For about 6 months now, I have had a distorted sense of smell. I had a severe cold (bronchitis) last October. Since then, common smells (bread, peanut butter, coffee, exhaust fumes, poop) all smell the same to me. The smell I get is somewhere between burnt popcorn and burnt sugar. My doctor put me on a course of antibiotics (which didn't seem to help). I've tried the flo brand nasal irrigation pump (which doesn't help). I had a head MRI and ruled out any brain tumours, but did reveal polyps and a cyst in my sinuses. I finally saw an ENT doctor yesterday, but he had not heard of this problem (?) and claimed that the polyps and cyst were not the likely culprits and could be ignored. Or that it could be early Parkinson or Alzheimer. He suggested I see a neurologist and gave me a prescription for Efexor-XR (which is an anti-depressant med). I have researched here and other sites and the conclusion is that in time (how long is anybody's guess) my sense of smell might return.
Any suggestions or thoughts?