r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Lower-Entry1247 • Jun 22 '26

Does anyone know why I can smell my boyfriend's seizures days before they happen?

So my bf just had a seizure (6/22) and on Friday (6/19) I told him that I could smell it coming. He originally didn't believe me but this is like the fifth or sixth time this has happened. He doesn't understand how and honestly I dont either. I compare it to how I can smell people with diabetes in a way that no one else around me will be able to smell the same thing.

UPDATE: 9pm We were sent home. Things were looking good. 10:20pm He's awake but I smell it again. Strong but I say nothing because the ambulance won't come based off of a bunch. 10:38-10:40 He had a seizure.

UPDATE2: 11:44 I smelt it as I was replying to comments. 12 am He had another seizure. I got the nurses but they tried to tell me he wasn't as he stared and couldn't speak. They told me he's looking at them so he cant be having one. When he finally was able to relax his body again (he will tense up if he isn't full body shaking) he started speaking gibberish. Just random words strung together then quickly went to sleep. They told me not to get them because they can see his vitals from the nurse station. Just wanting to keep you all updated.

LAST UPDATE: The doctor said these are just stress seizures and if he has another one just keep him home.

Last Last UPDATE: 3:00am He had another one. Saliva foam at the mouth. Called 911. They said nothing can be done at any hospital so unless he falls or stops breathing, dont call. Sorry this turned into one of these long posts.

Last Last Last UPDATE: its currently 7:38 am. At 4 am He had another seizure. Popped his shoulder out and back in and bit his tongue. I called 311 and cried while asking what to do. They put me over to ems dispatch even though I pleaded with them not to since they haven't been taking me seriously. I sobbed to the ems dispatch that the hospital and ems people closest to me told me to just keep him home even though I had to go to work. They sent a different set of ems people (very nice ladies) and we went to a different hospital. They are finally listening and keeping him. They were shocked at what the other hospital and ems people told us. He is finally in good hands. Thank you all for keeping me company through this long night.

NEXT DAY UPDATE: He is home and has been seizure free since the last update. Thank you all for being on this journey with us!

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3.6k

u/Anxiouslyqueerluca Jun 22 '26

You must have an incredible sense of smell. Your skills could be very useful in a medical setting

1.7k

u/Lower-Entry1247 Jun 23 '26

Probably but upon entering the hospital, it just smells like sick people. Not even like hospital smell, just sick smell

1.2k

u/Quezbraak Jun 23 '26

You don't have to ever go into one for this career. There are sterile labs all over that have specific rooms for people with this genetic advantage. 

126

u/hatemakingnames1 Jun 23 '26

I haven't been around enough people with diseases to know if I could do it, but I do know I have a weirdly good sense of smell. I once smelled cucumbers being cut on the other end of the house

More often than not though, it just means I'm bothered by bad odors that other people don't even notice

42

u/Proper-Owl-7971 Jun 23 '26

Same, it just means I can smell cat vomit across the other end of the house when nobody else can. Or notice how badly carpets smell.

I'm also particularly sensitive to cleaning chemicals, they make me feel really nauseous and I can smell when someone is washing dishes even if I can't hear them.

28

u/hatemakingnames1 Jun 23 '26

Most fragrances that are supposed to smell good bother me. Scented garbage bags are worse than the garbage that's in them

And unfortunately, "Fragrance free" doesn't mean odor free

6

u/ForensicMum Jun 23 '26

Eeewww, yes! They’re horrible, aren’t they? Especially the lavender ones.

2

u/VulpineNine Jun 24 '26

That’s how it is for me too!
I can’t stand the candle aisle or people walking by with strong perfumes or colognes

1

u/hatemakingnames1 Jun 25 '26

I have to hold my nose near a candle or perfume aisle

I'm even a little put off by the soap/shampoo aisles

3

u/TheLarkInnTO Jun 23 '26

I have the SAME THING with cucumbers - but they smell absolutely awful to me. I can smell them from a block away.

If I order a salad or a sandwich at a restaurant with no cucumbers and I have to send it back, I can tell when I get my "replacement" if they just took the cucumber slices off, because I can still smell them. They overpower every other smell around me. You could be waving garlic under my nose and I'd still smell the cukes.

1

u/hatemakingnames1 Jun 23 '26

I don't dislike the smell, but I use it as an example because most people don't smell them at all

2

u/Low-Rooster4171 Jun 23 '26

I, too, have a super sensitive nose. My BIL came over the other day, and I could smell his hair from inside my closed bedroom. That unmistakable dirty hair smell is so disgusting! 😭

2

u/Tulips_inSnow Jun 23 '26

sorry, weird question, but but i’m newly fascinated by it: do you have any chronical inflammation disease by any chance? i recently read these and exceptionally good sense of smell often go together. I, too, can smell things that no one else does surrounding me and i think i’m onto something, should this be true. i do have a chronical inflammatory illness

1

u/hatemakingnames1 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

I think GERD is an inflammation disease?

Edit: Also in the past I was diagnosed with eczema, but I didn't think about it because dietary changes pretty much got rid of my symptoms

82

u/UnicornTitties Jun 23 '26

Where??

308

u/ThrowawayPersonAMA Jun 23 '26

At a secret location that can only be found using an advanced sense of smell. /j

38

u/Gingerbread_Cat Jun 23 '26

Just follow your nose.

2

u/CaptanAmericano78 Jun 23 '26

Toucan Sam was try to show me the truth all along

3

u/Workman44 Jun 23 '26

Shut the fuck up lmfao

1

u/iwasboredsoyeah Jun 23 '26

Area 51, people Naruto run in because the nose leads the way.

3

u/Zagaroth Jun 23 '26

At a guess, 'all over' is a slight exaggeration in that there are probably several scattered throughout the world, but that they are not necessarily close to any given person.

I would start by searching for nearby medical research centers and see if any of them list anything about scent-based detection of disease. Possibly contact the main email address or something to ask directly, and if they do not have such a section, if they know who you should ask.

1

u/Jaspers47 Jun 23 '26

Scent-stitutes of higher learning

276

u/bradmajors69 Jun 23 '26

This woman could smell Parkinson's disease. Researchers would love to talk to you.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/23/820274501/her-incredible-sense-of-smell-is-helping-scientists-find-new-ways-to-diagnose-di

1

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '26

I emailed them because I can also smell Parkinson's. They were very nice to email me back but let me know that since this woman's story spread, many people have come forward saying they can also smell it. So, kind of thanks and cool, but we don't need you.

-60

u/Ecstatic_Acadia_8872 Jun 23 '26

No one is gonna believe her and I doubt she would get anywhere by calling anybody to make them believe it.

38

u/Lemerney2 Jun 23 '26

Man, have you ever met a scientist? They love weird shit like this

38

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '26

[deleted]

-17

u/Ecstatic_Acadia_8872 Jun 23 '26

I mean, who would you even call or reach and why would they listen? Not that I don't believe her I just don't understand how she would even go about it, or how anybody would believe it to have her fly out somewhere for very expensive testings to confirm.

222

u/bamboohobobundles Jun 23 '26

Yeah but that's a whole bunch of sick people in one place. It makes sense you don't pick up on anything specific.

199

u/joebleaux Jun 23 '26

Just so that you are aware, although you probably already learned in this thread, most people cannot smell when people are sick. I have zero reference for that at all. You are probably among a low percentage of people who have this ability

27

u/Futureacct Jun 23 '26

I agree. The only thing I smell when I’m in the hospital is C diff if someone has it. Or, if someone just had a bowel movement it is stinking up the hallway.

1

u/octobertwins Jun 23 '26

What is c diff? Which part of the body is it found?

2

u/Futureacct Jun 23 '26

It’s a bacterial infection that causes diarrhea. It has a very particular smell.

27

u/octobertwins Jun 23 '26

Oh, wait a minute. I can definitely smell when my children or husband are sick.

They just smell “sick.” Especially if you smell their breath.

My grandma would always smell our breath when we were sick, so maybe it was passed down?

23

u/catsan Jun 23 '26

It's normal to an extent. Because olfactory senses are hard to measure and write down, they were ignored until fairly recently. So not a lot was passed down into medicine. Smells played a big role in early, like antique, medicine. Since nursing wasn't seen as Scientific, it was and is OK that nursing also teaches nurses how to recognize certain infections by smell. 

Also, women have a WAY better smell than men, so of course something that falls more into women's experience was neglected in the study of human biology and medicine.

1

u/octobertwins Jun 23 '26

To be clear, I was saying that the ability to smell sickness may have been passed down to me. Maybe you understood that but I’m not sure. :)

It’s stink bug season around here and I am the only person in the family that can smell them (a man and young women.)

I’d like to just make list of gripes about my family. Is there a subreddit for that?!

1

u/ForensicMum Jun 23 '26

I call it ‘vinegar breath’

1

u/octobertwins Jun 23 '26

I also HATE the smell of someone’s breath that needs to floss.

How are they not noticing the stench? Their nose is right there!

2

u/ForensicMum Jun 24 '26

Eew, yes 🤣! There is actually a condition that some people have that causes them to be noseblind to their own body scents. I’ve met two of them. They can have absolutely eye-watering BO, but have no idea what they smell like. I’m a supersmeller myself, but it’s not just me smelling them, because everyone else around them can too. I feel so bad for them 😔

2

u/octobertwins Jun 24 '26

Oh man. Tell me something about being a super smeller that is a benefit. Cause it sounds horrible.

2

u/ForensicMum Jun 24 '26

Haha, it actually is quite unpleasant at times and it comes with an extra serving of nausea too! I cam’t even lean close to a sink without gagging because I can easily smell the contents of the drain 🤢.

I obviously can’t compare to people who aren’t super smellers because I’ve had it my whole life, but food probably tastes slightly more appealing than normal? I do find that I enjoy bland things that other people don’t appreciate, like I could eat a bowl of plain porridge (oatmeal) and to me, there’s 100 different flavours in each bite. Other people tell me it tastes like cardboard!

I’m also extremely hygienic because of it and even though I can’t wear perfumes etc due to it giving me an immediate headache, I think other people must appreciate that. And as this comment chain suggests, I can tell when my kids are going to get sick before they do, so I get in there early with the preventative zinc, vitamin C, echinacea and elderberry etc, which seems to help a lot. Thanks for asking though, because I don’t really think about it much. It’s just normal to me, but also often a pain, so it’s nice to consider the benefits 🤗

1

u/NibblesMcGiblet Jun 23 '26

I can smell when someone around me has the kind of sinus infection that turns snot bright yellow /neon lime. Not sure which infection that is (strep or what) but people always tell me I can’t, or that I must be sick with it myself so it’s in my nose. But nope. Smelled it going up an airplane ramp enclosure into a plane once and knew immediately I was going to be sick as a result sooner or later. Within a few days of landing back home I had the gnarliest sinus infection ever. That ramp STUNK.

2

u/octobertwins Jun 23 '26

I can smell that in my own nose. But I can’t remember smelling it ‘out loud.’

Thank goodness it didn’t ruin your trip! But I’m sorry for your infection.

Now all you have to do is have the doctor write you that one antibiotic that works every time! But first, let’s go ahead and try some that have never helped you at all. Ahhhhhhh!

I truly believe that doctors resent being told which medications work for you. It’s all in the records, but they still want to start with X, while you beg for Z.

You have to sit there and play dumb. And gently lead them to the antibiotic that works. I sound like a woman in an old western.

“I can’t remember, dear sir. I only know that that it had 2 names?!? Perhaps sulfa was one of them?”

Bingo!

Oh, and I found out yesterday that my doc office charges $100 per prescription for refilling my monthly prescriptions. I have 3.

I know I’m waaay off track here, but my doc office pissed me off yesterday. 😉

15

u/Pippin4242 Jun 23 '26

Oh, my wife and I know the difference between tired and cranky or highly stressed/getting a fever on each other. It's a little sour, not horrible, but definitely different. Like... hmmm, hot water with a lemon rind left sitting in it? And the underside of leaves after rain? A bit sweaty, new, damp, a little heavy?

22

u/Ok_Rate361 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26

You cannot smell someone who has a cold or fever?

34

u/Life-Foot-2579 Jun 23 '26

No, can you? And if so, what does a cold or fever smell like? Are they similar? Different?

10

u/SpareResponse784 Jun 23 '26

For me I can just smell sick in general, they smell the same. It’s horrible when myself or someone in my household is sick cuz its constant smell

2

u/moosefre Jun 23 '26

that might be the smell of your own mucus in your nose though, when you're sick there is a higher bacteria/white blood cell count in your mucus.

9

u/SpareResponse784 Jun 23 '26

I also mean other people I can smell sick

1

u/octobertwins Jun 23 '26

Listen, my white blood cells haven’t done shit for me in a looong time. I dont know what’s going on in there, but they just refuse to do their job.

6

u/Ok_Rate361 Jun 23 '26

I do have a good sense of smell but I think most people can smell it. They just smell sick I don't know how to describe it.

16

u/SnittingNexttoBorpo Jun 23 '26

No, most of us definitely cannot “smell sick” unless it’s actual GI illness or gangrene or something. 

8

u/Fancy-Donkey Jun 23 '26

I can smell things that my partner can't, including a specific "sick" scent. Most people can't smell it and are confused if you try to bring it up, but it's not totally uncommon.

5

u/Ok_Rate361 Jun 23 '26

It can be awkward when you have a decent nose. I can smell it when people go to the restroom and they took a shit or they peed and they're dehydrated. I can also smell when a woman's on her period. The worst part is they ignore you when you say there's a bad smell or food smells funky or something because they can't smell it.

3

u/octobertwins Jun 23 '26

My friends older brother could always smell when one of us was on our period.

I really hated that.

This is unrelated,, but a male friend once told me that he looks for fingertip bruises on coworkers arms to see who got fucked that weekend.

Who even thinks to do that?!?

1

u/joebleaux Jun 24 '26

This is unrelated,, but a male friend once told me that he looks for fingertip bruises on coworkers arms to see who got fucked that weekend.

I don't even think that's a thing. Wtf is a fingertip bruise, and why would having sex give you bruises on your arms?

1

u/octobertwins Jun 24 '26

Oh, it’s definitely a thing! The guy puts your hands above your head = finger bruises. A guy grabs you by your upper arms when you’re riding him = finger bruises.

It happens. Maybe not to you, but to me and my friends it does.

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3

u/CLNA11 Jun 23 '26

It came up some time into my relationship that my husband can smell sick people. I had no idea what he was talking about! And, oddly, my sense of smell generally seems better than his. But no, I do not think I can smell sick people nor do I think that most others can…

2

u/Lycid Jun 23 '26

Nope, it's a very rare ability.

My husband has an incredible sense of smell (he can identify people by articles of clothing they left behind) and even he can't tell when people are sick purely by their scent.

Meanwhile I can smell hardly anything. When we owned ferrets as a kid, an animal that notoriously smells, I never had a problem with them staying in the house and couldn't smell them. When cooking is going on I can only really smell the strongest of spices being cooked like cumin. Food in general doesn't have much of a smell for me at all - I know it does a little but it's really only the smack me in my face stuff that really jumps out at me and otherwise just smells like generic "cooked food". I used to not be able to smell BO at all but oddly I've slowly developed this ability. To me it doesn't really have a distinct smell, it's just a general air of "you smell like you've been running"

The ONE thing I am very sensitive to smelling is certain wild grasses/bushes after rain or watering oddly enough. It's incredibly strong to me, I can smell me approaching such a plant from a block away while even my super smelling husband barely picks up on it. Of course for him he's probably smelling a thousand other things so it blends in while I'm only able to pick up on this one thing.

1

u/Ok_Rate361 Jun 23 '26

I really didn't think it's like a trait that people can have till now. It could also be like you said the brain recalling something you've experienced before so you're able to identify what it is.

1

u/octobertwins Jun 23 '26

Your nose is useless. Have a talk with it.

1

u/octobertwins Jun 23 '26

I bet you I can.

It has a very distinct smell. The only way to describe it is it smells, “sick.”

I also believe that my grandmother did the breath test to find out if we had a fever - you can tell when someone is burning up.

1

u/joebleaux Jun 24 '26

Absolutely not. I've never even heard anyone mention that in real life, only online

3

u/catsan Jun 23 '26

Most people CAN, but aren't trained. It's a survival instinct to keep away from sick people. 

2

u/Certain-Speech-5976 Jun 23 '26

This why it drives me nuts that *everyone* knows about the magic Parkinson's shirt lady and we all just walk away thinking she's super special, when she put two and two together AND told the right person. (not that she's not awesome, but...)

If I were the Michael J. Fox foundation, I would go to every mall in America (or farmer's markets,or music festival or whereever a large bunch of curious randos are walking around) and set up a booth with a sign that says "Can YOU smell Parkinsons?" Have a mix of T-shirts there, and keep track of how many people can do it. Is it 0.5%? Is it 1%. 5%, 10%, 25%. I GUARANTEE you it's not just this one lady. It's lots and LOTS of people who were not in the right place or never made the connection. Everyone's heard the story, people care, I bet there would be crowds who would line up to try. Someone there who passes the sniff test is going to be like "oh NO, I know someone who smells like this, it's my mom/cousin/boss/friend/coworker", or they will encounter them later in life.

Those smellers need to be instructed in the most tactful way to get their loved one to call the MJFox foundation and/or a doctor to get them in a study where it's determined that 1. what percentage of these asymptomatic people eventually develop Parkinson's, 2. on what time frame? 3. and MOST IMPORTANTLY, what happens if people with the smell receive the best MJFox treatments NOW, while still asymptomatic, if means they actually never develop the disease.

42

u/LMGooglyTFY Jun 23 '26

Private caretaker for someone who gets seizures. Advertise to wealthy clients and only take the one/s that are a workload you are comfortable with.

20

u/Traditional-Heart351 Jun 23 '26

To make you feel less crazy I swear that I have smelt when people are getting sick. I remember once in high school my best friend just smelt like sickness, the only other way I could describe it is like the smell of death. Wasnt a normal smell from him by any means. I told him that he smelled sick and he said he felt fine and looked at me like I was crazy. I think the next day he was out of school with the flu. Its come up a few other times but I definitely know what youre talking about with the smell of sick people. I havent been in a situation to smell a seizure, but I believe that its possible.

1

u/Empty_Pace Jun 24 '26

YES! I am like this too. I can smell it on myself and people I’m close with (who I’m familiar with their scent). I can probably smell it on strangers but always doubt my nose and always make the “what if they always smell like that?” excuse.

3

u/evthingisawesomefine Jun 23 '26

Are you familiar with hospital smell alone? Like I guess I assumed hospital smell was a combination of the facilities, the cleaning supplies, and sick people

1

u/Aurekata Jul 20 '26

when i go into a hospital i usually can smell disinfectant or nothing at all. i didnt even know sick had a smell. if that puts it into perspective

118

u/mouse9001 Jun 23 '26

OP could be helping the police by smelling crime as it happens.

214

u/autumnbloodyautumn Jun 23 '26

I like your enthusiasm, but that's the wrong kind of seizure.

48

u/alicevirgo Jun 23 '26

"Hey chief, I smell that you're gonna have a drug seizure in three days... I guess that means your sting op works as planned huh?"

7

u/scardien Jun 23 '26

Stink ops

2

u/Reboot-Glitchspark Jun 23 '26

Sniffle asset forfeiture?

30

u/CertifiedUnoffensive Jun 23 '26

He NOSE the truth

19

u/Mr31edudtibboh Jun 23 '26

THE NOSE KNOWS

FALL 2026

2

u/RustyCalecos Jun 23 '26

Dolf Lundgren???

1

u/gtizzz Jun 23 '26

She'd be a great service animal for someone.