SAN DIEGO -- People would cover their mouths and noses, but no one would tell Tammy Gobin why they would back away from her.

No one would come out and say, "You smell."

"You think you are losing your mind. You see people cupping their mouth and nose; you can't figure out what going on," said Gobin.

Something was terribly wrong, but Gobin did not realize it. After months of being avoided and glared at, it was her students that were honest with her.

"One student told me, "Teacher, you smell fishy,' or another student said, 'Teacher, you smell like garbage or my brother's dirty gym socks," said Gobin.

Armed with the painful truth, she searched the Internet and found trimethylaminuria, or fish malodor syndrome. It is a rare disease that makes people smell repulsive.

"It's empowering just knowing. I was thrilled to know I had an incurable disorder as opposed to being crazy," said Gobin.

Gobin's challenge then became getting diagnosed. It took 2 years and $20,000 in medical bills and tests -- not covered by her insurance -- to even convince her doctors she had it.

"I said, 'Listen, I know I have this.' They said, 'No, it's all in your head,'" said Gobin.

Dr. John Cashman of the Human Bio-Molecular Research Institute said, "They (doctors) don't believe the syndrome or they don't have a full appreciation for it."

Cashman, a San Diego-based doctor, runs one of just three research institutes in the world that study trimethylaminuria. It is a disease that prevents the body from metabolizing trimethylene, a small, pungent chemical that comes from an essential food source, coline. Many people can break it down, but if not, it secretes through the body and causes a smell.

The only people who can't smell it are the victims themselves and anyone close to them.

Gobin's husband can't smell her but everyone else can.

"I usually have about 5 minutes with someone before they notice," said Gobin.

Cashman said, "There's no cure but it can be controlled by limiting the amount of coline you eat. The problem is everything you eat has coline, like meats, dairy, carbs, veggies. The only thing safe is water."

That means every day is a struggle for Gobin. She doesn't go to movies or restaurants. At the grocery store, she has the checker open a lane just for her. She can't even work in an office building.

"It's volatile; it embeds in carpets and walls and it can spread through an entire ventilation system," said Cashman.

It's been three-and-a-half years and Gobin has learned to control her disorder. She limits her coline intake to 300 grams a day and lives what she calls her best life.

"I think I have come to a realization that I am not terminal. Life is not over, I am still the same person," said Gobin.

Gobin is now fighting for funding.

"We're an orphaned disorder. People don't want to spend money on us," said Gobin.

Despite this, she considers herself blessed. She can still work, but no longer in a classroom with the older children that admitted to her that she smelled.

She now works in her own home with younger children because their sense of smell is not yet developed.

Home is perhaps the one place she is completely at peace.

Trimethylaminuria is genetic and is most common in women of color. Most are born with it but some like Gobin could develop it because of a liver dysfunction later in life.