Quadriplegic & Paraplegic Spinal Cord Injuries: Enhanced Senses Following A Spinal Cord Injury? - Quadriplegic & Paraplegic Spinal Cord Injuries

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#1 User is offline   sydneywheels 

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Posted 19 November 2009 - 10:47 PM

Hello

Just wondering if anyone has had this type of experience?

I'm a newbie T11 (March this year) and of late have found that my sense of smell and touch is much more acute. It's like I have the same sense of smell that a Vampire in True Blood has!!!! It's nuts!

Before my injury I didn't really notice much in the way of my sense of smell.

Today, it seems that I can smell things that I didn't before injury? One example, I'm now back at work and one of the lawyers that works for me (she has done so for the past couple of years) has this slight musky perfume that I had never smelt before. I asked her if it was new and she joked that she has been wearing the same perfume for over 3 years.

Another lawyer that works for me, also female wears some times these high heeled pumps. Again she was wearing them pre-injury. Now when she was in my office the other day wearing those shoes and I could smell slight foot odour whilst she was wearing the shoes.

There are other smells that I am now more attuned with in a sexual sense with my girlfriend, but that probably is unecessary to expand on here.

I must say overall it's a nice odd benefit. I now smell the breeze, flowers, the smell of cut lawn, etc...and enjoy those smells much more now post injury?

Anyone else have the same experience?

How is this happening?
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#2 User is offline   guido 

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Posted 19 November 2009 - 11:06 PM

I used to have no sense of smell - put it down to dust from ceramics as a teenager. Am L1 (2003) and noticed change in my sense of smell in Spring 2006 (or was it 2007). Really enjoyed it. Put it down to the breathing exercises I'd been doing. Maybe it's something else, like you say.

Like the idea of getting deviant with the smells of your colleagues! When they make the film, I hope they use real porn stars....

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#3 User is offline   Mac na Ceardadh 

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Post icon  Posted 20 November 2009 - 01:55 AM

Yes. I've noticed the same thing. Now, I always did have a fine sense of smell but these 20+ years since my accident I've noticed a much more acute sense of smell. I was out in the woods once and smelled "predator". When I told my companion, he laughed and said I was imagining. One minute later a mountain lion crossed our path, bloody from a fresh kill.
Just last night I was in the pub and was getting hanged on by a weird woman. I think she's got a fetish or summat. After returning home, I could still smell her, not just her perfume but the scent of her body as well. It took changing all my clothes and showering to get her scent off of me.

This evening a friend brought her new baby over...does anything smell better than a fresh newborn baby? *L*
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#4 User is offline   wheeliebear75 

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Posted 20 November 2009 - 08:59 AM

I guess maybe I never noticed anything because both my hearing & smell were so acute from a lifetime of being legally blind. I can smell the difference between Burger King, Car's Jr, & McDonald's from blocks away. :) It's not such a great thing to have when someone breaks wind. :)
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#5 User is offline   The Black Sheep 

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Posted 20 November 2009 - 10:41 PM

I haven't noticed any height in my smell or taste, but I definitely have something different going on in my ears. I HATE wrinkling paper. I don't know why, but something about winkling paper bugs the ba-jeezers out of me. It never happened before the accident.

I can hear higher and lower pitches more now too. If I leave my speakers on for my computer, but the computer is off, the high pitch hum bugs me... things like that. I never was this picky before the injury.
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#6 User is online   Ches 

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Posted 21 November 2009 - 04:15 AM

Yeah I noticed the improvment in hearing too.. I can hear a car park a mile down the road at times, and like you there are things I cant tolerate to listen too post injury, simple noises will make me cringe and get agitated very quickly.
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#7 User is offline   edlee 

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Posted 21 November 2009 - 04:23 AM

No change at all for me,,, but I do seem to pay attention to things that I didn't think about before. Things I smell, hear see,,, while my senses haven't become more acute,, I think I take a little more time with them than I did AB.
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#8 User is offline   Tetracyclone 

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Posted 21 November 2009 - 04:21 PM

My only acute senses pre injury were touch and smell. Hearing and vision were impaired long ago. Smell is the same, vision is a little worse, and where I notice change is some feeling senses within the muscles and tendons that I never noticed before. When i move my legs i feel none of the pre-injury sensations, but the feeling of muscles and especially tendons moving, stretching, and making friction against adjoining tissue is loud as a scream. It is very weird.
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#9 User is offline   M@CHINE 

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Posted 21 November 2009 - 09:43 PM

your sense of smell could be higher because ur lower to the ground beneath a person
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#10 User is offline   LuckyinKentucky 

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Posted 22 November 2009 - 03:58 PM

I have not noticed an elevation in smell or hearing but mine were quite good before hand. I have noticed a sizable improvement in dexterity and hand-eye coordination.
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#11 User is offline   fatcrx 

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Posted 22 November 2009 - 05:36 PM

i have noticed my hearing has become more acute, i hear background noises you wouldnt have noticed before and noises like people dropping things goes through my head
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#12 User is offline   sydneywheels 

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Posted 22 November 2009 - 10:02 PM

Come to think of it...sounds is more acute for me too.

Perhaps it is because I'm lower to the ground these days and can more readily pick up smells and hear sound as it bounces off the floor?

What about the imaginary sense of being touched in an affected area? My girlfriend often undresses me and sometimes when she is holding my legs I have this imaginary sensation that she's touching my feet. I swear she is touching my feet/toes but she is clear that she is no one near there.

When she actually touches kisses my legs, feet and toes even though I can feel nothing it sends me wild! Anyone else have that experience?
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#13 User is offline   goldnucs 

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Posted 22 November 2009 - 10:19 PM

I find that ass and armpits smell far more intensely now but perhaps that's because they're always getting stuck in my face down here; and elevators really suck! LOL :mfrlol:

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#14 User is offline   pistol_pete 

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Posted 23 November 2009 - 02:45 AM

Taste and smell improved vastly.... but I think it was because I was forced to quit smoking.
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