Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Still Anosmia but some food is good

I've recently been taking a look at the types of foods that I enjoy now more than I used to since I've been suffering from anosmia. Nope..still can't smell anything.

For about 3 months I've noticed that it's definitely texture that appeals more than anything else. Crunch is good. I've always loved nuts, carrots, chips and anything crunchy but I have been eating celery like it's going out of style.

And even though I can't taste it, I always dip the celery in either hummus or sometimes peanut butter. With the peanut butter it's definitely the salty taste that is appealing to me and with the hummus I usually get the spicy type so I get some kind of heat/burn.

For a while, any type of pasta was disgusting to me. There was something about the texture that was completely unappealing. But lately, as long as I put some hot red pepper flakes on it, any type of pasta or italian dish is good.

And even though they're crunchy, apples have very little appeal. I still eat them and usually the sour Granny Smith type but it's not sour enough to make it something really enjoyable. Bananas that I used to love are now pretty much out of my mind. Again, it's something about the texture.

And that's what it's coming down to: Texture and the basic flavors of salty, sweet, sour, etc.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

First liquor, now cigars

Well, the new year has brought no relief from my "condition". Not that I was expecting to wake up on January 1 and be able to smell the coffee or anything. My little experiment with not drinking brought no change but someone said something to me over the holidays that kind of made me think.

As I think I've mentioned, I love cigars. Up until this all started I loved the taste and aroma of a GOOD cigar. But even though I haven't been able to taste one in over a year, I've continued to smoke them. Sometimes one a week, sometimes 3 but I also go on binges where I'll smoke one every night.

My brother in law mentioned how irritating smoke is to sinuses, which of course I knew, but I never figured I'd give them up and see if there's a change in my "condition". I'd go days without smoking one and never noticed any change so I figured they didn't have anything to do with it.

But if I look back to when this started back in the fall of 2005, I was pretty much smoking them non stop. Is there a connection? Is the cigar smoke causing inflammation? Will it take weeks of not smoking them to see any improvement? I'll give it a try. Hopefully it will help.