I can't smell...deal with it.

You know that feeling when you have a cold and your nose is so stuffed up that you can’t smell? Annoying isn’t it? Well get rid of the stuffiness but keep the inability to smell. And you have what I live with every day. The story of how my family found out was more of a chance happening. We were driving down the highway and I was sitting in my usual spot in the car; right behind the driver and was staring out my window. On the other side where I didn’t see a hog truck that apparently passed by and stunk to high heaven. Long story short we figured out I have NO sense of smell. Now don’t get me wrong, my inability to smell doesn’t bother me, in fact sometimes it’s helpful for me to get stuff done if the environment (of course the environment has to be safe) smells to high heaven. However there are several pet peeves I have with the general population and them trying to understand my inability to smell. My first one is them asking WHY I can’t smell. I really don’t have a clue. It’s not believed to be genetic, the only two people who couldn’t smell in my family is my grandfather and my great grandmother. My grandfather lost his sense of smell after falling off a sky-scraper, landing face first on the concrete, breaking all the bones in his face and surviving. My great grandmother lost her sense of smell due to what we believe is to be diabetes-which I do not have. I didn’t have a severe ear infection when I was little which can be attributed for the loss of smell. My father asked a doctor to which his medical reply was:

“Some people have a sense of smell, some people don’t.”

Another pet peeve I have is once I tell people I can’t smell they never stop asking me if I can smell this or that. I understand and tolerate the first few times, but once it becomes repetitive and for a long period of time in one day, I get annoyed. People when I say I can’t smell…it means I CAN’T SMELL. Not “I can smell this” or “I can smell that”. The only thing I can “smell” which is really just a tingling in my nose is gas from a gas station, which I guess will be helpful for me in the long run and when I have to live by myself.

I understand that it’s an odd occurrence and there are very few people that are like me who can’t smell. I don’t think I’ll ever know why I can’t smell and I don’t really care anymore that I can’t smell. Sure I miss the fact that I can’t smell any good food, or the fact that my sense of taste is essentially gone. But I think of it this way; when something putrid fills a room I won’t be wishing I can’t smell.