A man describes an insane feeling after smelling for the first time in his life.
For as long as he can remember, YouTuber James Chewbonic has never had a sense of smell and considers himself 'noseblind.' However, he underwent surgery to change this and shares with his viewers how it feels to smell for the very first time.
"It's very weird being told that you're going to get a sense of smell when you've never had one in your life," James explained before his surgery.
His medical journey jumped from doctor to doctor with no professional able to determine why he could not smell.
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After spending two years on a waiting list, James finally got his opportunity that would change his life.
Prior to his surgery, James was warned about the risks of the procedure such as 'non-stop bleeding or spinal fluid leaking.' Worse still, doctors told him he might not even gain his sense of smell after the surgery, which made his odds worrisome.
The night after surgery, he decided to test things by spraying cologne on his wrist, but to no avail.
"I can't even breathe, let alone smell," the content creator said.
He tried every day and night for a week after surgery, while his ability to breathe through his nose returned, his sense of smell remained absent. Soon after, James tried a sinus cleanser to increase his chances of unblocking his sinuses and triggering his sense of smell.
Then, day 13 changed everything.
Although James said he couldn't smell the perfume on his wrist directly, he felt 'something was different.' To test it further, a few hours later, James tried pouring hot sauce over his food to see if it would spark any sensation.
"That's so weird," James commented. "It's the back of my throat."
He added: "I really don't know how to describe it."
Over the following week, James tested his nose on a range of smells, everything from spirits to flowers, biscuits and perfumes.
Out of everything he tried smelling, he successfully detected 76.47% of items. However, when it came to his smell accuracy, which is how well his descriptions matched other people's, he scored 67.5%.
"So there's a few times where my brain completely misinterpreted what they're mean to smell like and it just took it for something else," James explained.
For one, he thought chocolate smelt like 'how bicycle tracks look' and mosquito repellent 'smelt like dessert.'
Over the course of his experiment, James discovered that he is 'more perceptive to things which smell sour or sweet.' Meanwhile, he felt he couldn't smell things like dish soap, hated the smell of flowers and thought Marmite was 'maybe the worst smell of all time.'
After 11 months post-surgery, James was amazed by how everything in the world has its 'own unique smell which is almost like their identification.'
"While so many of them smell bad [...] the good ones make it worthwhile," James concluded.