Your lungs can smell odors very much like your nose.

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wmc
wmc Member Posts: 1,804
in Head and Neck Cancer #1

This is more directed to the ones with Having a Laryngectomy, referred to as Larys.  As a neck breather we really can't smell, and we can't hold our breath. We also have to swallow much different because we have no larynx where all the muscles that help you swallow hook to.

Your lungs can smell odors very much like your nose. Now I know many Lary's can still smell by keeping the lips closed and yawn. This will draw in a small amount of air through the nose. Also, if the wind is just right we can smell as well.

I can't really smell through my nose. I do however detect certain orders and was starting to think I have the Yawn working, except I'm not yawning. I first noticed this in cold weather as I could tell the neighbor had a fireplace going and it was burning wood. My first thought was this is great, I can smell. Then, because it was cold I zipped up my jacket up and covered my stoma to keep warm air. The smell was gone. I unzipped the jacket and low and behold, the smell was back. [Try it, it is crazy but works] So over the last year, I have noticed that I have smelled more and more. Just last week I went for my bicycle ride and there was an odor and it seemed to be all over the town. Not sure how to describe it but it was not a pleasant smell, more like a foul odor. As I rode I would zip up my bike shirt and the odor was gone so I zipped it down and the odor is back. When I got back from my 14 mile ride I mention it to my wife. She looked at me and said she smelled something as well when she went for her walk. Now just this last weekend my grandkids were over and I asked the youngest if he knew what garlic was or smelled like. He didn't so we went into the kitchen and I opened a jar of crushed garlic and let him smell it. Well, it was very strong and he didn't like it. I put the jar under my nose and nothing. I could not smell it until I lowered it below my stoma and then I knew it was garlic.

I hope you find this helpful and even interesting as well. 

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  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #2
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    Smell

    The human body is an amazing piece of Gods creative work. It can heal its self sometimes if not damaged to too bad and if you loses one senses it will compensate by using another.

     

    Makes me wonder how can anyone believe in evolution

     

    Tim

     

  • LiseA
    LiseA Member Posts: 266
    edited May 2016 #3
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    That's very interesting. I

    That's very interesting. I was intrigued by your post, so I read the entire thing.  How long ago did you have your surgery? Were you able to "smell" anything then? 

  • lornal
    lornal Member Posts: 428
    #4
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    Smelling

    Its amazing how our body compensates.  I haven't been able to smell much, but when I do, boy, do I smell it!

    Walked into a restaraunt last week - and the garlic was soooo strong - but in a good way.

    I wish it was only good things I smelled.  That bad sewer at one of the local McDonalds was bad.  I even called the owner's office to complain.  It is fixed now (I don't have to hold it - and I don't mean my nose!)

    Lorna 2007 & 2014 (Total laryngectomy - like Bill!)

  • wmc
    wmc Member Posts: 1,804
    #5
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    LiseA said:

    That's very interesting. I

    That's very interesting. I was intrigued by your post, so I read the entire thing.  How long ago did you have your surgery? Were you able to "smell" anything then? 

    My surgery

    I had my surgery Oct 2nd, 2013. This was my only option as my lungs were bad. With the removal of the larynx everything changes.  You don't get air through your nose so you don't really have any smell. My lungs can let me know what some odors are, like gasoline and bleach, burns. Swallowing has completely changed as all the muscles all connect to the larynx you need to swallow. You will get acid reflux if you didn't have it before, but I did. The upper sphincter muscle gets cut. I noticed that this telling odors with my lungs as soon as I was outside and knew I smelled a fireplace. I knew it was burning wood as well. Then I zipped my jacket up over my stoma [the hole I breathe through] and the smell was gone. Hiccups hurt now and a sneeze is about the worst. Your nose may trigger it, but you sneeze out your neck and I were an HME [filter] and have shot it across the room and startled my wife and she turned and said what the heck was that.

    Now for the normal person who breathes through their nose and some perfumes or hairspray bother you, it is your lungs the odor is bothering. I think that losing one of your senses the others get stronger. Now if air goes in my nose it will still work, it is just that no air really goes through it.

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