A woman who spent two weeks cleaning her house from top to bottom after becoming convinced she could smell something “repulsive” in the air has revealed the true reason behind the alarming scent.
Brooke Aliceson from Watertown, New York, told Newsweek of the extreme lengths she went to in trying to rid her home of what she describes as a “repulsive and disgusting” scent.
“I moved everything in my house around making sure it wasn’t something underneath, behind, or otherwise forgotten about,” she said.
“I cleaned the trash can, took the trash out extra frequently, went through all the food in the kitchen, used a mop on the walls floor to ceiling, washed my curtains with so much fabric softener so they’d smell extra good hanging up.”
When all of that failed to make a difference, Aliceson said they essentially gave up on trying to find whatever it might be. “My husband eventually just threw his hands up and said ‘I can’t smell anything!’” she recalled. “We both laugh about it when I smell something non-existent, or from a ridiculous distance.”
It was only then that something clicked for Aliceson as she realized what the emergence of the smell had coincided with.
“I found out I was pregnant around four weeks, the same week it started,” she explained. “As I was mopping the walls it hit me that I had just found out I was pregnant.”
Aliceson and her husband already have a one-year-old daughter and, as she recalled, it had not always been an easy pregnancy. While it’s not uncommon for women to experience so-called “pregnancy nose,” a term referring to a heightened sense of smell while pregnant, Aliceson’s situation was a whole other level up.
“With my first pregnancy I had hyperemesis gravidarum which is a fancy way to say I was extra sick and unfortunately it had returned,” she said.
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, hyperemesis gravidarum occurs in up to three percent of pregnancies, resulting in severe nausea and vomiting. It can cause a woman to lose five percent of her pre-pregnancy weight and other problems related to dehydration. Hyperemesis gravidarum can sometimes require hospital treatment, to stop any vomiting and help restore body fluids.
Aliceson still has difficult memories of her experience the first time around. “It started subtly with just a high sensitivity to things around me, like knowing my husband is microwaving chicken nuggets on the other side of the house through closed doors,” she said.
“It eventually turned into smells being unrecognizable and repulsive when no one else can smell anything. It’s hard to describe the smell but it’s basically everything that could be stinky in a house all at once and amplified, like the trash can, dirty diaper bin, any food that’s been cooked recently, the pets. Anything that can stink, will stink.”
She recalls taking extreme measures to combat the issue. A curtain was hung up between the kitchen and living room because the food “just existing” in the kitchen would make her sick.
Aliceson and her husband are expecting a boy in April 2025. Until then, she’s accepted the fact that her situation is not going to improve anytime soon.
“The smell has not gone away,” she said. “I am coming up on 12 weeks pregnant and no end in sight. With my first the wild symptoms ended around 30 weeks so hopefully sooner than that!”
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