Loss of smell and taste after head injury

Greg,
Sounds like a horrific accident. I'm sorry to hear of this and the challenges. Do you do any Transcendental Meditation? Or listen to drumming ? There is a musician Jeff Strong. He does drumming- REI is the name of his company and books. He has a website and it's free to listen to drumming. He's not a PhD, so his works with autistic children have been ignored by the medical community.

Hi Celia16,
Hormones and Vitamin D affect our sleep schedules. My Vit D is low and so far my hormones are normal. The PA admitted she doesn't know a lot about hormones, so she ordered a basic panel. MDs are just ruling everything out. I don't have sleep apnea. One would think pills would work, ya ?

I'm working on it. (therapy)

Very sorry.

In 2015, my wife and I took my mother out to a nice lunch.

We were walking through a difficult parking lot, so I decided to walk on the outside of us three, to, you know, kind of be a monitor of sorts.

I was run over by an SUV. She did not brake at all, before she hit me.

Needless to say, I was banged up quite a bit.

First of all, no matter how dark the circumstances are....you have to understand that the pain and problems bias our thoughts. It affects the actual brain chemistry. So, we only see black. No light. No light at all.

That is an affect of the brain chemistry.

So, the solution there is to hunker down, do nothing and just wait it out. In time, some light will show through the opaque black cloud.

I have been in this fight longer than that car accident. I have been quite ill since 1983. In over 40 years, no matter how dark...eventually some light has broken through. Every time. In 40 years. You are not talking about hundreds of incidents, you are talking about thousands.

In 1982, I was a violent crime victim. I was kidnapped and held for a time. I eventually escaped. In 1983 and 1984, I became profoundly suicidal. I held a knife to my wrist or a bottle of pills to my mouth...MANY times. Honestly, I don't know how I am alive, but I am.

So, coming from the place of deep darkness that I have lived in? I can say, that no matter how illogical it may sound, there are always rays of hope.

May take some time for them to show. But hunker down, do nothing. Be a couch potato, binge watch old cartoons...just hang in there. Chocolate helps. We are friends.

I'll give some specifics in a second post.

so, I am the guy who was also run over.

I have tinnitus and vertigo. For those, whatever else you do, I highly recommend A LOT of rest. A LOT. I mean, if your doctor says he does not want you that immobile for longer periods of time...then, obviously, follow his advice.

For me, tons of bed rest ended the tinnitus and helped me manage the vertigo much better. In the beginning, I was doing 16 hours a day in bed. If your doctor agrees that you really should rest in bed 10, 12 hours a day...definitely do that.

And, of course, supremely key to healing is getting enough sleep. I have massive insomnia myself. But get in there and do battle with it. Whatever you have to do to get some better sleep.

One tip re insomnia. If you can't fall asleep for all of those 8 hours...still...spend a full eight hours in bed. At least your muscles will get the extended rest, if not your brain. Oh, you know, get up and walk around a few minutes every hour...but extended time in bed.

Hydrate.

Very very very few people actually hydrate enough. Now is not the time to do that. Body is almost entirely water, by percentage. Get those 8 glasses of water in you and every single day. Personally, I am not a fan of tap water. But tap water is ok. Better to get 8 glasses of tap water in you daily, then 6 glasses of the purest water on earth.

With injuries, I would really go with a premium mattress. Lots of folks do well with the memory foam. I do a pillow top mattress. If you are in pain, that means the pain is going to interrupt your sleep and you will get worse sleep if you are in pain. So, get a better mattress. For me, the memory foam ones stink to high heaven when they come out of the factory. I had to off gas that thing in a hot garage for months, over the course of a summer.

If something stinks bad...don't use it. Get the smell out first. You don't want whatever chemicals those are, in your breathing.

With head injuries, might want to go with a specialized pillow. I actually have a memory foam pillow. Much, much better than just any old pillow.

Deeper rest helps. For me, that includes periods of low light and low sound. Just somehow reduces the stress levels. If you find yourself with some time in the afternoon. Just go to a room, close the down, excise yourself from a lot of sound...and turn off the lights and just sit in a chair. Even 5 or 10 minutes of that, will often feel like an hour nap. Especially with vertigo. With vertigo, I often plug up my ears. When the sound is gone, the vertigo is definitely less. There are different kinds of vertigo...but, for me, that does help.

some more...

re anxiety crossing the street?

You should see me in a parking lot. I look like a spy casing the joint. I have to look into every single car to see if there is no driver...before I will walk past it.

So, you are definitely not alone.

What I can say about that is time. Over time, you will process all that stuff better. But don't worry about that now, just be patient with your fears. They will fade in time.

Re experimenting with essential oils? Even though they are natural, they often have strong chemicals. Natural, but strong. I really would not experiment with them...at all. I have severe asthma. I can get an asthma attack, from some natural essential oils. So, I would exercise caution there. And basically, I would not experiment with them, to test your smell. If you want, maybe experiment with some natural flowers...but essential oils are far too strong. That is to say, even if you don't smell it...that chemical is still getting absorbed into your body and eventually into your brain.

Sorry about the cooking. Try not to focus on the new limitations. That is really just banging our head into a wall. Try, if you can, focus on things that are easy to experience. Go easy on yourself. You are under no pressure to resolve this or that, in some kind of time frame. Take it easy.

Most of us folks out here who have been battered do find new things to enjoy, that we never looked to before. Now I know more of the constellations, the plants and trees and birds in the backyard. You know, I have seen little sparrow, fly through a fence, at speed, with next to no extra space. It is amazing. And there are endless amazing things going on around us all the time. We just have to slow down enough and be at enough peace to enjoy them.

And that will come in time. When the horror show first its...we are in trauma. And in trauma we can get to a place where we hate everything and everyone and not a single thing gives us joy. That kind of experience eventually starts to fade.

In 1983, I was holding a knife to my wrist. Since then, I did stand-up comedy and other performance work, have done extensive charity work and all sorts of things. Is there hope? of course there is hope. That thing that is telling you that there is no hope? That is just bad brain chemistry. You will see, one day you will actually get some decent sleep. You wake up. And then all the negative thoughts just are not there? Where did they do? They went when your brain was healthier and producing better brain chemistry.

The first time it happens to you, you just won't believe it. But it will happen for you. And, you know, then it will fade away again. We work the process and tiny bit by tiny bit...it gets better.

Is it easy? uh...no. no way. not even close. But we work it..and it gets better. Same will happen for you.

take care now.

yes, meditation definitely helps. There are many, many, many forms of meditation. If you have head injuries, it is likely that some forms of meditation won't help at all. You just have to find ones that work best for your situation.

You know, just sitting in a quiet room, listening to classical music is a meditation.

Personally, I love Gregorian chant for that.

Meditation does not have to be some kind of complex formula of mantras and such. Not saying those aren't good. But they tend to work best for, you know, a busy and agitated mind. Sometimes we just need something simple, peaceful and relaxing. Depends on your injuries and your nature...

My wife and I like relaxing nature videos. Here's one. Aerial footage of the Isle of Skye in Scotland, with some nice relaxing music:

very very sorry Scott. That must have been enormously difficult.

Excellent advice, thanks for caring about other folks on here...

I am a writer. I can tell you some tricks from creative writing. When we get writer's block.

I am not sure that most folks realize this. When you see a professional piece of writing...whether it is an article, or a novel, a play, a movie script...whatever...

That is not the product of someone sitting down and writing something. That is the product of someone writing something down...and then going back and doing a full TEN revisions of that writing.

It takes TEN pages of writing, to just have one good page.

So, an answer for you is time. Take time with your writing. Write something down. Let it sit there. Come back to it in another hour. Add another word or phrase. Add another descriptive word. Look up synonyms...

Let yourself be absorbed in the words. Most folks just rush through their writing. Just write something down...let it sit on the page. Get a cup of coffee and just muse over it. More words will come over time.

A friend of mine got a poem published in a major publication. Now, this is a true story. That poem was short, maybe 12 lines. It took her TEN YEARS to finish that poem! She wrote something and just would come back to it over time.

One key for memory is the senses. If you forget something, try to remember the feel on your skin of some wood, how cold the room was. Any memory of sense, should help bring out more memory.

Try to create a backstory. Or try to create a setting. So, say someone asks you, "How do you experience pain?" And the words won't come. Just go into your memory and remember some past experience of pain. Any pain. And just dwell on some memories of pain. It should help awaken your brain to a connection with that experience. But a memory, not an imagination. That is a different brain process.

That might help.

I mean, a neurologist experienced in brain injury would, obviously know more. I am just giving you my experience from memorizing lines, public performance, etc. etc. etc.

Those of us who have sustained powerful injuries do find progress. Time does make a difference.

So, you know, give it time, let the process work for you and you will find progress. Almost every single last one of us does find progress.

Take care now.

you wrote:

I also have traumatic brain injury. I lost my sense of smell and taste.
I’m new to this. So I do not know how to navigate through here. I have difficulty finding the correct words to express what I try to say. I forget to say my point in a sentence. It’s not easy to communicate. Gets somewhat frustrating. Beside pain and COPD
Breathing and heart. Anyone have any ideas on how to deal with this when trying to answer questions? Etc.

His website maybe StrongInstitute. Im unable to post the link bc of spam.