Having a CT scan next Tuesday because my sense of smell is damaged - scared

[shocked2]

I posted about my health "issues" when I had numbness down one side for about 12 hours but my main issue is that I smell things which are not there. Also my own sense of smell is diminished. The things I smell are: a sweet, musty, mouldy sort of smell, a medicinal smell and and a burnt smell.
I have terrified myself by googling all of this as a change in sense of smell can be indication of really horrible things like brain tumours and degenerative diseases like alzheimers - also lots of other awful things.

I suppose a CT scan is done to rule things like this out - however I have now known about the CT scan for a week and have another week to go before it happens. When it is dark or I am alone, and especially when I can smell the smell which is on and off all day, I am thinking very depressing thoughts about what I could have and that I may have die and leave my children (who are 5, 7 and 9). It doesn't help that my h and I do not get on so I mainly ring my aunt or my sister in the evenings.

I am posting to ask whether anybody has any experience of smell disorders. I have not recently had a cold or a sinus infection. Apparently you can have a sinus infection without knowing but in my whole life I can only remember one sinus infection and that was a long time ago.

Thank you very much.

I was like you a few months ago, had very painfull ribs and funny spasms, could not tell if I had a bone or muscle or something else problem. Had a CT, had dark thoughts like cancer etc and leaving my children. So nervous in the morning had terrible runs.

But it turned out I had extra bones that hold three of my ribs with little movement, which cause the muscles to seize up and cause the pain etc etc.

The CT was ladies were really nice and the experience was OK, I had die injected into me beforehand as it was a contrast CT. I had to wait another 10 days for the results and my GP phoned me at home which made me panic! But it was Ok in the end, so please remember it does not just show bad things, it can show other muscular and skeletal issues that may very well be casuing you issues, DH had a bad sense of smell but had masses of scar tissue deep in the nasal cavity after bing hit on the nose with a cricket ball years ago, he had it all lasered away so he could breath and smell better!

Try ans distract yourself to stop worrying. X

some foods are linked with weird smells, eg like nuts, also a crumbled filling might be linked to metallic smell?.

Zinc deficiency can also cause smell disturbances. Funny enough, my friend said she used to smell musty smell around and it later turned out her ds had a fungal infection - and zinc deficiency is linked with low immunity and susceptibility to fungal infections..

I hope nowt serious is found.

Thank you carocaro and nightcat for your kind words. I understand about having the runs carocaro! I bet you were so relieved to find you had the extra bones!
Thank you for telling me about zinc deficiency and fungal infections nightcat. I am vegetarian and so apparently more prone to zinc deficiency though I don't know if I am actually deficient... I do also wonder if I have a fungal infection but I know little about them and have no other symptoms so it's a bit odd.

And fwiw, the olfactory hallucination thing happens quite late on with Alzheimers, IME - dh's mother had that, but not till she'd been diagnosed ages before from far more obvious symptoms.

My dad has this strange smell and blood in his mouth in the morning which is not coming from his chest. He had a cam up his nose to check his sinuses, all fine, was sent for a sinus and brain scan which found an enlarged vessel in his brain but this is nothing to do with smell/blood he's having further testing on the vessel. In his case he has been discharged by ENT because they can't find a cause for the smell/bleeding.