Anyone else completely lost their sense of taste & smell due to the virus?

[tidyupandeatyourgreens]

I'm really struggling with the symptom of a total loss of smell and taste (it's day 4) as I have Covid-19 (my husband had it first and brought it home from work we think - he's a nurse)...it's the 7th day since my symptoms began but this is the one symptom I'm really struggling with which is accompanied by sinus pain and frontal headaches. I'm just so worried in case these senses don't return and nobody can really say if they will (although from what I've heard hopefully they will!). There is simply no enjoyment from anything I eat or drink and I love food and cooking! And not being able to smell a thing is awful too. Is anyone else experiencing this symptom and how are you coping?

[Starferry]

I'm not sure I had the virus, my symptoms started with sore throat, then cough, congestion and I also completely lost my sense of smell and taste. It was really weird. I was in the shower and couldn't even smell my shampoo and body wash. It went away after 2 days and I was very snotty! ( This to me is more like a cold but I've never lost my senses to that extent so really unsure what this was) I'm sure you will get your senses back but I feel your pain . Hang in there

[BearSoFair]

18yo DS1 had what we think was CV last month (but untested so can't say for sure), he lost taste and smell on the 12th of March, complete zero until the 31st. Since then he's slowly regained smell and a certain amount of taste - he can taste sweet flavours almost normally but savoury is still almost zero, weirdly! It did get him down for a bit and he wasn't really bothered about eating much at all but now it's to be returning, albeit slowly, he's eating more normally again.

[BearSoFair]

Couple of days out there sorry, I just asked him to be sure and he said it was the 28th he first started to get mild hints of smells again, so 16 days of nothing!

[tidyupandeatyourgreens]

Thank you - your posts are reassuring as it seems that they do return eventually...I've just never experienced anything to this extent so it's very disconcerting...you just don't know what you've got until it's gone!

[TrickyKid]

I've not been tested but think I've had CV. My taste and smell completely disappeared for about two weeks and came back very slowly. I noticed I could very vaguely smell food cooking at first but still couldn't taste it.

[Popfan]

Yep, think I had it - very mildly. Temperature for a couple of days. Then 3 days after the temp ended I lost smell and taste for a week. Totally fine now

[Popfan]

Smell returned first.

[Oliversmumsarmy]

I lost my sense of smell and taste when I was ill over the New Year.

Despite having all the symptoms of Corona I have been told it was impossible as it wasn’t in the country at that time.
Have you been tested?

I and I think a lot of people who have ticked all the boxes for Corona are wondering if we didn’t have Corona what did we have because it wasn’t the flu.

Have you had conjunctivitis yet?

You have that with Corona but also with the illness I had

[EasterBuns]

Apparently your body depletes your stores of vitamins and minerals (zinc especially) to fight the virus and these are vital for taste and smell. Taking a supplement may help them return quicker.

[WaktiWapnasi]

Not tested but had all the symptoms and lostvtotal smell and most of my ability to taste although I was uninterested in eating when I was very I'll. My smell, taste and appetite are slowly returning.

Smell wise everthing is muted and I just catch wiffs of things now. Taste wise, some things taste odd still like Hummus and lemons. I'm hoping in time it will return to normal because it does take the enjoyment out of eating (which is perhaps not such a bad thing).

[Thumbcat]

I believe I've had it. I lost my sense of smell completely for two weeks and was beginning to worry that it wouldn't return. It's now beginning to return gradually. I was so relieved when I realised I could smell something. I never appreciated before how much I depend on being able to smell things.

[Oliversmumsarmy]

I know what you mean about hummus tasting odd. To me I could feel the texture but zero taste or a sort of taste that definitely I wouldn’t have identified as hummus if I had a blind tasting.

[chipsandgin]

My friends who’ve had Covid19 both had the loss of taste and smell for about 4/5 days and it was back within a week (apparently appreciating both taste and smell more than ever - sliver linings!?). Hope you feel better soon

[MilkNoSugars]

I've not been tested but had all the CV symptoms and lost my sense of smell and taste for 3 weeks- it's starting to come back slowly now.

[RedLentilYellowLentil]

Despite having all the symptoms of Corona I have been told it was impossible as it wasn’t in the country at that time.

We'll never know for certain, but anecdotally I'm sure that it was. My SIL, who lives in France and works in the travel industry, had classic symptoms in December while she was staying with my Dsis and BIL. They duly went down with it - again classic symptoms - but not before they'd given it to our mum, who ended up in hospital with pneumonia in January. It would be interesting to get her chest films reviewed after this is all over to see if she had the classic Covid lung scarring.

There are also numerous anecdotes of Brits who were skiiing in Ishgl in Austria having it in January. There are lots of political reasons for wanting to pretend it didn't reach the UK til later.

Sorry to derail, OP.

[Swingingsally]

I lost mine opp.
My nose felt as though it was madly tingling then burning.
Nothing too bad but it did remind me of the lungs burning threads.
I lost mine for a week.
Every morning I smelled scents I knew and forced myself to imagine I was smelling it eg rose lip balm, lavender oil.

I read somewhere that smell training can help.
It was extremely disconcerting however if that was all my brush with covid gave me... I'm very lucky... Touch wood, don't jinx myself!

[flowers12]

I've tested positive (NHS worker) and am currently on day 10 of no taste and smell at all. It's so weird as no blocked nose etc and no sign of it coming back yet.

[DianaT1969]

It seems like a solution for weight loss - if taste and smell could be safely and temporarily turned off. Obviously without a dreadful virus though 😟

[Oliversmumsarmy]

I lost a stone and Ds lost 1.5 stone. I didn’t eat for a couple of days but if I did (including drinking water) I coughed so much I threw everything back up,

[tidyupandeatyourgreens]

I haven't been tested but I'm 100% sure that myself and my husband have Covid-19 from the symptoms we've experience. I have a strange tingling feeling too SwingingSally and not being able to smell anything is almost as upsetting as not being to taste anything - the world feels so much emptier and blander! The only thing I looked forward to was a nice meal and a glass of wine (in this pretty dire situation having lost all my income and no government support available) and now that's been taken away too! I just really hope it returns soon as it seems to have for most of you....I'm taking zinc, Vitamin D and Vitamin C daily. Flowers12 - I hope yours returns very soon and well done for all your amazing work. My husband's returned after about 6 days....We're not closer to getting him tested, he informed work over a week ago and nothing.

[tidyupandeatyourgreens]

also, I really think that loss of taste and smell should be one of the identifiable symptoms for this virus as it seems like a very common one....

[BearSoFair]

Those of you with the tingling, would you say it was like an itch really high in your nose? DS1 had that for the first couple of days and assumed he was coming down with a cold but never got the usual sneezing or congestion. That was when we started to think maybe CV (he also had 2-3 days of extreme fatigue and splitting headache but never any temperature or cough, the loss of smell and taste was by far his 'biggest' symptom if that makes sense)

[WickedGoodDoge]

Like others, I don’t know for sure whether or not I had it, but I had all the symptoms. I did lose all sense of smell and taste. I didn’t realise until day 4 - day 4 I read about it and realised I couldn’t smell anything so spent the day going round the house trying to smell various things including sticking my nose into a raw onion. At that point I could still taste, but that went the next day. My smell gradually came back a couple of weeks later- could catch the odd whiff of smells and then more and more. My sense of taste came back round about the same time.

[okiedokieme]

I lost my taste for around a week, smell a little linger, only other symptom was a low grade fever that lasted one dose of paracetamol (didn't need another dose). Dp's fever lasted 3 days, also lost smell and taste plus he had lots of aches and pains. I'm not sure if it was covid but as soon as the antibody tests are available I'm fortunate to be able to get tested (ex h is working on the tests!)

[okiedokieme]

Oh and I had a runny nose