Joined: 22 Mar 2005 Posts: 1 Location: Salt Lake City
I Smell Cigarettes All the Time And I Don't Smoke. Posted: 03-22-05 01:02am
I mentioned this to my doctor about 4
months ago. He said he wanted to explore
this further in the future. I'd like to
check back with him but i'm out of the
insurance loop at this time. So i'm
trying to find out how rare this ailment
is. And what info is out there.
I can be anywhere. I smell, what to me is
cigarette smoke. Nobody else senses this.
I'm 40lbs over weight, blood pressure is
moderate to high, and I use about 4 to 5
advil a day for joint and foot pain. I'm
relatively active. And I had to have
cataract surgery one year ago. Oh and I
have heartburn more than 2 days a week.
Any ideas what this is called? Where can
I go to do more research? My searches are
too general and I can't sift through all
that info for one possible tidbit. Help
please.
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citab
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 29 Mar 2005 Posts: 3 Location: Utah
Slc Also Posted: 03-29-05 16:01pm
I have the same problem, I went to the doc
and found that I had broncaitis. This has
only been a problem for a week for me.
Don
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gtaz21
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 07 Apr 2005 Posts: 2 Location: Los Angeles
I Smell Smoke Too Posted: 04-08-05 00:22am
About a month ago, I began to smell smoke
all the time throughout the day. I smell
it right now. Sometimes it feels as if my
eyes are stinging or are about to water
like when you are in a smoky place.
However, there is no smoke. I tell my
wife about it every once in a while. I've
told my mother and father about it.
I smell it at home in all rooms. I smell
it outside at home. I smell it at the
gym. I smell it at work which is 25 miles
away on the other side of some hills. I
smell it by the beach. I smell it when I
eat. This has never happened to me before
in my life. I am 40. I am in great
shape. I have never smoked, never taken
non-prescription drugs. I do not have any
diseases that I know of. I workout four
times a week.
This began about a month ago. I have been
having a bad time with my allergies since
january. I was very sick for about a
month in late january to late february. I
got a bloody bad sinus infection that kept
receding and coming back because I kept
getting one cold or virus after another
(five in all!) over a period of six weeks.
Finally, I went to the doctor in early
march and got some antibiotics for what he
called "a very bad sinus infection." I
took a z-pac and it knocked it out almost
immediately. Shortly after I was well, I
began to smell smoke.
When I asked others if they smelled it,
they said that they did not. This has
concerned me, but I have been hoping it
would go away. Tonight, my wife was very
close to my nostrils when I was breathing
out and she reacted very surprised and
said that she smelled smoke coming out of
my nose. She was shocked. She smells it
anytime she is close to me. She is
worried. She found this forum and I
joined because I am becoming more
concerned that it will not go away and
that there is something wrong.
I do not have bronchitis. I am wondering
if maybe there is a secondary fungus or
mold infection in my sinuses that is
causing the smell. Now, at least, I know
it is not just a condition that is
confined to my nervous system, that I just
think I smell smoke. Since my wife smells
it coming out of my nostrils, something
physical is causing it.
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hgee155
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 24 Jun 2005 Posts: 1 Location: orlando, fl
Smoke Odor Is Driving Me Nuts Posted: 06-24-05 16:06pm
I have been smelling this smoky cigarette
odor for the last week, I mentioned it to
my doctor the other day and he completely
brushed it off like I was imagining
things. I had been sick with a cough and
sore throat for a few weeks and now this
odor thing. S :?: :?: ometimes it feels
like my eyes are burning also. Its
really starting to bother me to the point
where I cannot sleep at night due to the
horrible smell. Does anyone else have the
same problem or a solution?, I appreciate
your comments or suggestions
|
bajagranny
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 2
Smelling Smoke Posted: 07-01-05 09:55am
I have been smelling smoke for several
months and thought it was something in the
environment like a neighbor smoking
outside. It isnt. I began to joke
w/friends about it because no one else
smells it. Then I decided to see if
anyone else was experiencing this weird
thing. Was I shocked to find this
forum.
So what is going on? Does anyone know for
sure?
It seems lots of us have a history of
sinus, bronchitis and respiratory
problems. How about brain disorders?
Anyone checked it out. I am smelling the
smoke as I write this.
I am going to call a doctor but expect to
be patronized.
It was a total fluke to do a search on
this subject & I can't believe that
there are others experiencing the same
thing & it is on a message board. I
first thought that maybe I was smelling
something in the air, then maybe something
was wrong with me. Could I smell
disease? I smell it right now & my
eyes burn as if someone is smoking outside
& it is filtering inside. Nobody in
my family smokes. I was'nt sure if it
was a cigarette smell as it did not have
that stinky flair only smokey. The last
time it occurred which was a few months
ago, I did not have the burning eyes. I
can cover my mouth & nose & not
smell it. It seems as if it is in the
air constantly. Mostly at my house
though & nobody else smells it.
Since this is occuring again within the
last 2 weeks or so & more constant, I
thought that it must be environmental as
my eyes are now burning along with the
smell. Call me crazy, but I am beginning
to wonder if it is a spiritual reality
thing. Got any better ideas? :?: any
thoughts or answers pleeeeeze!
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Eddie1979
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Posts: 1
Posted: 08-15-05 21:07pm
I keep smelling cigarette smoke too,
nobody around me is smoking. I get
fairly painful headaches at least once a
week to. The headaches i've always had
but the smoke thing is new and I dunno
what the heck is going on. Anyone solve
this?
|
mamadex
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 16 Aug 2005 Posts: 1
Smelling Burning Posted: 08-16-05 09:28am
Ok, this is really weird. I am also not
sure if the smell is cigarettes, but it is
definitely a burning smell and my eyes
also sting. The smell for me does not
appear to be around me or in the room, but
actually inside my nose! I have a
history of chronic, unexplained cough
(many years) and it has been worse since
this smell started (about 3 days ago). I
had not even considered calling a doctor
and only this morning entertained the idea
that maybe it was the "symtom" of
something. I googled "burning smell in
my nose" and ended up here. It was the
only thing that matched - but does it
ever! Please notify me if anyone out
there finds out what it is!! Thanks!
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ghoward
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 1
Smelling Smoke Posted: 10-10-05 13:44pm
I too smell smoke and no one is smoking.
It started about 8 months ago and I
noticed it at work and thought someone was
smoking. But it is a smoke free
building. People were making fun of
me-saying I had a tumor on my olfactory
nerve. My doctor just blows it off-looks
at me like I am crazy. I have not had
any history of allergies. I have never
smoked. No one in my family smokes. It
went away for a two months and now it has
come back. I smell it at home, work,
church. It is like I am in a room with
people smoking and I can't catch my breath
sometimes it is so strong. I thought I
was crazy until my husband found this
site. I a healthy, exercise and dont'
usually take medications.
At least I know I am not crazy or if I am
then I am not alone.
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jonlegs
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 26 Oct 2005 Posts: 2 Location: Boston
Smelling Smoke But Don't Smoke Posted: 10-26-05 22:41pm
Hello friends. I, too have been smelling
cigarette smoke for about a week now.
Neither i, nor my husband or children ever
smoke. Does anyone have an answer to
this? My eyes are starting to burn now,
too.
|
jonlegs
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 26 Oct 2005 Posts: 2 Location: Boston
Re: Smelling Smoke But Don't Smoke Posted: 10-26-05 22:44pm
jonlegs
wrote:
hello friends. I, too
have been smelling cigarette smoke for
about a week now. Neither i, nor my
husband or children ever smoke. Does
anyone have an answer to this? My eyes
are starting to burn now,
too.
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gr1960
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Posts: 2 Location: Tennessee
Smelling Smoke Or Musty Smell! Posted: 11-18-05 02:13am
I thought I was the only one who had this
problem. I have had chronic sinusitis
and had sinus surgery that now shows on ct
scan that my sinusitis is cleared up for
the most part. I seem to smell this
smoke or musty smell often and it seems to
even get worse when the air conditioning
and or heating is running in the house.
I have this off and on many times a month.
It will seem to receed and then appear
out of nowhere. My eyes burn and I can't
get the smell put of my nose. My wife
never smells anything and it's driving me
crazy. It also causes headaches and
makes me tired as well. I don't know if
it's allergic or what. I have tried
everything....I had sinus surgery that
cleared and opened my sinuses, i've taken
about every antibiotic for sinus stuff,
clairitin, flonase, saline wash,
irrigation and nothing seems to work. We
even use the high particulate allergen
filters in our furnace and air
conditioning unit. I even bought a oreck
air filter for the beedroom and that has
really done nothing to help this problem.
I am going crazy over this as it is very
disrupting to my life. I would
appreciate any and all info someone has
about this problem.
|
jnscole
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 25 Nov 2005 Posts: 3 Location: Georgia
Same Issue Posted: 11-25-05 11:25am
I can't believe I found this thread. I've
been looking for some evidence that other
people suffer from this problem, and this
is the first thing i've found. It's my
husband who has it. It started a couple
of years ago, after years of chronic and
severe sinus problems. He would be
exposed to cigarette smoke and then would
smell it for days afterwards. He couldn't
sleep because it felt like he was sleeping
in a smoke-filled room. After the problem
started, we moved to ankara, turkey for my
work. It's very polluted there (they burn
coal for heat), and during the winter, it
was so bad for him with this smoke smell
that we eventually had to leave and come
home to the states. We now live in a
small town area in a county with a strict
no-smoking law, and it's much better for
him, but he still has the problem. I
can't cook in the house because the smell
of cooking oil or meat causes the problem,
and we can't go to restaurants for the
same reason.
He's been to several ents, all of whom
have said they've never heard of the
problem and there's nothing they can do.
He has tried one round of antibiotics, but
now that we've found this thread, he
thinks he'll ask his doctor to try that
again. One ent recently said that his ct
scan does show polyps; the ent said the
surgery to remove them is fairly simple
and that he thought it was worth a try,
though he didn't see how they could be
related to the problem. All the doctors
have also mentioned that smelling phantom
smells can be a symptom of a brain tumor,
but they've all said that's a remote
possibility, and the symptoms don't really
fit, since the problem is triggered by an
actual event (smelling any kind of smoke,
and then the smell lasts for days). He is
going to have an mri next week just to put
that possibility to rest.
We had speculated that the problem might
have been caused by something he was doing
to handle his sinus problems. A doctor
had recommended sinus washes. At first he
did those by holding warm salt water in
his hand and breathing it up into his
sinuses, but then he found a product on
line that fits on to a water-pik. You put
it up into your nose and it gently forces
water through the sinuses. We thought
that perhaps it had forced bacteria deep
into the sinuses. I still think this is a
possibility and just mention it to see if
any one else who is experiencing these
symptoms has also done the sinus washes.
Good luck to all of you!
Stacy
|
gr1960
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Posts: 2 Location: Tennessee
Re: Same Issue Posted: 11-28-05 00:59am
Please let me and everyone on this forum
know what info you find out from that mri
for possible head or brain tumor. I've
tried everything and we all have to hhave
something in common. There must be some
commonality between us that is causing
this problem. Wheather it's a tumor,
prescription meds (i'm not sure about
prescription meds anymore since getting
this because they are all made from
"synthetic" materials now and that is what
causes so many side effects with people.
Maybe this is some kind od side effect
from prescription meds that we are all
taking. Here is a list of all
prescription meds I take: atenolol for
blood pressure, lortab 7.5 which is
tylenol with codeine for pain for my 3
blown discs in neck with cervical stenosis
and degenerative disc disease, motrin 800
mg for arthritis degenerative type, as I
already had a left total hip replacement
when I was 37, i'm now 45. I'm also a
recent retired army soldier. If I get
any answers I will surely post them here
for everyone's benefit.
Gerry
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jnscole
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 25 Nov 2005 Posts: 3 Location: Georgia
More... Posted: 11-28-05 17:44pm
Well, unfortunately, my husband didn't
make it through the mri so we won't be
getting any info from that. However, a
friend who is wonderful at web research
found some really interesting information
for us.We had been approaching it more
from the standpoint that it was a reaction
(allergic or nonallergic) to something but
my friend approached it as a neurological
disorder and found all kinds of things
about smell disorders. Apparently
dysosmia is smell disorders in general,
parosmia is a distorted sense of smell
(coffee, say, smells like smoke),
phantosmia is smelling things that are no
longer present (like smelling smoke for
days after the original exposure), and
anosmia is having no sense of smell at
all. Apparently there was a yahoo group
for smell disorders, but it was focused at
people with no sense of smell so a group
of people with parosmia and phantosmia
started up this group:
it started a few years ago with about five
members, and now the member list has over
400 people, so we're apparently not alone!
I've been reading through the posts and
unfortunately i'm not finding people who
are being cured, but it's so nice for my
husband to know he's not alone.
Stacy
|
jnscole
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 25 Nov 2005 Posts: 3 Location: Georgia
And More Posted: 11-28-05 17:56pm
Oops, I forgot to answer the question
about medications. Unfortunately, my
husband isn't taking any of those
medications. (i say "unfortunately"
because wouldn't it be nice to pin down
what was happening with this?)
on another search, I did find someone who
said that a test had shown he had a cyst
on the pituitary gland. He had it
removed, and his symptoms went away. I
haven't seen anyone else mention that but
it sounds worth exploring. (i think an
mri showed it.)
it appears to me from the reading i've
been doing that there could be a number of
causes that lead to this particular set of
symptoms. I wish I was seeing more
encouragement about there being
treatments, since, as i'm sure you know,
it's miserable for the person who has it.
There's a Dr. Wuensch who has anosmia (no
smell at all) and has put together some
very interesting information on his web
page: http://personal.Ec
u.Edu/wuenschk/anosmia.Htm. Of
course, there's no way of knowing how much
of it might apply to someone with parosmia
or phantosmia, but he says that injections
of the steroid kenalog have restored his
sense of smell. He gets the injections
every 4-9 months.
We're going to try to get my husband an
appointment with a neurologist now, since
the ents have basically thrown up their
hands, and we'll ask him/her about the
kenalog.
Stacy
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rickysmith
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 21 Jan 2006 Posts: 2
Smelling Smoke Posted: 01-21-06 13:40pm
I put "smelling smoke" into the google
search engine thinking that nothing would
show up...And then I see all of the other
postings about the same thing on this
site!
Misery loves company; i'm so glad i'm not
going crazy.
I went to the dr last week and he made an
appointment with an ent specialist but
didn't really act one way or another
towards the information I gave him about
my symptoms.
The smoke I smell isn't actually like
cigarettes; more like electrical tape
burning or a campfire after water has been
poured on it. It comes and goes but like
all of you, I ask everyone around me if
they smell smoke and no one ever does.
Gee, you'd think i'd stop asking by now!
I hope it isn't a tumor, brain
malfunction, auto immune disease or any of
the other stuff i've read today. I hope
it is just a bad sinus infection that will
go away with a z-pack.
I travel a lot for business and fly out
again on wednesday. I hope this is gone!
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Petey123
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 21 Jan 2006 Posts: 1
I Don't Smell Smoke, Per Se... Posted: 01-21-06 14:20pm
But I do occasionally smell something like
a furnace that's turned on for the first
time of the season, or of an old, dusty,
musty couch... Does any of that ring a
bell to anybody? Now here's the
clincher -- I hardly ever smell this, but
my girlfriend smells it really well....
And it's extremely bothersome to her...
I've been trying to figure out how to get
rid of it for a year now... I, like
others on this page, have chronic
sinusitis, and whenever I get an
infection, the smell is at it's strongest,
and a round of antibiotics usually gets
rid of it. But sometimes, like right
now, I have few to no symptoms of a sinus
problem, but the smell has still appeared,
seemingly out of nowhere! I think a
real test for everyone is to make sure
nobody else smells your nose....That way
you can take the appropriate approach to
finding a solution. A good test is to
exhale really strongly from your nose
right into someone's face. Sounds gross,
I know, but it's the only way to determine
whether there's a real odor or whether
you have a neurological issue. I have a
poor sense of smell, but after using the
grossan irrigator for a couple of months,
my sense of smell has improved greatly...
This is the first time I have been able
to smell the odor my girlfriend is talking
about. I think it may be
fungus-related. I am going to take some
diflucan for a couple of days this time to
see if it clears it up. Please report
back on your "test"... And others, if
you see this, try it out and report
back... Thanks!
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rickysmith
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 21 Jan 2006 Posts: 2
Posted: 01-25-06 12:35pm
Well, I did see the dr and he numbed my
nose and put a scope into it. He reports
that a few of his patients come to him
with the same problem; complaining of
smoke. He didn't see anything but gave me
a z-pack and told me to arrange a ct scan
and follow up visit.
He thinks it is my sinus' and that I may
have some tmj but told me that I would
have to go to a neuroligist if this
doesn't show anything.
Yeah, like I have time for this.
But the smoke smell is is irritating
enough for me to do the "exhale test" on
my girlfriend. This will prove out two
things; do I indeed have something big
brewing up there w/o symptoms and does she
love me enough to do it...
Rs
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lthomas
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Posts: 1
Smoke Smell Posted: 02-18-06 11:20am
I thought I was the only one in the world
who had this problem, but like many of
you, did a google search which turned up
this forum. I have been smelling smoke
on and off for a couple of years. It
smells like old smoke or how a fireplace
smells on a damp day, or maybe as someone
else described, a campfire. It is really
bad today; I have no health issues and
don't take any meds, rarely have a
headache or take aspirins or any other
over the counter drugs. Today, the smell
is very strong and annoying. The sky is
very overcast; I don't know if this has
any bearing on it or not. I've thought
of going to a doctor, but when I went to
one with restless leg several years ago, I
go the impression they thought I was nuts.
Since rls has become more common, one
prescribed a rx that is also prescribed
for seizures. I said, "no thanks." I
want answers and cures, not to be numbed
down. I'm entering my senior years and
want to get there as meds free as
possible. Meanwhile, has anyone found an
answer or cure for this annoying smell?
Thanks.
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