Third Year, Week Seven - Smelling Smoke......

"Do you smell smoke?"

It's been two and a half years since my brain went nuts and sent me into a migraine tailspin.  The original symptoms were so bizarre as to defy description.  Smells were incredibly noisy.  Light warped and bent.  Colors turned themselves inside out.  I smelled smells that didn't exist and felt soda bubbles tickling the roof of my empty mouth. 

"Somebody is smoking out there!"

For the most part the headaches are down to one a month or less.  Typical visual auras (blank spots or sparkles) are less often.  My original pre-tailspin auras of dysgeusia (nasty taste) haven't happened in years.

"What do you mean, the windows are closed?"

But since the tailspin, off and on, I've had persistant olfactory hallucinations.  I smell cigarette smoke.  No one here smokes, and it's unlikely that anyone is lighting up during church.  The smell can wake me up in the middle of the night, and it's a strong and clear as if someone has lit up right in front of me. 

I no longer ask if anyone else can smell it.  It's just me.  And it's annoying - I HATE the smell of cigarette smoke!  I've never been a smoker, ever.  So what the heck?  If my brain is going to hallucinate a smell, why not chocolate or peppermint for heaven's sake?

I've told my neurologist this a few times.  But I think what caught her attention this time is that the smoke smell is NEVER associated with a headache.  The twinkly lights, dark spots and synesthesia symptoms (the perception of smell as sound for example) are always followed by a headache.

So I have both an MRI and an EEG scheduled for Friday afternoon.  I've had both before.  My last MRI was during the tailspin.  My EEG was done 22 years ago because I had meningitis. 

The problem with knowing to much:  If the smoke smell is a seizure, I'll have to go back on seizure meds.  I didn't do to well with them as migraine prevention - I couldn't remember driving rules and I sometimes drooled in public. 

Pray for a negative EEG, and nothing new on the MRI.

DeeDee