Leave me alone, I know when I have a fever! Whenever rum smells like a carnation, I’ve got a fever!
–Loco/How To Marry A Millionaire
Proust had his Madeleines, Loc had her rum. Me? Pencil shavings.
Every once in awhile, I find myself asking people if they smell pencil shavings. Normally that gets me a strange look, followed by “no, why would I smell pencil shavings?” Then I have to explain. When I smell pencil shavings, I am going to get a migraine. Even before the classic visual aura, I get an olfactory hallucination. Pencil shavings. To be specific, it is the smell of the pencil shavings inside those hand cranked pencil sharpeners that used to be on the walls of every classroom. Maybe they still are.
Back in the bad old days, it meant I had about 40 minutes until a really bad headache hit me. Since that meant losing a good chunk of my peripheral vision, it also meant leaving wherever I was so I could still see to drive home. If I was lucky, I could delay it or cut down the severity of I had a cup of very strong coffee and a cigarette immediately.
Now, I have drugs that will keep me from getting a headache at all most of the time.
It’s fascinating to me that my own brain can play such a trick on me. What good do you suppose it does me to smell pencil shavings? What’s the evolutionary gain? Or are pencil shaving smellers doomed in some way? The visual disturbances could be of some utility. In the days before migraine medication, the visual aura would tell me to go somewhere dark, and go horizontal. When the pain it, it wouldn’t be quite as bad.
Pencil shavings? They make me feel slightly sneezy. Hardly an evolutionary boon.
The phenomenon is called phantosmia. Google tells me that phantosmias are rare. Less than 1% of migraine patients report them. Usually the odors are unpleasant. Burning or smoky smells are the most common, followed by decomposition or sewage odors. My own doctor said that none of her migraine patients have ever mentioned smell hallucinations, but I wonder if that’s because doctors don’t usually ask about it?
Anyway.
I took my migraine medicine. The pencil shavings are fading away. I’m feeling a little stupid, like I do on migraine meds.
My point?
Well…I don’t know? Do I need to have one? Imaginary pencils that get sharpened have imaginary points.
So does my blog.