Sunday, December 02, 2007

Allergies gone but 2 years of not smelling

I have been terrible at posting lately (an understatement) but as I passed a somewhat dubious milestone in October of this year I thought it would be a great way to announce it!

It was 2 years ago, October 5th 2005 to be precise, that after years of terrible
allergies, sinus congestion and sinus infections, I lost my sense of smell and taste. My wife and I had gone to New York for a vacation and it was there that I noticed my sense of smell had disappeared. Some of the best restaurants in the world and I can't taste the food?? At least we made it through the better part of the vacation before it happened.

Well, as past readers of my Anosmia blog have read, I had subsequent nasal polyp surgery which didn't help, I'm currently in a maintenance phase of allergy shots which haven't helped (although they have done wonders for my allergies), I tried abstaining from all alcohol and cigars, I've learned to actually love nasal irrigation, have been on a steady regimine of Nasonex, Flonase, Veramyst or some other sinus spray and yet, I still cannot smell anything nor taste anything.

A dose of prednisone does bring back my sense of smell and sense of taste of course that goes along with it, but as we know, you can't live on prednisone. So the doctors (primarily my allergist) feel that there IS olfaction. It's not like a virus killed off my olfactery nerve. But why I can't smell after all this time is a mystery.

I can say that my allergies and sinus congestion has all but disappeared thanks to the allergy shots and nasal irrigation I do and I'm thankful for that at least but
I truly feel for anyone who has just developed this condition and I always try to talk with anyone who wishes to discuss it. I've learned to live with it yet still hold out hope that one day I will be able to smell.