Sensing Scents

I was walking down a mostly deserted hallway at the cancer center, and suddenly was overpowered by the smell of pepper - that strong, fresh peppery smell you sometimes get when you open a picnic basket that has been packed away with one of those cardboard containers of pepper.

I glanced around, peeked into office windows, but could not find the source of the smell. Ah, well. My nose must be off. Certainly my taste is not working properly. Sweet things taste like plastic to me, salty barely tastes salty, and spicy tastes somewhat tinny. Sometimes when I bite into something bland, my whole mouth goes berserk and puckers as if I were eating the most sour thing in the world.

I pushed the button for the up elevator, and when the doors swooshed open, I was bowled over with the sweet odor of roses. Must be the last person in the elevator was drenched in perfume! It was so strong I had to hold my nose. I mentioned it to a young lady who got on after me, and she didn't seem to know what I was talking about. Hum - peculiar.

I stepped off the elevator and into the parking garage and was immediately overcome with the smell of new tire rubber and new car smell like you encounter in a showroom at a dealer's. Wow. I don't remember smelling that when I came in.

My nose must suddenly be super sensitive for some reason. I wonder if the chemo burned away the years of pollution and gunk and I have reverted to the sense ability of my youth! The boys tell me I have a sensitive nose as it is (I can always tell when they have burned something), but now I am in overdrive. I wonder if it will last!