Bad smell during chemo - is this true?

I don't think he's just being nice,it's probably true.I never smelled any different during chemo,and neither did most people i know who have been through it.Probably just your mind playing tricks on you.Don't worry about it,you have enough on your plate for worry.hang in there and good luck with your treatments.

Kathi

My girlfriend always took me to my appointments and she would often mention that she smelled something. It would always annoy me, but I would tell her, "yes, it's me". Even my cat would notice the smell, always sniffing more than usual after my treatments.

My kids, since they have no tact, would tell me that I smelled like chemo during the AC. I am on Taxol now and they don't report the same thing.

I do sweat less, so it is not a typical body odor issue, just a chemical smell.

I don't think I smelled bad during chemo in general- my hubby didn't think so. I did notice towards the end that I could smelled "like chemicals". Not offensive- just weird.

I totally notice a chemo smell.  It is kind of sweet and icky. i HATE it.  But, my dh has assured me that only i smell, he does not.  He really has a nose for smells.  I asked him if he was just saying that to make me feel better and he said no.  I totally smell it, the first week after a treatment.

Verene

I remember that my urine smelled terrible until the chemo had been flushed out each time.  I don't think I smelled, but if I smell certain things that I did during chemo, like certain Plug Ins, etc., I get nauseous now.  Good luck. 

I didn't notice anyting different until about the 2nd round but I did smell different. It smelled like chemicals, my husband noticed it too. It only lasted about a week and a half after each treatment and once chemo was done for good it was gone too.

I went thru chemo from September till January (TC x 6).   I remember notiching that I had a distinct, different smell......I said to my husband once that I thought I smelled like an elderly person in a nursing home??   It was hard to explain.  I often would get in the tub, not only to allieve my aches and pains, but to try and get the "stink" off me....(LOL). 

Whaeva mine was definitly chemo smell. Wosmell it on my pillow when I woke up sweating. First tx, I couldn't figure it out and kept looking for cat litter around, my DH said he didn't smell anything. Then I realized it was me. ick! But only I smelled it. I also smelled it in my pee, but I kind of expected that. I also smell Herceptin now that I am just on that, so no, you are not crazy.

I am so stuffed up from chemo I can't smell anything. No one has said I smell. I hope I don't.

Scientific America had a short article recently which explained why some people can smell a strange smell in their urine after eating asparagus. Turns out it is even more complex. Some people metabolize the constituents of asparagus so their bodies eliminate the wastes with a different smell. But only some of those people can actually smell it.

So. I think this means that each of us metabolizes the chemo (an food) in a slightly different way, some of us produce wastes that some of us can or cannot smell.

I am a smeller. I could smell the chemicals after chemo (docetaxol), and I can smell herceptin. I can also taste and smell the heparin flush given in my port pre and post herceptin.

I have a very acute sense of smell and during AC my smell ability was overwhelming.  It did make me sick at times, smelling food smells and breath smells and I nearly threw up when another patient brought in a breakfast sandwich into the chemo room...but I never smelled bad, and no one else ever complained, nor did I smell anything on my clothes, and I haven't read anything about this in the many pieces of breast cancer literature I've read. 

I did TCH X6 and I smelled it too...not bad, just different.  DH did not notice anything but I could smell it on my pillow and in my clothes.  My sense of smell was heightened too and plug-ins made me nauseous too.  I am 5 months PFC now and on Tamoxifen.  I sweat like a pig during hot flashes but it's a weird kind of sweat....like all water, no stink!  Thank goodness cuz I'd be impossible to be around.  I couldn't smell or taste the drugs during chemo but I can taste and smell the Heparin used to flush my port too.  It's kind of nauseating and I have to look away while they are doing it.

HI:  Did any of you lose your sense of smell (almost totally) after treatment??  I sure did, and it was extremely high before. I don't know if it's the chemo. the radiation or the aromatase which I'm taking. It is and sounds trivial, when you look at the Big Picture and what we have been through.

 Sometimes little things makes us "feel better"; never wear my favorite perfumes any more

trudy

I definitely noticed a smell coming from my pores for about five days to a week after each T/C treatment. My family said they didn't, but I know that I did. It washed off in the shower, but came back later in the day.