Unusual symptom

puffin

For long periods of time, ie. weeks, I have a strange sensation----I smell burning. I do not smoke and no family or friends smoke. Even when no cooking has been done I smell burning.

One evening, months ago, I happened to see a website giving information on smelling unusual things. It said the burning smell was reported by people before a stroke.
Presumably then it is associated with high blood pressure--which I have.) I had to stop taking medication a year ago for this as my pressuure can be very low, high and also normal, depending usually on what I am doing/have been doing. Taking the tablets made me worse.
Anyway on my last visit to my new GP, I mentioned the burning smell. She had never heard of it. I did not mention the website reading as it might have given the wrong impression
As I type I can smell burning!
I have OA and AS and fibromyalgia and have also been given the diagnosis of ME ---which I think is the other end of the fibro. scale.

Has anybody ever heard of my strange symptom?

Perhaps having an inflammatory condition I am smelling inflammation in my brain!

Perhaps I am slowly combusting. :roll:

Hope there is no explosion like the wheatbag.
Puffin

elnafinn

Hi Puffin

I could hardly believe what I was reading because I too could smell burning/smoke for months off and on and thought I was going off my rocker

I too found a couple of websites and one was a forum. I also mentioned it to my gp and he looked at me a little oddly :roll: and said he had not heard of it before. I did not go specifically about this but threw it in at the end :oops:

I do not get it now at all but it lurked for a long time. I take bendro for high blood pressure - it is more like a water tablet. My bp fluctuated too so I was eventually put on this med. I do not get low bp a far as I am aware. I would probably get symptoms if is was happening on a regular basis.

So you have now heard from someone who has smelt this burning smoky smell but I am afraid I have no answers. Hopefully yours will go eventually like mine did.

Luv
Elna x

woodbon

Hi,
Lots of things can effect the sense of smell, medication, head colds, and some other things that are more complex. I don't know about arthur, but if it is effection nerves then I suppose that it could have an effect, but I'm no medic :roll:

I did compleatly loose my sense of smell once, when I was given some steroid nose drops for a sinious infection. It came back but took a few months to settle down :shock: Its always worth mentioning it to your doctor, though, as it might be a symptom of something else. Love Sue

puffin

Hi Lynn and Elna,

Thank you very much for your replies. It is great to learn I am not alone in having this very odd symptom. Just wish the smell was pleasant! Could think of a few things I would like to scent.

I am only on painkillers intermittently and have no other medication. Have a few strategies for coping with pain as this comes in 101 varieties!

Perhaps other members will reply to this post.

Puffin.

skezier

Hi Puffin,

Tis interesting this cus I often smell odd things and well i have always put it down to too much contact with hypochlorite and it had damaged the nose somehow.

I think I got low bp, one arms low ones high and they think the low ones right, maybe its the high one that's right Sometimes its burning but like pipe tobacco (I do smoke but haven't gone for a clay pipe yet!) and other time its something else. I also thought mine was just something that sometimes happens but reading Lynn's post well I have a low grade cold on and off for years, I don't know why it happens but nice to know its not just me Hey nice to meet you b the way. Cris x

elnafinn

Hi Puffin

I am pretty sure it had nothing to do with my meds and I did not have a bad cold before it started. I really thought I was going loopy, the smell was sometimes so strong/intense.

I have noticed that since this blip I do have a tendency to smell smoke very quickly now and this is when there really is a bonfire going or someone is smoking, even quite a distance away.

I must admit I felt really silly mentioning it to my hubby. Of course he could not smell smoke when I could. It was a really weird sensation. I am pleased that it went of its own accord.

Hope yours does too.

Luv
Elna x

frogmorton

How odd!!!

I have smelled pipe smoke a couple of times....

used to think it was my Dad who has died.

I think it is really odd, but if it really doesn't go away i woudl tell the doc again - but then again I am a worrier :roll:

Hope it goes away

Love

Toni xx

dreamdaisy

It can't really be a side effect of meds but what about a form of synaesthesia? That's a condition where, for example, when reading, people 'see' colour in the words, because they associate colours with letters - I have a friend for whom the word 'Norwich' is predominantly green - the n, r,c and h are all shades of green. I had a pupil who could not distinguish between the letters d and g because both were brown. For some they see colour when hearing music. Others have a type where flavour is associated with words, but not as you might think, e.g. bacon might taste of strawberries, currry might taste of sponge cake. One chap who ran a pub had this form very, very, badly. Conversations were a riot of tastes and he had to ban a customer called Derek because he tasted of ear wax. I can't see why there shouldn't be an olfactory form of this but the weakness of that is you all seem to smell burning. Hmmm, curiouser and curiouser. Needs further thought! Dreamdaisy

mellman01

I have been wandering around boiler at Didcot A power station at 4 in the morning and sometimes smelled smoking, the odd thing is you can see all the way from 165' right down to the ground floor yet cant see anyone about very odd!?.

weesabetty

Hello Puffin,I have smelt smoke on and off for a few years now,I have been known to go outside to see if anyone is smoking but I never find anyone,I have Fibro and only take codeine and ibuprofen, am waiting to see rheumy re inflammation,hope it doesn't suggest spontanious combustion cause I wouldn't like to just end up as a pile of ash on the floor

Wonkylegs

perhaps this is the answer to all the times I have got really frustrated cos I am going all round the house smelling burning when my hubby says there is nothing to smell :roll: :roll: :roll:

I can always smell someone's bonfire from miles away too :? :? :?

strange eh? (but then I usually am )

jenniet

Glad other people have smelt it too! It happened to me when I had sinusitis - not since I've been on the meds. though so that rules them out.

Jenny.

dreamdaisy

Bumped up for jacqmum. DD