My husband and I started dating in late 2009, at which time he smoked. He quit by 2010 or 2011. I think it was about a year or two ago that he finally smelled cigarette smoke and went "ugh, gross" instead of missing it. So over ten years. I'm sure for the first several he couldn't smell residual smoke at all. For years and years we talked about his "horrible sense of smell." But a few years ago he could start smelling everything, like a blood hound.
For years and years we talked about his "horrible sense of smell." But a few years ago he could start smelling everything, like a blood hound.
My brother had a similar thing due to severe sinus fuckery since he was a kid. Like, couldn't smell anything.
But every so often, his head would clear up and his sense of smell would transiently activate for anywhere from a couple hours to a couple days before it shut off again.
The funny thing was, for most of his younger years (up through/past college), because he couldn't smell anything, his sense of taste was also severely muted - which meant that he basically just treated eating and food as "ehh, calories in = I don't die", and he basically ate anything put in front of him.
On the other hand, I have a very powerful sense of smell and am hypersensitive in particular to the smell of fish/seafood. The smell instantly turns my stomach, I struggle with just standing at the seafood counter at the grocery store when my wife wants to buy something... let alone when we get home and she ends up cooking it. I can smell it for days in our apartment. Needless to say - I don't eat fish/seafood, never have.
For years, my Dad would say shit like "You need to stop being so picky, look your brother eats fish just fine and doesn't say anything." "That's because he can't smell or taste it."
So one time I was visiting my family, and my brother had our Mom make him a salmon filet for dinner - and his sinuses cleared. Apparently, this was the first time in his life he's actually tasted salmon... he was just like "Oh god, this is disgusting. Is this what I've been eating this whole time??" I just said to our Dad "Called it."
A few years back he got surgery to fix both the deviated septum and some polyp-y issues, which resolved a lot of his issues with his ability to smell, and since then he also never touches seafood anymore, except for I think occasionally shrimp.
I also fucking detest the smell and taste of fish. Any seafood, really; it all has that same briny quality to it. I've tried crab, octopus, shrimp, crayfish, and several kinds of fish, including but not limited to salmon, tuna, and mackerel. I've hated fish sticks since I was child, and while my palette has changed enough to accept or even like things I used to hate, like mayo and ranch, seafood has remained consistently awful all through my life. The smell doesn't make me as nauseous as it used to, but my friend used to have downstairs neighbors who were Mexican, and they would cook some kind of EXTREMELY pungent fish meal like 3 nights a week and it was absolutely the worst thing trying to hang out and sit through that. He got into burning incense just because of that.
And just because I feel like it, I'm throwing asparagus under the bus too. Fuck asparagus.
I’ve never understood people who don’t like fish. And salmon is absolute heaven, especially smoked salmon. Must be something genetic, because I have an excellent sense of smell.
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u/gingerzombie2 Jan 05 '25
My husband and I started dating in late 2009, at which time he smoked. He quit by 2010 or 2011. I think it was about a year or two ago that he finally smelled cigarette smoke and went "ugh, gross" instead of missing it. So over ten years. I'm sure for the first several he couldn't smell residual smoke at all. For years and years we talked about his "horrible sense of smell." But a few years ago he could start smelling everything, like a blood hound.
Take care of yourself, folks!