So is this something that is particular to MS or because we are women and more than likely Moms. My olfactory hallucinations are quite a hoot also. My husband says he should write a book over what it is like to live with me.

I avoid the detergent isles in grocery stores, especially the dryer sheet areas. That particular odor gets stuck in my nose for hours, makes me nauseated and gives me a headache.
Febreze, air freshening sprays, scented cat litter and those things that get hung in vehicles to scent the air all have the same effect.

I wonder what is in that stuff...it feels like it might be a neurotoxin. Hmmmm....maybe spraying one of those air fresheners on the fence would keep the deer out of the garden.
Willy the dog would probably hate it though. Perfumes and scents like that make him sneeze.

With love, Erika

Like most people with Porphyria (and you posters as well) I have the nose of a hunting dog.
I am just like you in smelling things. However, to me, this sense of smell is a life-saver, as I am sensitive chemically to many of the things which smell bad, not ALL of them. It's very selective. I love lavender and orange smells when I can get them in a pure form. I even love rose, which my husband was VERY allergic to, so I didn't have rose soap, but now that he is gone, I use rose scented soap made at the health store with pure ingredients.
I lost both my job and my most recent church congregation because of the chemicals I could smell. I had had difficulty at work for years, just skirting around things and hanging on to my work, which I loved. Then one summer, while we were on vacation, they put in a new rug. This rug was so toxic, or else the glue under it was, that it sent several people to the hospital during the summer. The administrators were cutting holes in their cement walls (we had a building without openable windows), to allow air into the cubicles where they spent most of the day. It was in the entire building, three floors, where we had our offices and some of our classrooms.
The first week back, I could not teach. My brain went dead. Over the weekend I just cleaned out my office, wearing a carbon filter mask, and resigned. I knew they had had enough of me having to drop out ini mid-quarter, and that this would be the end.
This particular rug did have a bad smell, but not the worst one I've smelled, but the glue under it may have been the culprit.

I have told you already how I left my church here last November because they refused to clean the carpet with steam, even though one of the priests and I appealed to the Board. This was not the first problem like this--there were terribly toxic remodels of the kitchen and the office; the secretary told me not to enter the building where the new office was reeking clear down every hall. It is as if they chose the WORST possible toxic chemicals, and the reason was two-fold: they were a little cheaper; two, the people who put them in didn't believe there was such a thing as chemical sensitivity.
I feel justified in leaving the church, no guilt. But I feel utterly sad that this was to be my last church, and it failed. I had to leave other churches, both here and in Seattle, because of this problem. It is just the end of the road with attending church for me. I just can't tramp around looking for places that both smell OK and which believe the same things I do, more or less.