Covid and smell fuxked

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Anyone else? I cannot smell any food unless it has onion or garlic in it - then I only smell a very off musty version of that.

All toiletries and cleaning products and washing powder smell the same and that is disgusting as well

Can't smell flowers or the forest..... it's been 10 months. At first I smelled nothing now these vile pongs assail me the whole day. It's really upsetting

My sense of smell was gone for nearly a year, I had covid in May 2020 Then it came and went randomly for over a year. Now I can smell but some things smell differently to what I remember.
I drank a Yazoo strawberry drink last week, I couldn't finish it as it smell like chemicals to me now, no strawberry comes through at all.
Lots of scented stuff now smells awful.

Both my husband and I had this the first time we had Covid back in 2021. We lost our sense of smell then when it came back we could only smell the occasional thing, which I can only describe as smelling like a very strong sewage plant. It was disgusting, and very weird as we would both mention that we could smell ‘Covid smell’ at the same time. Then randomly our normal senses of smell came back and I’ve not smelt that awful smell since!

We had Covid in Oct ‘21 and I still don’t have my sense of smell back! Dh had his back ages ago but I’ve struggled unless it’s been a very strong, intense smell and then I’ve got only been able to smell it slightly.

Thankfully, the past 8 weeks or so I’ve been smelling much more than normal. I can suddenly smell our fabric softener and it’s amazing, I’m sniffing the washing while hanging it out like a crazy person! Food is also starting to taste better too as although my taste came back much quicker, it hasn’t been as good without my sense of smell.

I agree with some pps though that some smells just don’t smell the same and I often smell something putrid that noone else around me can smell.

I saw online a lady who did her own smell therapy, she does children’s sensory play etc and she made playdough - each batch with a different scent, so one with coffee, one with lemon, lavender etc and each day she’d smell each one for around 20-30 seconds and she said it really boosted her sense of smell returning. I had so many good intentions of doing the same but have never got around to it.

I’m really hoping that the past few weeks are the start of me really getting my sense of smell back!

I smell burning

I had covid back in October 2022 and briefly lost my ability to smell myself. I'd spent a few days in bed and, once I was starting to feel like I could get up, thought I'd better take a shower. Gave myself a quick sniff test (as you do) and though it was odd that I didn't smell bad. Then I realised I didn't smell anything at all. Could generally smell food but realised things were missing...something. it seemed to come back but then I found I was missing things. You know that terrible fishy smell when they spray the fields? Can't smell it now.
It's frustrating. I used to have quite a good nose but now I can't trust it..Is that food off? No idea

Covid Jan 2021, smell disappeared totally fir about 6 months. Although it's improved it still keeps shifting, so many things are the wrong smell. I also regularly get horrible chemical phantom smells. A few things I still can't smell at all such as cat pee (still undecided on that being a good thing or not).
Vegetables are generally rank (unfortunate seeing as I'm a vegetarian), as are many artificial smells in cleaning things (from shampoo to washing powder).
Dr still optimistic as I can smell and it keeps evolving .

@LaChatte have you spoken to a Dr about it?

@TruJay the ideas of training different smells is good. Do you have to put them in playdo tho?

Coffee and tobacco smells never came back properly for me. Tobacco I don't mind but I miss that wonderful coffee smell

Oh yes he smell of coffee! That went for me for a while as well. It's come back I think.

Your spelling too.

I lost my smell for ages after covid, it really freaked me out at first. It did come back a little but everything smelt strange and/or artificial. I did some smell training which I really think helped. I bought a box of various different essential oils (on Amazon) eucalyptus, tea tree, lemon, lavender etc and smelt them all regularly for 20-30 seconds. Imagining what they did smell like initially, and then gradually I could actually faintly smell them. I still do it now sometimes as my smell still isn't as strong as it once was.

I haven’t been able to smell anything for such a long time now - at least 18 months. I don’t really feel like it’s even linked to having had Covid because I lost my smell at quite a random time. In the beginning, it felt like such a loss and I still feel like there is a level of joy in food that I no longer experience. it’s also funny how much smell is linked to memory. I find I’m not reminded of memories all the time like I was when I could smell properly.

But actually, I think there are so many benefits to not being able to smell the terrible things I used to smell too. I used to hate the smell of wet dog or the awful BO of the person sitting next to me on the bus. The smell of rubbish and sewage and cigarette smoke are all gone!! Even the most awful chemical smells have all disappeared… so I can’t complain about that. I do get paranoid that I might smell bad though…

I can smell cigarette smoke. I'm not around people that smoke at home or in the office but when it comes, I say, can anyone else smell cigarette smoke?

I had this. I started retraining my nose, several times a day and it did work. Sounds ridiculous! I used things where I could readily conjure up the smell in my imagination, so things like coffee, favourite perfume, tea tree oil/lavender etc. It did take a few weeks of persistence, but I’m really glad I did it - all back to 100% sniff now.

Don't bother with this smell training nonsense. It wont affect damaged nerves - you just get smell hallucinations, thats all.

lost my sense of smell the first time I had covid, in 2020. I think I ve got about a quarter of it back now

YES
I had Covid last summer and lost my sense of taste and smell. It came back but nearly every day I get a strong sense of smelling cigarette smoke or sometimes petrol fumes. It's really strange

Well this is worrying me! I'm starting to recover from COVID, Day 5 now. I suddenly realised this morning that the laundry hadn't smelled of anything when I was hanging it up. So I've gone around sniffing things and confirmed that I've lost my sense of smell. It must have happened Day 3 or 4, because I distinctly remember being able to smell the diffuser in my bedroom on Day 2.

I need some happy stories of smell coming back quickly please!

I got covid end of December 22. My sense of smell went for maybe 2 months. I was quite ill with it despite not being vaccinated (but not worryingly so.) Maybe a different strain from you. I hope yours returns soon.

Mine went totally, @Kucinghitam but only for a couple of weeks, so fingers crossed you’ll be similar.

So sorry for those who’ve had longer loss of smell, I found it utterly miserable for the short time I had it. Hope it comes back eventually!

Thank you - I really hope this doesn't last long! My cup of tea has been like a disappointing thick hot water

It's my 3rd time with COVID, the first two times were like a really mild brief cold (if I hadn't tested I wouldn't have known) and there was no effect on my sense of smell. But that was 2021. This time it has been really awful, at times I couldn't get out of bed. I was telling DH that the only time I have felt so ill was when I had Swine Flu back in 2009.

I wonder if the smell loss is related to the severity of the illness...