Smelling a molasses-like ooze on the cover of my damp old book made me wonder what it was. I felt sick to my stomach within five minutes; but didn’t connect the two events. I thought I was coming down with the flu. Within 24 hours I was in Emergency on a ventilator and heart monitor. Eighteen years and a million sneezes later (always more than 100 a day); I no longer had a sense of smell or taste and usually …