Can CPAP thin nasal membranes causing olifactory whackiness?

[sleep lover]

Hi folks,

Been using CPAP for many years. Two out of the ordinary things have happened in the last year, making me wonder if nasal membranes thin due to CPAP usage. I began smelling mostly chemical stuff, like darkroom (we have a B&W darkroom in our garage) chemicals, even if my husband opened the DR door for a second, and I'm sitting in the other end of the house. Then the smell lingers, like for hours. Same thing with some deodorants (on others), and some perfumes. The odors stay in my nose and won't leave (though I ask politely). I also had a serious nosebleed a couple months ago - had to go to emergency, it wouldn't stop. Never had either of these things happen before. Anybody read anything about olfactory issues re CPAP? I've read that nosebleeds can happen more due to membrane thinning, but wonder if the smell thing is a symptom, too. It's very strange and not pleasant. Thanks for feedback.

[Krelvin]

I've never heard of that but if you say let your tank run dry on a regular basis you might be damaging the turbinates which are how you actually smell in the first place.

Also as you get older, stuff changes and you lose some of your senses to a degree.

Air is sucked up into your nostrils over bony ridges called turbinates, which add more surface area to your sniffer. The air travels over millions of olfactory receptor neurons that sit on a stamp-size sheet, the olfactory epithelium, on the roof of the nasal cavity. Odor molecules in the air stimulate and inhibit the receptors.

Each aroma sets off a signal made by the receptors that travels along the olfactory nerve to the olfactory bulb. The olfactory bulb sits underneath the front of your brain. Signals from the bulb tell your brain what reeks.

Ref:
http://www.livescience.com/10457-smell.html

[Julie]

I would see an ENT doctor asap if you already haven't - to get more info re your nosebleed, what could have caused it, how your nose might now be changed by it, whether you need to do anything now to fix something or compensate in future. Plus I'd get my other half to find out if there's a way to block some of those chemicals from wafting into your space.

[chunkyfrog]

Above all, I would not blame cpap, but the chemicals in the man cave.