Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with sinuses

Why do I crave sweets when I can't taste them?

otherwordlyglow — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:25:01 -0800

I've lost my sense of smell/taste because of sinus congestion. Why do I still crave sweets after a meal? For the past few days I haven't been able to smell much of anything and only taste very faintly, if at all due to the effects of a severe cold/flu. Why is it then that after I finish a meal, a meal that I can't even taste, I start looking around for the leftover Halloween candy? It doesn't seem like it's just out of habit but I really seem to crave something sweet after a meal even though when I eat the sweet, I can't taste that either. Somehow that satisfies the craving but how does my brain know I've eaten the sweet if I can't taste it? This has happened before when I've temporarily lost my sense of smell and I've never understood the underlying basis sensory processing. It's always seemed like such a waste to eat dessert to fulfill a craving but not even enjoy it! Could I blindfold myself and eat some tofu and trick my brain into thinking I had had a Reese's? Why doesn't that work?

why can't i breathe?!

violetk — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:25:37 -0800

SinusFilter: why can i actually breathe when i am walking around or doing housework whereas if i am just sitting on the couch i can't? a couple of months ago, my allergies seemed to have returned despite a several-year absence. on top of this, i have caught some sort of severe head cold several days ago. needless to say, this has caused my sinuses to go haywire. i was snorting afrin for awhile until i realized how bad continued use of it was and went off it cold-turkey. miserable. in my miserable sickness, i have barely been able to breathe through my nose the past couple of days. but i noticed today when i walked to the pharmacy that my sinuses felt clear and i was able to breathe while i was out walking. when i came home and sat back out on the couch again, i was immediately congested again. but then, i just spent the last 30 minutes or so sweeping the floors and emptying the garbage and noticed that while i was doing that, my sinuses cleared again and i could breathe. when i sat back down on the couch again, i immediately became congested yet again.

what's going on? why does this happen?? why can't i sit (or lay down for that matter) and breathe through my nose like i can while i am up and about??

I smell feet

peep — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 10:34:43 -0800

I smell feet. For the past 2 weeks, I smell a foot odor constantly. It feels a little dry and/or itchy underneath my cheekbones. Could this be the beginning of a sinus infection? But here are some complicating factors:

1. I don't feel sick - not one bit. No headache, and I wouldn't even describe the cheekbone feeling as "pressure." No body aches, fever, etc.
2. I have no mucus, and I'm not congested. I can breathe completely freely.
3. The feeling under my cheekbones is on both sides, so I don't think it's a tooth thing. Also, I just saw the dentist this week, and if I had teeth rotting to the point of giving off an odor, I think he would have noticed.
4. I've had this for 2 weeks, and nothing's changed. At some point, wouldn't I actually start to feel sick, or start expelling some mucus?

My husband tells me he doesn't smell anything and insists the smell is not emanating FROM me in anyway.

I've been irrigating my sinuses with a neti pot each morning. Anything else I can do? I've heard that the current thought on sinus infections is that for mild to moderate ones, antibiotics aren't necessary. This is a first for me. Have you ever smelled a foot smell like this before, and what was it?

I've seen this question , and I wouldn't characterize this smell as bleachy or like propane, and that poster definitely had some mucus going on, which seems to differentiate our problems.

Help Me to Breathe Easier

Oriole Adams — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 10:59:52 -0800

Sinus Filter: I've had "nose" issues since I was a kid, but the situation is getting worse. (long story inside) As a child, I got nosebleeds often; had my nose cauterized twice, had one that was so bad and prolonged that I ended up in the ER and subsequently on bed rest (with a packed nose) for two days. (What really bugged me about that particular experience was the ER doctor telling me as he put gauze up my nose that he saw "fingernail marks," implying that it was because I'd been picking my nose that this had happened. Not true at all, but who listens to a third-grader at three in the morning?)

Anyway, as time went on I was progressively more "stuffy" and (to my mind) my voice became increasingly nasal due to nose stuffiness. I finally went to an ENT doctor in 1978, and he proceeded to put me in what looked like a dentist's chair and then tilted it so that my head was below the rest of me, and an assistant squirted water up each nostril continuously, while instructing me to repeat "K K K K" the entire time. Well, I can't tolerate water up my nose. I don't swim, I stand backwards in the shower. So I felt like I was drowning and they stopped the procedure midway through. The doctor seemed put off and told me I had a deviated septum and sinusitis and wrote me a prescription for Sudafed (it wasn't over the counter at the time) with 10 refills.

Fast forward many years, and I am dx'd with Lupus and several associated illnesses, including Sjogren's Syndrome, which causes dryness of the mucous membranes. Usually it mainly affects the eyes and mouth, but mine is strictly concentrated in the nose. In fact, I often seem to have too much saliva, as I'll drool in my sleep, even when I'm laying on my back (the outpour of saliva will actually wake me up). I'm still stuffed up most of the time, and I know I've got at least some congestion in my sinuses because I can feel the facial pressure move from side to side when I roll over in bed. I also occasionally have hours at a time when I experience "weird" smells - one is siimilar to burning plastic, the other smells like calomine lotion. Several spritzes of Ocean nasal spray seems to help a little, but that's about as far as I can go when it comes to water up the nose (so a Neti pot is out of the question). One other "symptom" I've noticed is that if I cry, 20 or so minutes later I will become so stuffed up that I have to breathe through my mouth, and it takes many hours for that effect to subside.

So...I know I need to see another doctor, but is he/she going to irrigate my nose again? Do you think there is any significance to the crying/nasal congestion thing? What about the excess saliva but nose so dry that it feels stiff on my face? And the strange smells....? Please reassure me that a visit to the ENT doesn't have to be traumatic, and guide me as to what questions I should ask/which symptoms of mine are significant.

Homesickness at home.

tmcw — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 12:52:17 -0800

Nasal congestion on waking... A few possible causes, but a lot of them are ruled out. All right - here's the deal.

I've moved back home for a break from school, and in the past week, on almost every morning, as soon as I wake up - and a lot of times I'll wake up early (before 9 in college-speak), and I'll have a pretty congested nose. A few minutes after waking it gets a lot worse, and eventually I can't breathe out of my nose well enough to go back to sleep. Possible things that affect this... I have an ancient radiator in my room which I thought was drying out the air, but after turning it off and using a humidifier that still persists. There's a cat in the house, and I'm allergic to cats, but I don't have itchy eyes, so I don't know if it could be that (also, I've lived here before, with that cat, and the radiator)

Flu? Cold? Other stuff? I'm not sure what's going on, and thinking of having a doc appt, but any help beforehand would be cool (my doctor... is on his mark on some things, but I doubt the breadth of his knowledge)

Recovery from Septoplasty?

catfood — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 11:41:45 -0800

My fiance is having septoplasty to correct his deviated septum on Monday. What can we expect in terms of how he'll feel and what he'll be able to do after the procedure? He'll be under general anesthesia and the surgery is supposed to take 90 minutes. I know he's supposed to flush his sinuses with a saline mixture and will have splints in his nose.

Since he's coming home the same day, I want to make sure that I have anything he might need on hand before Monday. My general questions are:

- How groggy / out of it is he going to be after he gets home?
- How long before he'll be feeling back to normal?
- Is it going to be uncomfortable for him to eat the first week since his face will be messed up?
- What sorts of foods should I have on hand for him?
- Would ice packs help him with the healing process?
- Is he going to ooze nose-goo and blood all over anything?

I know this is a fairly common surgery, but he's never had any sort of procedure done before, and I haven't since I was an infant, so neither of us know what to expect. Any advice or stories on your experiences would be appreciated. Thanks!

Why do I sometimes smell ammonia when I bend over?

lilybeane — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 12:10:36 -0800

Why do I sometimes smell ammonia when I bend over? It doesn't happen often--maybe every couple of months--but occasionally when I bend over, I am overwhelmed by an extremely intense smell of ammonia. For example, today I bent over to pick up something off the floor and I had to straighten up immediately because the ammonia fragrance was so intense and painful (in the same way it kinda hurts to smell ammonia in a bottle). There's no ammonia around anywhere, and this has happened for years while I have lived in many different places. Googling has only turned up info about some people whose sweat smells like ammonia, but that's not the case here; this seems to come from the back of my nose. Never had any kind of sinus surgery, either.

It's infrequent enough that I never remember to ask my doctor about it. But it seems strange to me and I've never heard anyone else describe it.

Can I change the nasal sound of my voice?

ferociouskitty — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 15:53:26 -0800

My voice has a nasal sound to it - not high-pitched-nasal, more like it sounds like I have a perpetually stuffy nose. Anything I can work on to change that, or am I stuck?

Winter Sinus Problems

catfood — Mon, 22 Dec 2003 11:27:32 -0800

What is the best way to get rid of (and prevent) the all-winter-long sinus problems that I and so many other people seem to get? Short of taking decongestants until March, that is.