A question for those who have had covid

[whereisthejoy]

If you lost your sense of smell and/or taste, did it come back? How long did it take? Is it back to normal?

I'm almost two weeks since getting the virus and a week since symptoms and have no sense of smell. Feeling extremely low about this and want to know if there's hope it will return?

Thanks Realitea It has been/is awful.

Many years ago I had a collegue who was often complemented on her lovely fragrant classroom. She wore perfume often quite strongly and it was because her sense of smell had never recovered from a fluey illness a few years earlier. She just wore her old favourite and hoped for the best!

We do underrestimate the importance of our sense of smell until it is unavaliable.

You're right @BogRollBOGOF - I'm most upset as can't tell if my DD is suffering the same and I'd hate for her to not regain it.

But I'm also trying to keep my hopes up :)

I know covid can do much worse but what a horrible side effect, we're reliant on taste and smell for so many reasons to keep us safe like you say, such as tasting off food or smelling chemicals or burning etc.

I've heard that covid attacks the nerves at the back of the nose rather than causing congestion related loss.
Hope it improves for you all soon and your dd has not been affected.

I had Covid a few months ago and the loss of taste/smell was the worst thing for me, it was completely gone and I was so worried that it it wouldn’t return but it did. It seems to vary with each case how long it takes but it’s very likely that it will come back! I had absolutely nothing for ten days then I noticed I could smell some things very faintly, it was another few days before it returned properly.

I bought some different essential oils and spent some time inhaling each one and trying to recall the smell - it’s called scent training and I think it helped a bit. I also ate garlic and other strong foods. I’ve never appreciated taste/smell so much until it returned!

My daughter had cv in March and said taste and smell took 6-8 weeks to fully return

A friend of mine caught COVID as one of the first people outside China (late february). He's not been in hospital, but has been extremely ill at home. He's a healthy strong man of 40. Now, mid-october, he still does not have any sense of taste nor smell.
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@Ginorwine30 I think I love you thank you!!! That hope is all we can ask for right now.

I did a garlic test on my DD - cut a clove and secretly rubbed some garlic where her nose would go on her sippy cup (so that she wouldn't taste it but only smell it) and she reacted to this, screwed her nose up etc. She still took a sip but she definitely recoiled at the smell. I was SO HAPPY I grabbed her and danced around the kitchen!!

Will be devastated if mine doesn't return but over the moon she seems to have hers.

Fairly certain I had covid in early Feb. My sense of smell disappeared a couple of weeks after main symptoms subsided. Oddly it was preceded by 2-3 days of severe sinus pain, same as sinusitis but without any discharge which I found odd at the time. Because I had it before it was supposed to be in the community, so unable to be tested, I didn’t think it was covid il the anosmia became a key symptom.
I am currently waiting to see if I test positive after possible covid exposure. I’m a dentist so constantly at risk even though we use PPE.

I completely lost smell and taste for about 2 weeks. Basic flavours (salt/ sweet) came back first and smell was back to almost normal after about 2/3 weeks. Some smells are still slightly different 6 months later though.

I haven’t had it to my knowledge but a friend lost hers 10 days ago & it’s back fully now.. it really seems to vary! Another friend is a month in with taste mostly back but not smell!

My smell went end of March. It took a few months to come back but its still intermittent. But be thankful if this is your most annoying symptom 😀

My family all had it in mid March (DD1 is a covid19 junior hospital doctor who was working with no PPE on a ward full of covid19 patients). DH, DD1 and I all lost complete sense of smell and taste. That was DD1’s only symptom and she only knows for sure she had it from the antibody tests that hospital medics got in the summer. DD2 is the youngest at 23 and she didn’t lose her sense of smell. We all now have taste back but a diminished sense of smell apart from DH who can now taste fine even though he was the illest (hospitalised). At the time, I could sniff a bottle of lavender oil, or chop up garlic, and smell zilch. It’s nothing like the loss of smell from a locked up nose. That probably lasted about 4 weeks. I also lost my sense of balance for about 3 months and I kept falling flat on my face for no reason. It’s worrying to know that covid19 affects brains too, but I guess lots of viruses do.

D’oh, ‘blocked” nose not “locked” nose.

I had COVID in April/may. Sense of taste is back but sense of smell still very reduced. I can catch faint whiffs but mainly nothing. I've given up hope of getting it back now