Now I’m a super Smeller? Thanks Migraines

I had the strangest thing happen to me earlier today. I was filling out a form and for a few minutes I forgot the name of my street.

Yeah … I really did. I couldn’t believe that I couldn’t think of the name of the street that I’ve lived on for close to ten years!

I know why it happened though. Last night I increased my dose of Topamax (my migraine medication) to 100 mg and as I’ve mentioned before that medication comes with all kinds of wacky side effects, and memory issues are just the tip of the iceberg. LOL Even my typing and spelling for this post is way off. I’ve had to correct just about every sentence.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with a new doctor, an endocrinologist, and since it’s a first visit and I have to fill out forms and provide a lot of information about my medical history and current meds ie Synthroid dose, pain meds and probably even the chromium supplements that I started earlier this week, I think I’d better get organized and write them down tonight just in case I forget them tomorrow just like I did my street name earlier today. Man that was weird.

I still can’t believe I forgot my street name!

Another weird side effect that I was sure was coming from the migraine medication is that I’ve become what I call a “super smeller“.

I started to notice this side effect in early October when I started taking Zyban to quit smoking and I thought it was the Zyban that caused it … but I stopped taking that medication in November and well … I can still smell things way tooooooooooooooo good. I mean … I live in a semi-detached house (built in the 1920’s) and suddenly I can smell when my neighbors are cleaning their home (just in the last two weeks)?

I know I’ve mentioned how I think my dog smells now. She has this skunky smell and lately I can smell her breath. Everyone else still says she’s one of the only dogs they know who’s breath doesn’t smell, but to me when she’s panting her breath can stink up a whole room … yes … that’s how hypersensitive to smell I am lately.

I did catch a break this week – for the first time in months! I spent yesterday enjoying normal smell. I know it sounds weird. I m sure the whole last half or maybe this whole post sounds strange (the wonders of migraines and migraine medications?) but this is my life lately. Anyway .. yesterday was my first normal smell day in ages and you don’t know how nice that was.

I saw my family doctor yesterday and I told her that I had a normal sense of smell and she said she really thought it was my migraines that was causing the hypersensitivity.

It’s true that migraines can cause people to be extremely hypersensitive to smell … but if that’s true that would mean that since October or perhaps even earlier, I’ve been in a constant state of migraine that’s only just broken … that’s terrible! I actually do believe that’s possible because ever since mid-September or so I’ve had these flashes at the side of my eyes (I call them Roman Candles going off). the flashes happen every five minutes or so taking turns on each of my eyes (yes another very weird thing I’m living with). My neurologist sent me to an Ophthalmologist in early November to make sure that there was nothing wrong with my eyes and that the Tomapax wasn’t causing Glaucoma or anything, and now both of them have come to the conclusion that my eyes are perfectly healthy so what I’m experiencing must be migraine auras … yes constant 24/7 migraine auras …. so why not constant 24/7 several months long hypersensitivity to smell too? I have had headaches and migraines during this time period as well, but not constantly.

Yeah .. my life has taken a weird turn … yes it has. Hopefully the increase in dosage of my migraine medication will turn off all of the migraine side effects the painful ones and otherwise. I’ll let you know .. I’ll also let you know if I forget any other strange things.