Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Smells: Need I Say More?


Its no secret that I have some sensory challenges. Shoes don't get me started on shoes... Anyhow, last Sunday a woman in church was wearing a ton of perfume. Along with giving me a headache, my eyes started to sting. It was so strong I could smell it all the way down the hall until I was out of the church.


Yesterday, I had a nice chat with one of my Face Book friends Brad. (I've never met Brad, but that's beside the point...) Brad mentioned that he wants to become a Garbage truck driver! (Of all things a Garbage Truck Driver?! Brad if your reading this don't do it!!!)
Our talk reminded me of the time the kids and I were driving behind a garbage truck. It was a warm summer day and the traffic started to slow, its California traffic which means it goes really slow. The smell started to build up in the car and we all started to get sick. After an eternity, possibly at least one minute, I had to pull over as fast as I could because I thought I was going to throw up.

We all jumped out of the car, left the doors open, and proceeded to run away from the smell. Thinking back this might not have been a good idea, with a son on the spectrum, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and there was no way he was gonna run near the street. At a safe distance, I grabbed the kids and turned to watch the other cars continue behind the truck with no adverse reaction. At that point I thought, "wow, we must be a tad more hypersensitive then the other drivers." (Duh!) Anyhow, after a couple of minutes I did a smell test and decided it was safe to enter the car and begin driving again. We used an alternate route of course!
LOL my husband is the only normal one of us all...

2 comments:

Sue from Oz said...

We've been getting a lot of complaints about smells in the last 6-12 months from our 11yo - especially related to food. I think he has just gained the understanding / insight into what a large part of his food aversions actually are. Speaking of husbands, mine can't tell when the dish cloth needs changing. Yuk!

Chynna said...

I totally related to your post, Bonnie. I've always had a very sensitive sense of smell. And Jaimie is also very smell sensitive. And my son, Xander, has a gag reflex thing wtih any smell that isn't 'right.'

I guess we are a very smelly household too. LOL!!!

Thanks for this post!