u/DifferentIsPossble

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Hi!

Let me preface this by saying that we are no newcomers to hygiene. My roommate and I are both very smelly, very clean people - we sweat easily and we sweat a lot, so washing our bodies and clothes frequently is an absolute given. We use antiperspirant with aluminium to reduce body odors and deodorant without it to smell nice. (Probably not the healthiest, but by far the most effective)

We're also, by the same measure, no newcomers to sweaty or gymmy smells. So this isn't some petty complaint about an annoying roommate but something we actively are desperate to solve together.

Recently, she's started coming home in previously normal sneakers that smell absolutely rank when "warm" (just removed). We've washed them before - washed them so hard that the sole came off of one pair, actually. They come out of the laundry wet and warm again, which reactivates the smell. They straight up cannot live inside our tiny apartment because we are unable to cope.

She tends to wear tights under her pants instead of socks due to sensory issues, if that changes anything at all. We also do antiperspirant our feet.

The smell is genuinely comparable to making cottage cheese in the kitchen, but more intense somehow.

Crucially - _she herself does not smell like this!_ Only the shoes!

Please help us, reddit gods.

Consider this a question just for peace of mind.

I'm almost certain that what's actually affecting me is POTS with hypermobility - I have basically all the classic symptoms, presyncope, symptoms improving with very high salt and water intake, tachycardia when shifting orientation, etc., as well as the "rubbery" skin, joint stuff, swaying when vertical, ragdoll physics, etc. And of course the chronic, all encompassing fatigue that doesn't improve with rest. Everything short of the money for a tilt table test.

It explains everything except the constant, inescapable phlegminess. In my lungs. In my sinuses. Everywhere, all the time. In my eyes, half the reason I need to put water in them all the time is bc my tears get sticky!

I recently heard about the idea of "silent" CF that isn't obvious enough to get diagnosed in childhood, and that sounded like it almost fit all the boxes better than the other options.

Is there any way for me to just get tested for these gene variants for my own peace of mind? Is that something a person can just... do?

Or did I fall for some kind of online misinformation?