Page 27 - Changes and Challenges

Dementia
Changes and Challenges
The only way I can describe the scent is as sickly sweet. To me it was
overpowering and caused distress. I now find this reaction to many perfumes
and cleaning products. Lately I find the intensity of this reaction to be
diminished, not as overpowering as it was, but still powerful enough to cause
me distress. But I find the number of odours to which I am sensitive to be
increased. This has another impact I will discuss shortly.

My sense of taste is slightly diminished, but more importantly my ability to
combine smell and taste to interpret food is severely compromised. Indeed, it
is best to say these two senses we use together to derive pleasure from our
food are interpreted as acting independently for me. When I place food in my
mouth and eat, I am aware of its taste (sweet, bitter, sour, salty or umami), its
texture, and its temperature. The aroma is a separate sensation, and I can’t
associate with food in my mouth.

The result is food is either tastes bitter or sweet. Who enjoys bitter food with
no other flavour? For example, a common food like lettuce tastes bitter to me.
Any pleasant lettuce odours (if there are any) are lost on me. As such I have
developed what I believe is a perfectly understandable preference for foods
that are more sweet than bitter. This has led to some complications such as a
diagnosis of Type II Diabetes.

My solution to this (and I have tested negative for Type II Diabetes for two
years now) was to replace my favourite sweet marmalade for a muesli style
cereal with added fruit to provide a sweeter taste.

Touch.
Again, changes in my tactile sense was something I identified early on and
something that was disregarded by a neurologist. Sometime ago I placed both
my hands, palm down and side by side on a woven placemat. As I brushed the
fabric (about a 1mm weave) I realized I was getting a different impression
from my left to right hand. I rotated the mat to rule out variations in its
weave. This confirmed my impression that the difference was not the mat, but
in how I was processing the tactile input. I have repeatedly confirmed this
anomaly across many objects. For example, sitting here now I can rub my
thumb against my forefinger on each hand and have different sensations of

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