, or if there was a fire I wouldn't be able to smell the smoke.

He has also become a natural at taste testing, as I still attempt to cook oh dear!  The thing is I don't forget how to cook I just have to make sure I don't over do it, with the chilli for example, or how much salt, cumin, herbs, garlic I put in. I'm sure you get the picture! I have since however made a rather enlightening  discovery. The Allium family ( no not Adams family), of vegetables, are awful for me to eat as my parosmia kicks in big style. Onion, garlic, spring onions, chives, the lot, l now can't stand! The problem is also that so many things have onion powder in that I now have to cook from scratch carefully!! Otherwise I'd never eat anything savoury again. But at least now I know one of the triggers, so its avoidable.

My amazing, supportive husband is the only one who can be there to help me with all these situations, as he has to live with it day to day.  Hats off to ya honey xx

Skinny little me

Before all of this happened I was fit, had a good healthy body weight and looked pretty good if I do say so myself. Then wham! Food smelled and tasted disgusting, I felt sick even when I looked at it because I knew it would be unbearable. So I simply stopped eating!

Then the weight started to come off, slowly at first because there was plenty of muscle for my body to eat away on.  Then my clothes started to get loose, I got bony, had no energy then ended up in A&E with such low blood sugar that I collapsed. My doctor slowly realised it was getting serious when I lost one and a half stone in the space of a few months. My body was starting to shut down, I was literally starving myself to death.  Oops a bit melodramatic here I think, but it was very scary not just for me but lovely husband and family.

I was put on Complan a nutritional dietary supplement, to help me gain weight. But there was this little thing buzzing around in my head by now, telling me if I start drinking this stuff all the time I'll get too fat. Not a good way to think when you're already too skinny. And do you know what woke me up and made me smell the roses not!!  My horrible stretchy skin from muscle loss and when my husband said my boobs had gone, and considering they used to be quite ample that was a bit of a shock, and the fact that my lack of muscle there made them look like cows udders!! Aaaannd that I now looked my age or older when anybody I know always thought I was a good few years younger than I actually was.
How ridiculous that it took my vanity rather than my health to realise how ill I actually was.  I took a good look in the mirror and staring back at me was this scrawny fu....  k up women who was not only ruining her own life but also the lives of her loved ones.
So you'll probably stop reading at this point and think how stupid and selfish I was, and actually I would agree with you I'm ashamed to say.  Psychologically my head was turning to mush and I became very depressed, and physically I was a mess.
Break time now folks.....the next post will be a bit more positive I hope!