Changes in Taste, Smell, and Hormones After Brain Injury

I was in a car accident couple years back hit my head pretty with the airbag but didn't lose smell or taste but now I can not smell perfume food, cleaning supplies nothing and the only thing I taste slightly is salt this started three days ago just frustrated and annoyed at this point don't know what to do.

Has anyone had their sense of smell heighten after concussion? Usually I’m stuffy all the time. Now I smell too much and it’s making me so sick!

In February 2016 I got hurt at work falling on wet floor had a massive tear of rotator cuffs in shoulder was in physiotherapy then surgery in may then physiotherapy for months was back to work and doing work hardening for shoulder still. My family dr sent me to a neurologist because went for something and he said you are on phenobarbital and dilentin and you haven't had a seizure for forty years maybe you dont need medication my neurologist sent me for an MRI EKG and blood work then I was to slowly wean off my medication and start taking keppra at same time now maybe a week into doing this had a fall hitting my head on a desk falling on water in the next few weeks got worse but thought it was new medication combined with old medication giving me horrible side effects was not saying much in physio as I assumed it was medication finally looked up concussion. It fit what I was going through but said will diminish so thought I could work through it big mistake exhaustion emotions bright lights off balance memory crashing overwhelmed me brain shuts you down. Couldn't remember or figure out my medication so my neurologist said just go back to your original meds that you take then we will do the keppra when your better. You even cry for no reason my neck was In big pain also then they realized i had a bad whiplash also thank heavens for acupuncture helps alot my wife was cleaning the sink with bleach and couldn't smell it she grabbed the bottle because i kept trying to smell it. Three years later I have decreased sense of taste everything tastes bland. Oh yea I dont drink hardly at all not ever been into drugs but smoke a half a pack of cigarettes a day for some reason lost all craving for over thirty days for cigarettes but as I got better cravings came back. What was weird was for months had what I called alzheimers symptoms brain fog did things out of order then one morning felt better than good realized haven't paid any bills for over two three months went on my desk top to pay some got out my debit card which I dreaded doing my son always told me never save it to your desktop but when I'd go to enter it would always have to enter it three times and make mistakes and then leave it on my desk and go to work without it in the past anyways I looked at the card signed on and it went right in first time thought I got lucky afterwards realized card was still in my head looked at all my cards and they stuck also. Felt exhausted went back to sleep. A week later they were still there in my head as I got better my head felt like it was racing inside I had a compulsion to know things medical and scientific couldn't stop I would lay in bed thinking fifteen minutes went by and five hours had gone by doing research solving things putting puzzles of information together.Finally after three years it's not racing twenty four seven but have amassed a huge amount of information and solved so many things people look at me weird when I say things it's like I swallowed a dictionary so now I dont say much to avoid the looks. It turns off like a switch in my head on and off. I do suffer severe neck problems and ringing in my right ear decreased taste and sometimes smell weird odours you think brush my teeth maybe that will help. I do have a personality change not bad but understand so many things now very clearly and take fir granted that people know what I know but then I think before this happened I knew very little. Still experience a lot of daydreaming your mind wanders spelling is off now . But this overactive neurol pathway in my head gets bad at times. My head would always operate say driving on side roads but now it races at times on a highway I'm happy its diminishing it seems quieter inside my head. My balance is good but you feel a little off centre. For two months couldn't deal with movement no tv or cell phone would make me nauseous would lay still In bed in dark room glad that went away you recover from concussion but with weird side effects. Just wish the sternocleidomastoid would stop going into spasm with the upper trapeze muscles effecting the trigger points below the occipital muscle at the base of the back of the skull. See sounds like a dictionary. Remember were not back to normal but were alive in pain but alive.

I suffered TMI from car wreck in 1976! Concussion didn't even merit special attention in those days. I was unconscious for 10 days and while I was in hospital afterwards I can remember putting salt on my ice cream then eating it. Taste and smell never came back, and phantom smells (glue used in model aircraft kits most recently) have become more frequent. Sorry to say that, but of course everybody is different. At least we're not alone - don't know why that should help but it does.

I understand the reason of loss of taste & smell after a skull fracture. But, how is it that a person can now eat spicy food when they could not before TBI?

My boyfriend has had multiple concussions, the last of which was due to football. He hasn’t been the same since. His sense of smell and taste is at the point where he can really only identify things with a rich scent or smell. He takes longer to process things said than the average person does. It’s heartbreaking seeing someone change like that. His heart is set on football, it’s his passion. He loves it. But it doesn’t love him back.

Ten years ago a car ran a red stoplight and hit my SUV on the passenger side. The low hit flipped my SUV several times, spinning it like a toy top before it landed on all 4 wheels facing the opposite direction of where I was going. That was the day I should have died. Sometimes you get lucky. I walked away without a single cut or bruise. It never occurred to me that I had anything more than sore muscles. I was more concerned about picking up my daughter from school (I didn't know her name). A co-worker came to take me home,we stopped to get food and I noticed that it had no taste or smell. I got a call from the chiropractor office asking if I was bringing the kids in for their appointment. I explained about the accident & that I couldn't get there. Two minutes later the Chiropractor calls back, he is sending someone to get me. He does x-rays & compares with ones he took 2 months ago. Damage to C-1, C-2(Atlas,Axis. Brain stem), L-5,S-1 & tailbone.
He has known me for several years & said that I was behaving differently. I was stubborn & just wanted to go home,not to the ER.
Four months later I was still in constant back pain, not sleeping & assumed that was the reason why I couldn't remember things. I couldn't count, struggled with reading ,typing & writing. My taste in music used to be 80's pop or New Age meditation but now I was listening to hard-core rap & swearing constantly.
All emotional control was gone. It took 5 years of various doctors to piece together what was going on with me. I never thought that I was unconscious after the crash. Looking at 911 calls,police record,ambulance records shows 7-14 minutes that I can't recall. I never heard sirens.
Life is different now. The force of impact combined with the spinning caused many neurotransmitters to snap, others shifted so I get the wrong information. I drink a liquid but my brain tells me that it is "sawdust". I know that I have 2 younger siblings but have no memories of growing up with them. I can't identify female faces( including my daughter or my Mom). My quality of life will never be much more than what it is now. I require some adult supervision because I don't think to eat or drink. All parts of my brain were affected in some way but my family still loveds & supports me, even when I don't succeed. I'm 54 yrs old but behave like I am 20 sometimes. Just keep taking one day at a time. :)

I feellike I am the odd ball out. Sense I hit my head I am the opposite of most of the people here and would give anything to have the lack of smell. Instead I got increased sense of smell to the point it is a point of annoying. I smell food three rooms over. My migraine triggers are often so easily triggered. My sense of hearing ..yeup that too.
My sense of taste is unaffected. My family cant cook foods half the time without windows open an me throwing up.