Phantom smell - not Covid

[Albless]

Posting here for traffic and to see if anyone else knows what could be causing this.

When I woke up yesterday morning I could smell a strong sickly sweet blackcurranty smell - closest thing I can think of would be the kind of smell from vaping. I don’t vape but sometimes have been enveloped in a vape cloud when walking behind a vaper.

Went for Covid test - PCR - which has come back negative.

Still experiencing this strange phantom smell. It’s not constant, comes in waves and very strong. Otherwise my senses of smell and taste are normal.

I live alone and there is nothing in the house which smells like this.

Any ideas?

Do you suffer from migraine? Could be the prodrome / aura.

Sinus infection?

Is it your breath? If so I would call 111. Needs checking as can be a sign of diabetes. Although that smell is more described as pear drops.

@SummerHouse

Is it your breath? If so I would call 111. Needs checking as can be a sign of diabetes. Although that smell is more described as pear drops.

Not my breath, no.

I smell cigarette smoke when I’m getting a cold. It started in my 30’s. Apparently it’s your brain getting confused by the changes in your airways caused by the cold virus. Could be similar?
Or migraine?

@SoddingWeddings

Do you suffer from migraine? Could be the prodrome / aura.

Sinus infection?

I don’t get migraines, no. Although a couple of times I’ve experienced painless flashy-lights-around-peripheral-vision episodes which I wondered might be some kind of migraine.

Might be sinus infection as I now have slight feeling of beginning of head cold - but might just be overthinking that!

I smell all kinds of weird things at the moment due to pregnant

@Saz12

I smell cigarette smoke when I’m getting a cold. It started in my 30’s. Apparently it’s your brain getting confused by the changes in your airways caused by the cold virus. Could be similar? Or migraine?

That’s interesting. Is it always the same smell?

@romdowa

I smell all kinds of weird things at the moment due to pregnant

Definitely not pregnant!

But when I was, many years ago, I was super sensitive to smells.

That flashing sounds like a classic silent migraine - have a look at those too.

I've been getting this since February, but to me it smells of ketchup. I had covid in Oct and was vaccinated in Jan. Wondering if its anything yo do with that?
Am not diabetic and no infections.
Weird.

I had a sinus infection years ago and prior to it could smell burning sugar/candy floss everywhere, it drove me mad. I don't really need to go into details but what eventually came out was incredible (this should really be in Sporners corner).

Is someone actually vaping in a neighbouring property / outside your house?

Do you have a blackcurrant up your nose?

I had covid in October, suffered badly with sinus pain and lost my smell/taste for 3 weeks. Since then a lot of things smell like tea to me - most hand soaps, washing up liquid, drinks, perfumes, cleaning products. Very odd.

I would like to hear any possible explanations for this too. For the last month or so I have been getting a strong smell of cigarette smoke at random times – not constant – with no explanation. At first I only noticed it during the day so I assumed my neighbours had workmen outside who were smoking near my window but then it happened a few times in the middle of the night and I thought I must be going mad!

To my knowledge I don’t have any infection (including covid), diabetes or migraine and I am definitely not pregnant. I did have my first AZ vaccine in the middle of March with minimal side effects the next day, so I didn’t suspect any connection but it is interesting that other people have started experiencing phantom smells this year and it’s not just me.

In that case since you are seeing the flashing lights too you could be getting silent migraines. So you get the aura etc but not the headache

We had a sweet fruity smell in our house recently - it was a long-life lightbulb getting to the end of its long life! If it’s only present when the lights are on, it could be that - or check your other electrical appliances, as pre-smouldering electrics can smell very strange, and the melting plastic often has a sickly-sweet smell...