Since I developed the smelling distortion in October of 2007, I have had some recovery of my sense of smell.  My first bad smell was car exhaust, which wouldn't go away.  After an MRI, the doctor (ENT) who finally diagnosed me with Dysosmia in January, 2008, didn't have any advice for me.  She said it would either stick with me forever, or go away eventually.  At the time, I had no health insurance, and I still wouldn't persue treatment any further today.
 
Now, I have some of my normal sense of smell back.  There are a few things I can't eat, like liver sausage (which I used to LOVE), it tastes rancid now, and I still have a hard time with bananas.  Popcorn still tastes kinda funny, but I love it so much, I just ignore the taste and eat it anyway. Cooking is still hard, but at least I can smell smoke again, so if something's burning, I'd know it.
 
I've tried a few things suggested by different people in this group, including the head up-side down saline rinse.  I used regular sea salt and water, and a prepared solution from Walgreen's.  That's to keep my sinuses clean and dry.  I also tried the pepper spray that someone posted about last summer.  What a waste of time that was!  That stuff tasted SOOOO bad, I couldn't use it again after the first try.
 
Because I didn't have insurance, I couldn't afford the prescription for Nasonex.
 
The only good thing out of this is I lost 13 pounds!
 
So after 1-1/2 years, I'm doing much better that I expected after the discouraging report from the doctor.  I still get weird phantom smells that won't go away (I can't even describe them, but they are sort of chemically smelling), and I swear out loud because it's so frustrating.  My kids think I'm nuts sometimes.  I'm just hoping that, with time, I'll eventually be 100% back to normal.  And, if not, oh well.
 
Thanks to you all for being there when I needed help the most.
 
Sandy James in Milwaukee, WI.

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