To ask about covid sense of smell and taste loss

[WilsonMilson]

I know aibu isn’t really the place, but posting for traffic.

Got covid (for the first time, can’t believe I avoided it so long) over the festive season.
Very mild symptoms, have had worse colds, but on day 5 I lost my sense of smell and taste. Now a week on from that and still nothing. My sinuses feel weird too, dry and a bit blocked but no mucus.

It’s really freaking me out, I’m not usually an anxious person but I’m finding this sense loss very debilitating. Some things I can smell vaguely if I put my nose right up to them, but I’ve lost all transient smells in the air, can’t smell cleaning products or bleach at all and feel very cut off from everything, it is the oddest thing. I usually have a very keen sense of smell.

I keep testing it on strong smells and trying to retrain my senses with perfumes, coffee, menthol etc.

Taste wise I can differentiate sweet, salty and bitter tastes but that’s about the height of it.

Please no horror stories about it never returning as I can’t stand the thought of going on like this in perpetuity. Would like some hope and/or any tips.

Don't worry too much, OP - I had exactly the same thing, even down to the same day. My sense of smell came back after about a week but I did do "smell training" in the interim because I could sometimes just about smell strong things like coffee, vinegar or essential oils.

I felt really worried about it too, but it comes back quickly for the majority of people. There's always the bad stories but you hear about them because they're unusual.

Smell took about 2 weeks but taste was gone completely for about 4, then came back gradually over the next month

Don't worry if things taste weird for a while
Toothpaste tasted of soap, wine was like cleaning fluid! That didn't last for too long though

First time I could taste a ribeye and a glass of red I nearly cried. You just don't realise how important those senses are until they're gone!

This is generally all super encouraging, thank you, I could hug you all.

It’s so upsetting, and yet I feel guilty making a big deal about it as it’s not a life threatening condition and I am grateful for good health otherwise. It just sucks joy out of life and makes you feel all wrong when you’re used to something you take for granted has suddenly gone. I almost dread eating anything as it provokes anxiety to expect a taste and nothing happens.

A lot of you have said about 3-4 weeks and I am hoping things will be going in the right direction by then. I had a very vague whiff of Tea Tree Oil this morning and that has given me some hope, I can also get a far away scent from my favourite Lemon lavender candle on first whiff. Doesn’t seem to last though, by the second sniff my olfactory senses have gone again, so nothing seems to remain for long. Better than nothing I guess.

I find I often smell and taste only what I expect to smell and taste, so a picture of a cup of coffee, and I can smell coffee, etc. It sounds like you are having the same phantom smells

I’m sitting here with my usual morning coffee, tastes of vaguely bitter nothing. I’ve worked out that it’s definitely worst first thing in the morning. I can smell absolutely nothing when I get up, not even Vicks Vaporub. By the end of the day I’m now getting some vague smells, feels cruel that they have gone again my morning.

It’s causing more morning anxiety than I would care to admit and I’m falling into a bit of obsessive thinking about it.

Don't get too excited about afternoon smells either, they might only be phantoms. Your brain supplies the smell to your consciousness that it expects.

I can still smell my sons aftershave when he comes near me, even though he ran out months ago and has not been able to afford to replace it yet.

I can smell the products I see being advertised on TV

I can smell the places I am standing in family photos

I can also smell coffee, roses, toothpaste, marmite, etc, but I dont expect these smells are any more real

We had a sewage pipe blocked a few days ago, which I realised had happened when I heard glugging. Then I realised the estate was largely empty. Then I found out later most other people had taken themselves off out away for a few hours to get away from the terrible smell while waiting for the waterboard to sort it out.

I smelt nothing at all

@Nimbostratus100 they aren’t phantom smells. I’m not sure why you’re trying to convince me that I’m not actually smelling anything. I’m sorry your sense of smell hasn’t returned, but that doesn’t seem to be the experience of most people.
I’m having a lot of anxiety about this, so whilst I appreciate your response, it’s not really helping me.

Six months from it going to being full restored.

nothing for about four months then I started getting whiffs of synthetic things such as bleach or fabric conditioner, but not natural smells like cat poo! very strange as I would get a whiff one day but a week later It would have gone again. It was like two steps forward one back.

eventually at around five months I realised I could smell enough to start tasting some things again and a month later I realised I could smell newly cut grass, and in fact everything.

i don’t know whether it was an appreciation for returned smell or whether my cells were renewed, but my smell has been better since. I suffered from congestion and rhinitis before.

I lost both smell and taste senses just as Covid was leaving me after being ill for a week with it. Literally could smell/taste nothing, was very strange! Two weeks later it had mainly returned, although I think there are still some 'glitches' with it. It's been 3 months since I had Covid. Give yourself time, and just be mentally positive that your smell/taste sense are going to return.

@WilsonMilson

I found it kind of came in tiny little bursts. Like suddenly I'd be able to smell something, sort of, faintly, and then there would be no linear improvement, and then another little burst.

I know it's worrying. I love food and am a pretty serious cook, so definitely had some anxiety about it, but in the end, there's nothing you can do except stay positive and keep doing the smell training. When I thought it was starting to come back, I would keep my eyes closed and have my husband or one of the kids bring me something to see if I could identify it and found that helped.

Honestly, the odds are overwhelming that it will come back, even if it's slower than you would like!

I had Covid in September, smell and taste back to normal.

Assuming what my doctor has said is correct -that the loss is a neurological pathway issue rather than a physical issue - it makes some sense to me that it would get better through the day. My guess is that the transmitters start firing as the day goes on and they get stimulated and then there's some backsliding while you sleep.

You'll get there!

Smell Training seems to partially work (or maybe I'm kidding myself).

It's been my experience that some smells return sooner than others (smell the roses but can't smell other types of stronger smelling flowers etc).

I'll spare you the rest of my personal experience as you don't want that info.

Good luck!

My sister had covid 13 months ago and lost her sense of smell and taste. Her sense of taste has returned but not quite to normal levels and it took many months. Her sense of smell is only back about 10%. She can smell only very strong smells when right up to her nose.

She did some smell training for a couple of weeks but didn't keep it up. My advice is to do it religiously everyday (I think you are supposed to imagine the smell while smelling the product).
She is the only person I know in RL that didn't get it fully back so I am sure you will be fine.

I lost mine on Christmas Eve and it only went back to normal last Thursday. Mine was gone, then gradually came back but a lot of things tasted bad, and then slowly became normal again. The last things to come back for me were chocolate, fruit, and milk.

You’re all giving me so much hope!

Thanks for all the responses so far, I can’t tell you how much this is messing with my mind, so it’s been very reassuring to read all your posts and not feel alone.

Am scent testing absolutely everything all the time, I’m probably overdoing the smell training. Some are definitely there but faintly and only if I’m sticking my nose right in there, then I get a far away scent, maybe 10% of normal.
From any distance I smell nothing, so don’t get any transient smells in the air or the smell of a room or an air freshener or any outdoor smells at all.

The weirdest things are cleaning products. I’m so used to smelling Flash bathroom when I clean sinks and toilet duck, bleach etc don’t get any of that at all, not even a hint.

Can’t smell my DH, he always smells so nice and comforting and I miss that so much. He says I keep sniffing him like a dog, it’s quite funny really. He had covid at the same time but he can smell and taste just fine. Such varied symptoms!

Don’t worry I know exactly how you feel and how worrying it is. You only hear the horror stories and also the peoples who never returned or changed tend to have had the first strain of it. I caught the second version and was fine aside from smell. I could still taste. Mine returned in about 5 days but others I know took longer. Just keep trying starting with a few smells at a time.
I work in a hospital and colleagues of mine have been left with kidney lung and heart conditions from covid so I know it’s hard but be grateful you are ok. I would bet my right arm that it comes back x

I had Covid very mildly at the start of the first lockdown. Nearly 2 years later, my sense of tast is still really poor.

I can hardly taste pepper, eggs aren't as tasty, or chocolate, and when I made brandy butter this Christmas, I was tasting as I added the brandy, and kept adding more as I couldn't taste it. I even tried putting a few drops of brandy on my finger, and still couldn't taste a thing. You'd have failed a breathalyser after a teaspoonful of that brandy butter.

I used to love my food, but hardly anything tastes as good as it used to.

Mine came back within a month, but weirdly it didn't all come back at the same time. Sweet and fruity came back first, then other foods like bread, garlic etc. I still can't smell wee though, which is an issue with a small boy and some cats!

I forgot to add, OP, not to be surprised if it comes back a bit then fades away again before coming back fully. That’s what happened to me - I was hugely relieved to be able to smell cooking smells, then it disappeared again. Whether it’s because covid symptoms can come and go (albeit more weakly) for a while, or whether it was that I stopped the smell training in the interim, I don’t know.

That’s exactly what has happened this evening, I got quite enthusiastic this afternoon as I was vaguely smelling a few more things -a strong perfume when my nose was right on it, ground coffee in a jar and I got a vague smell of fabric softener as I was doing the washing (I had my nose right in it before I added it to the drawer, anyone would think I’d gone mad) but this evening it’s totally disappeared entirely even with Vicks, and I feel like I’m back to square one, which is very demoralising. I also feel like I’ve gone slightly batshit as I’ve done nothing this week except think about it and go around sniffing things!

I lost my taste and smell when I had covid in November, and again with this monstrous cold I've had since before Christmas. Both times it's made me beyond depressed, food is once of my greatest joys in life and I was bereft. Both times it took about 3 weeks to come back, and it was like you, here and there for a few days before it came back properly. Oh my lord, the relief when I smelled my soap in the shower in the morning, and then my first coffee! All I was eating was peanut butter sandwiches to stop my stomach rumbling.
It was the first Christmas dinner that I haven't had to cook for over 20 years - couldn't taste a fucking thing!

Mine came back after a couple of weeks, but it was a gradual thing, and for a good year or more some things smelled different to how they used to. Now I think it’s completely normal but now I think about it, maybe I’ve just got used to the new smells and consider them normal 🤔

Don’t worry, OP, it sounds like yours will come back because you’ve never truly lost it. If yours is anything like mine it will only be a day or two before you start to notice the stronger smells again.

(I was going round randomly smelling things too!)

Thanks all, it’s really helpful.

So, it’s day 9 of anosmia and I’m currently finding that I have zero smell first thing in the morning I also wake with a very dry mouth and what feels like very dry nasal passages, not blocked but don’t feel normal, kind of inflamed but not phlegmy (sorry tmi). DH says I’m snoring this is not great.

As the morning goes I find I now get a bit more smell when I stick my nose in things. From a distance I get nothing. It also varies a lot through the day. The first whiff is strongest and then it seems to tail off rapidly. Yesterday I got a bit of a cooking smell at one point when I was making a Thai curry, it was joyous. I’m hoping this is very slow progress, it’s so up and down though, not linear at all.

I’m honestly demented by it, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.