For years I have assumed that my sense of smell has just deadened over the years down to asthma and allergies. My primary asthma symptom has always been sneezing rather than coughing so that threw people a bit when it came to noticing my breathing. That and the allergies. So I just figured that all the sneezing had gradually taken my sense of smell away and that as a silver lining I have no problems wandering around LUSH.
Turns out I was dead wrong.
I had a really bad allergic response at some point last autumn, properly blocked nose and everything. So I tried a nasal spray, not a steroid or anything, just salt water and chemicals. I didn’t stop, it improved my breathing and frankly with the lung damage I’ll take everything I can get. So now, after however many months, I’m suddenly breathing in breaths that fill my whole head and I’m smelling all kinds of things.
I remember a lover who used to apologise for taking his shoes off and I never really noticed when he did… I suspect now I’d understand what he was apologising for.
I would absolutely recommend Sterimar for allergic response and Beconase for clearing nasal passages. I suspect if I’d been born in the fifties I’d be one of those hippies recommending netipots. I do wonder if maybe the nasal spray is helping with the therapy – the returning sense of smell is also emblematic of my cleared frontal lobes?