Mad scientist
It is fascinating how interconnected everything in our body truly is. One small thing has the power to alter one major thing.
I'm not gonna' lie the doctors office this morning was like walking back into a time warp. The instruments were not the new shiny kind with lots of bells and whistles. Instead they were dull, the kind of dull that tells you that they are well worn, used for specific purposes over and over. The Doctor himself looked like a bit of a mad scientist with a tie and shirt that didn't really match, his tie skewed just enough to make him appear a bit unkept. He spoke softly and gently, stopping me when the information wasn't that important or assuring me we would get to that when I had jumped ahead.
Taking blood from my seem to be second hat, as if he had done it a million times over, which I am sure he has. No gloves, I think because there isn't any fear of getting a disease and that it reminds us all that we are in it together.
Over and over in his soft voice he said, this has had to been life altering. The very same words that I have been speaking for some time now.
Small vials neatly in their rows, placed in their boxes. I sat with my feet firmly on the ground and stuck out my tongue over and over as the assistant placed three different drops upon my tongue. My job was to identify the one that was not water. After identifying the one that wasn't water, I had to try to identify if it was salty, sweet, bitter or sour. From there I had to give a number of how strong it was from 1-100 and finish with saying if it was pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. I had to say I think I have a really high tolerance because it took me what seemed like forever to get to the 90-100 range that allowed me to stop within those 4 categories. Taste was by far easier and more pleasant than the smell test in which I had to do the same sequence of events but in smelling them. I progressed to 100 very quickly with most being unpleasant.
If those things were not enough, I had to move onto a salvia test where a device was placed on my salvia gland inside my mout. Lemon juice was placed on my tongue very 5-10 seconds to create salvia and catch it in this specific devise. I was once again thinking about the mad scientist, performing a series of test to prove their theory. The truth is that it's not just a MD working to figure out the dynamics of what has happened with my taste and smell there is a biochemist that will be running all of the test and putting them together.
After careful listening and the first round of test, we do know the following. In November of 2016 I had bronchitis as well as smoke inhalation. During that time my brain began working overtime to override the smell inhibitors in my brain, the very thing that detects bad smell and the major inhibitor of the brain. Inhibitors are our protectors and in the process my brain wore the smell inhibitors out leaving me with a sense of distorted smell and taste. Clinically I now belong to a group "who have low levels of brain gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA).
The good news is that this thing that I have...this thing that has been driving me crazy for 6 months can be treated. It starts with stimulating the brain waves in a new form and new ways. On Monday, I'll back to the office for transcrannial magnetic stimulation where a small round magnetic device will be placed around various locations on my shoulders, neck and head. Again, these are magnetic pulses not electrical pluses. The magnetic stimuli are less than the strength of the field used to obtain and MRI.
After each simulus they will be asking me to smell an odor and again estimate the categories of salt, bitter, sweet or sour along with the strength (1-100). Once the TCMS is complete I will repeat the smell and taste test that I performed today in whole as well as the salvia test to gather more data for the mad scientist! The hope is that this will work . Some patients respond immediately yet others respond much slower and must eventually take oral medication in order to help.
This might be a very fast change but it also might take some time and might need some additional help along the way. Today was like watching a sweet old mad scientist listen and put all the pieces together. Amazing that they can put such weird things together
I'm not gonna' lie the doctors office this morning was like walking back into a time warp. The instruments were not the new shiny kind with lots of bells and whistles. Instead they were dull, the kind of dull that tells you that they are well worn, used for specific purposes over and over. The Doctor himself looked like a bit of a mad scientist with a tie and shirt that didn't really match, his tie skewed just enough to make him appear a bit unkept. He spoke softly and gently, stopping me when the information wasn't that important or assuring me we would get to that when I had jumped ahead.
Taking blood from my seem to be second hat, as if he had done it a million times over, which I am sure he has. No gloves, I think because there isn't any fear of getting a disease and that it reminds us all that we are in it together.
Over and over in his soft voice he said, this has had to been life altering. The very same words that I have been speaking for some time now.
Small vials neatly in their rows, placed in their boxes. I sat with my feet firmly on the ground and stuck out my tongue over and over as the assistant placed three different drops upon my tongue. My job was to identify the one that was not water. After identifying the one that wasn't water, I had to try to identify if it was salty, sweet, bitter or sour. From there I had to give a number of how strong it was from 1-100 and finish with saying if it was pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. I had to say I think I have a really high tolerance because it took me what seemed like forever to get to the 90-100 range that allowed me to stop within those 4 categories. Taste was by far easier and more pleasant than the smell test in which I had to do the same sequence of events but in smelling them. I progressed to 100 very quickly with most being unpleasant.
If those things were not enough, I had to move onto a salvia test where a device was placed on my salvia gland inside my mout. Lemon juice was placed on my tongue very 5-10 seconds to create salvia and catch it in this specific devise. I was once again thinking about the mad scientist, performing a series of test to prove their theory. The truth is that it's not just a MD working to figure out the dynamics of what has happened with my taste and smell there is a biochemist that will be running all of the test and putting them together.
After careful listening and the first round of test, we do know the following. In November of 2016 I had bronchitis as well as smoke inhalation. During that time my brain began working overtime to override the smell inhibitors in my brain, the very thing that detects bad smell and the major inhibitor of the brain. Inhibitors are our protectors and in the process my brain wore the smell inhibitors out leaving me with a sense of distorted smell and taste. Clinically I now belong to a group "who have low levels of brain gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA).
The good news is that this thing that I have...this thing that has been driving me crazy for 6 months can be treated. It starts with stimulating the brain waves in a new form and new ways. On Monday, I'll back to the office for transcrannial magnetic stimulation where a small round magnetic device will be placed around various locations on my shoulders, neck and head. Again, these are magnetic pulses not electrical pluses. The magnetic stimuli are less than the strength of the field used to obtain and MRI.
After each simulus they will be asking me to smell an odor and again estimate the categories of salt, bitter, sweet or sour along with the strength (1-100). Once the TCMS is complete I will repeat the smell and taste test that I performed today in whole as well as the salvia test to gather more data for the mad scientist! The hope is that this will work . Some patients respond immediately yet others respond much slower and must eventually take oral medication in order to help.
This might be a very fast change but it also might take some time and might need some additional help along the way. Today was like watching a sweet old mad scientist listen and put all the pieces together. Amazing that they can put such weird things together
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