Hi, I'm here looking for some feedback.

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mwood6426

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Hi, I'm a 37 year old woman and I'm not diagnosed with Epilepsy, but my searches on the web have led me to this site. For the past month I have been experiencing some unusual sensory symptoms specifically my smell perception. I have not had a cold or sinus infection, however have been smelling cigarette smoke quite strongly for the past 2 weeks or more. It happens at different types of the day, early morning, mid afternoon, even late at night. My husband doesn't smell anything, we are both non-smokers, and no one smokes in my house. It is the strangest thing, it gets so overwhelming at times I feel like I want to wear a filter mask. I've made an appointment for a physical, I feel funny bringing this up to my physician without them thinking I'm crazy. Is this something that might be a symptom of seizures? Any feedback appreciated. It seems to only happen when I'm at home, and I'm usually at home with my two toddler's which can sometimes get overwhelming. Not sure if the stress is causing a smell disorder
 
Welcome to the site

Some people do smell things during a seizure but that doesn't mean that there aren't other problems that don't have the same symptom.

I would suggest you mention it to your doctor & don't worry if he thinks you're crazy (I know I am). Seriously though, I believe that if I can't be perfectly comfortable telling my doc everything then I need a new doc.
 
Have you had your nose checked to make sure? It could be worth a shot? Do you have any nausea, dizziness, muscle twitching or faint feelings at all? If not, I probably wouldn't say its seizure activity but you never know. Good luck with the doc and let us know what he/she says!
 
Hi MWood6426, welcome!

Don't feel funny about bringing it up with your doctor; it's absolutely the right thing to do. It could be nothing serious, but often phantom smells (olfactory hallucinations) can be caused by damage to tissue in the brain's olfactory system. The damage could could be related to migraines, seizures or an ENT (ear nose and throat) issue, but it could also be from by trauma (from something like a head accident), or something more serious.
 
I've had nausea, and preceding the smell comes a migraine, but I've had no past history of migraines. My head throbs typically in the front and above my neck. The smell typically lasts for a couple of minutes to 10 minutes on and off throughout the day. Sometimes it's stronger certain times than others.
 
I think I may be developing migraines, but I did have a head trauma about a year ago, I never went to the ER at the time. I had tripped in the middle of the night and went head first face forward into a wooden windowsill at 2:00am trying to get to my then newborn that had woken in the middle of the night. Long story short,almost knocked myself out from the impact, I had glasses on and sliced my upper left eyebrow open. Needless to say bled alot, woke my husband up wondering if I needed stiches. Had the injury checked by my doctor and he said I had no broken bones, and since I didn't lose consciousness I probably didn't have a concussion.(so no Mri or cat scan ordered) Maybe I injured myself more than I realized at the time. This is a new physician I have chosen to see this Friday I will bring all this up to him, I don't feel so embarrassed now hearing from some of you. My husband thinks I'm overreacting. However its scary when your sense of smell is altered and your experiencing things others around you are not.
 
Keep track of if the smell seems to be getting worse, lasting longer, or happening more frequently -- that's info your doc will want to know. And let us know how things go on Friday.
 
As luck would have it, I am also new here and I have had your experience of sensitivity to certain odors...and particularly, I have noticed heavy, smoky odors in my house though no one here is a smoker! I've also had increased sensitivity to other types of odors (a person's breath or body odor, or moldy scents in houses) that no one else seems to notice. I was told this could be due to my fibromyalgia, but I just had an EEG yesterday and the Dr. confirmed I have epilepsy. Also, smell sensitivity usually preceeded headaches. Dr. also confirmed that these headaches were probably a form of migraine that is often associated with epilepsy. Have your doctor perform EEG!
 
Sciencefan, did your sense of smell just recently come about? I've noticed the change for a least a 2 month period. I have always had a heightened sense of smell. But the smell of certain odors like heavy smoke just recently started along with headaches right after the odors. I experienced a heavy odor smell yesterday in the morning, I've been trying to keep track of the times of day when this is ocurring. An EEG is an electro encephalogram? So what are they looking for exactly when they do this? What is fibromyalgia? I also saw that possibly odor sensitivity could be due to that as well.
 
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