smell, loud noise sensitivity

Hi~

Just wondering if any of you have developed a senstitivity to smells (colognes, perfumes) and loud noises.

Before the lyme, neither of these really bothered me.

Would be interested in hearing your thoughts. Janice

[gorbybelle]

hi, yes I have developed an acute sense of smell - before this happened I was having 'bouts' of - loss of sense of smell !

Loud noise - or just a fairly loud radio or something can bother me now too.

gorbs

[wonko]

It is one of my symptoms that has improved, but sound sensitivity was a problem for me for some time.

I couldn't go to the movies anymore, and often "suffered" with ordinary ambient sounds in stores, on trains, etc.  Someone crinkling a plastic bag/wrapper across the hall at work felt like they were inside of my head.  

It's much better now (now=8.5 months of antibiotic treatment), and only an issue on bad days.

I never had too much trouble with smell.

[patsy10]

Yes.  At the worst of my illness I would nearly vomit every morning when I smelled my husband's cologne.  It was completely intolerable to me.

[margypops]

every now and again I smell smoke /cooking , the DH thinks I am nuts he may be right, I have had a strong sense of smell for years.

[JackieCalifornia]

Yes, when I was first ill, sound, light and noise were all overwheming.

Now that I have been treated (but not yet fully well), all that has disappeared, but some months ago I began smelling strong odors that weren't there (olfactory hallucinations).  It doesn't happen often, but I will sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and deep in my sinuses will smell something awful:  stinky, rotten, bitter.  It lasts only a minute or two, and then I sometimes feel nauseous and feel a wave pass through me.  Then it's gone.  Only once did it happen three times in one night, and in one set, there were perhaps 10 or 12 'waves' of it one after the other, and it made me very nauseous.

I've read in other places that it is also a symptom of chronic fatigue-type illnesses, and perhaps has to do with a chemical imbalance between the 'smell' receptors in the sinuses and chemicals in the brain ... I don't understand it fully, but it sounds like it involves a chain of chemical reactions related to the chemical glutathione.  I've  been doing some reading on it, will post if I figure anything out.  Even the posting boards dedicated chronic fatigue mention that there seem to be links to Lyme/Borrelia burgdorferi infection.

[That means we're not crazy!  We're physically ill -- !!]

[jason80]

I get strange tastes episodically, which usually makes things taste bitter or sulphury. When this first happened I thought my food was rotten and/or the water was contaminated. Too bad, the strange taste can't be more pleasant.

I get hyperacusis (sound sensitivty) episodically now, but couple years ago it was brutal happening daily. Anytime I get it it coincides with a dizzy headache feeling.  For me the killer noise is silverware hitting a plate. Yikes!  Even my own voice may bother me (too loud) when it is really bad.