What is that weird smell?

Nurses General Nursing

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We have a patient in a long term setting. The patient is very clean, edges on neuotic he is so clean and everything has it's proper place,and the labels are turned just so. No Mess, not fility. Yet he smells really weird. We keep the door closed, because if you open it, the smell wafts out and nearly takes you out. I was wondering if it could be due to a fungus. Have you ever seen this before, and is there help for this man?

Trimethylaminuria ?

I remember this Primetime episode from a few years back about a teacher who suffered from this disease and faced cruel comments from her students and the public in general:

Here's an article about another teacher who also suffers from this disease:

Disorder causes smell that can't be escaped

Don't know if your pt. has this disease, but I wonder if his extreme cleanliness is compensation for his awareness of the odor.

Yahoooo!!! That's the disorder I was trying to recall. You just saved me a google search. I owe you a cookie. Do you prefer chocolate chip or peanut butter?

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
Yahoooo!!! That's the disorder I was trying to recall. You just saved me a google search. I owe you a cookie. Do you prefer chocolate chip or peanut butter?
Lol, chocolate chip please!

When the op said it was a smell that could clear the room, I remembered that Primetime episode with the teacher saying almost the same thing. A few Google searches later I found that article about the pre-school teacher and the name of the disease, and with that found the youtube of the original episode.

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Lol, chocolate chip please!

When the op said it was a smell that could clear the room, I remembered that Primetime episode with the teacher saying almost the same thing. A few Google searches later I found that article about the pre-school teacher and the name of the disease, and with that found the youtube of the original episode.

Well, lucky you because I ate the last of my peanut butter yesterday but have two bags of chocolate chips in my freezer. :)

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
Aside from the usuasl suspects... the bells are going off in my head trying to recall some (genetic, I think) malady that causes horrendous BO no matter how clean the person is. Has something to do with a metabolic disorder or inability to break down a certain chemical.

If I recall correctly, the only antidote is a change in some part of the diet and even then it is difficult to manage.

Grrrrr. Off to google...

Eeewww. Bring on da funk. :no:

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

They did a special on Discovery Health Channel (before Oprah killed it) about a girl with Trimethylaminuria (TMAU). Say that 5 times fast.

When I worked in derm we had a man who's feet smelled so bad from fungal infection that when he took off his boots in the exam room people out in the parking lot would almost pass out. No hygiene problem whatsoever. Really sweet guy, too. He went on course after course of griseofulvin and topical treatments galore. - nothing would knock it back for very long.

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Nursel56, it was on mystery diagnosis.. They described it as an extremely fishy smell. Love me some mystery diagnosis :)

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You stated he was a long-term resident. Is this a new smell or has he always smelled like this?

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Good point -- is this a new smell?

I agree about the potted plants. Especially with the really obsessively clean patients, I don't know why, but they water those plants with the strangest things.

Also, I've known some who put their dirty clothes and undies away in the drawers, and some who store leftovers from dinner in the back of the closets or under the bed.

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Specializes in ICU.
They did a special on Discovery Health Channel (before Oprah killed it) about a girl with Trimethylaminuria (TMAU). Say that 5 times fast.

That was Oprah's fault?! That was my favorite channel ever. Pretty much the only one I ever watched. Now I have to watch Jersey Shore.

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Specializes in Med Tele, Gen Surgical.

Jersey shore is a discovery unto itself. Just sayin! :)

On the original topic, maybe they water with the weird stuff because there is dirt in the potted plants, ergo that's the place for "dirty" to go?

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Specializes in ortho, hospice volunteer, psych,.

sharing an off the wall thing. after taking keppra for seizure control for several years, i switched over to the generic version. no difference... until...:eek: the pharmacy apparently received a different brand of generic!:uhoh3: i take it every morning, (1 1/2 pills)

noon (1/2 pill,) and h.s. (2 pills.) my am urine after the h.s. dose and the urine after my lunch dose are indescribably, horrible and rank. even though i flush while i pee, the rank smell lingers on. like a heavy cloud. cleaning the johns afterward helps, but not much. it just has to die down and go away. it took us awhile to realize that the generic keppra was the only variable.

fortunately, i've only had three refills of it.... but just yuck! spraying febreeze (not the air freshener, the fabric freshener) in the air helps a little bit. might it be something weird like that?

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
That was Oprah's fault?! That was my favorite channel ever. Pretty much the only one I ever watched. Now I have to watch Jersey Shore.

Yeah.:bluecry1: :bluecry1: :bluecry1: I used to watch that with one of my PD patients - she changed it to O.W.N. So upsetting. I really liked the show Monsters Inside Me. I love to entertain people at dinner with some of the cases they had. The one who had a guy see a worm wriggling on his eye he thought was a capillary always got a good reaction. Why couldn't she have bought Spike or the Golf Channel?

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