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Original poster

Lack of smell driving me batty!! Help

30 replies

ILoveHuskies · 29/12/2021 12:26

Mners who’ve had COVID i need your reassurance please 😞
I’ve been poorly since 19th Dec …tested positive Xmas day and now testing negative thank goodness.
I feel better in myself now but the lack of taste and smell is really getting me down. I am scared it won’t come back. Since about Xmas eve I also have like this weird, bland taste in my mouth which I wish would fuck off!!!!
Please can I have any positive stories of people having covid and their smell / taste coming back ? I cannot deal with it much longer it’s the worst part 😢

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KCee30 · 29/12/2021 12:33

I tested positive on 14/12. It went fully for a few days. Since then it's been an ever so gradual improvement. each day is getting better. Today is the first day I've smelt the food in my oven from another room. I've only been able to smell things up close!

There's still some things I cannot smell at all though! Some things I can smell fine - up close!

Taste has been more so affected than smell for me. It's only really the last couple days that I've been able to taste more and more. It was odd for me over Christmas when I bit into something I could really get a slight taste then when I start chewing , it totally goes again! Like my senses switch off!

Wagsandclaws · 29/12/2021 12:50

I tested positive in September when the children went back, I still can only smell things up close.

Taste returned within two weeks and so did the ability to smell close up. I have a very expensive candle that I'm burning on my bedside table give me to me for Christmas - it's almost too subtle for me to smell Sad

Original poster
ILoveHuskies · 29/12/2021 13:19

Well this makes me feel a little bit better

Even some improvement would be good !

Sometimes I think I very mildly smell something- but I don't know if I'm imagining it 😞

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Original poster
ILoveHuskies · 29/12/2021 13:20

@Wagsandclaws and that's rubbish re your scented candle 😔 that's the kind of thing I'm really missing too - I love smells like that

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Original poster
ILoveHuskies · 29/12/2021 18:35

Ffs thought I'd caught a mild whiff of my perfume earlier when I sprayed it. and now can't smell a thing again and wondering if I simply imagined it Sad

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Ahhhhhbisto · 29/12/2021 18:44

I feel your pain. Have spent days with my nose in jars or pickled onions and bubble bath living in hope 🤣

Retrievemysanity · 29/12/2021 18:50

Oh bless you, it’s awful isn’t it! I had covid in September and completely lost my sense of taste and smell. It did slowly start returning. Very strange though, like you, I’d catch a whiff of perfume but when I went to smell it again, nothing. I smelt fabric conditioner close up but second sniff, nothing! Anyway, it’s been weeks since I had it and I’d say it’s almost back to normal now but there are still some things, both taste and smell that are muted. I think I gained about a stone from continual eating of chocolate to test if I could taste it or not Grin

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 29/12/2021 18:51

I was really ill November 2019 (pre pandemic) and lost my sense of smell then. It's still yet to return.

Original poster
ILoveHuskies · 29/12/2021 19:03

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

I was really ill November 2019 (pre pandemic) and lost my sense of smell then. It's still yet to return.
Oh god how horrid bless you

Did you ever get used to it ? Can you taste food and stuff? I hope it returns for you at some point x

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BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 29/12/2021 19:04

I can taste, but not as well.

Literally zero smell. I used to be a bloodhound. It's really scary as I literally cannot smell a single thing. I'd not know a gas leak, if my cat did a crap behind the sofa, candles, fresh laundry. Nothing.

Original poster
ILoveHuskies · 29/12/2021 19:05

@Retrievemysanity I'm glad it's returned eventually

I'm the total opposite I'm dropping weight like mad as I just cannot see the point of eating and have no appetite at all . I've got loads of lovely Christmas food and alcohol still unopened 😢

Altho I am wondering if the no appetite is still a covid symptom lingering

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SuperheroBirds · 29/12/2021 19:10

I had COVID in early November and still haven’t got my sense of smell back. My taste returned, but it is only at about 80%.
I’m really beginning to wonder how much longer my sense of smell will take to come back.

optimistic40 · 29/12/2021 19:12

Mine went away for about 3 weeks. I kept sniffing candles etc every day, and after a couple of weeks I started to get an initial smell which vanished when I sniffed the same thing again. Suddenly one morning I could just smell again! I understand though, I found it really horrible and irritating, even though I could taste ok.

Bobholll · 29/12/2021 20:04

I had covid in early October. Smell is still about 30%.. taste thankfully is about 90%!

It comes & goes for me. Some days I have quite good smell & 100% taste. Other days barely any smell and my taste dulls. No rhyme nor reason.. but throughout I absoloutly cannot smell or taste ginger or garlic. Those have completely gone. It’s very weird!

I’m used to it now. Can’t say it massively bothers me, I don’t much think about it but I would rather it came back! I love garlic bread so that’s annoying! I can live with minimal smell so long as I can enjoy food quite frankly. And my taste is thankfully reasonably normal!

Howmanysleepsnow · 29/12/2021 20:08

Orange juice! Smell it, drink it… that and salt were the first things DH could smell/ taste and there’s studies suggesting smell training is the way forward, so find the one thing you can smell and sniff regularly!

Original poster
ILoveHuskies · 30/12/2021 11:45

@Howmanysleepsnow

Orange juice! Smell it, drink it… that and salt were the first things DH could smell/ taste and there’s studies suggesting smell training is the way forward, so find the one thing you can smell and sniff regularly!
Yes I can taste that really well!

Had a microwave curry for dinner last night and I caught a very brief whiff of it when it was cooked

But this morning nothing again argh 😠

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mylovelydd · 30/12/2021 12:49

I've had this bloody virus 3 times now. At the very start of the pandemic (actually caught it at my Dad's funeral) but didn't lose my sense of smell until the second time I caught it which was July this year.
It still isn't back although intermittently makes a reappearance which is how I remember I can't smell anything.
DD caught the virus in October and she lost her sense of taste and smell but they came back a few weeks later. She said it was miserable eating because it was just texture no taste.
She mentioned this video and tbh I still haven't tried it but I'm going to:

Original poster
ILoveHuskies · 30/12/2021 22:39

@mylovelydd

Oh thank you for that ! I am going to give it a try tomorrow - can't hurt can it 😆

I hope yours comes back and sorry to hear you've had covid 3 times! This is my first time can't believe I've swerved it for so long

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Original poster
ILoveHuskies · 31/12/2021 16:39

Update

Tried the orange trick.
It tasted amazing 😻 not sure it's done anything to get my smell back but eating warm juicy orange with sugar on was very cheering
And when I first cut the orange 🍊 I did smell it slightly

I've bought 5 oranges so Gonna do it every day

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mylovelydd · 01/01/2022 16:10

@ILoveHuskies it does sound delicious to be honest 😁
Keep doing it, at least the vitamin C will do you good and it apparently dissolves some protein that is what's stopping us being able to smell so keep going.
I don't know why I haven't done it yet. I hope it works for you x

Original poster
ILoveHuskies · 01/01/2022 22:18

@mylovelydd oooh that's good then I'll definitely keep at it for that reason too

And I'll look up other foods that have vitc in

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BiddyPop · 01/01/2022 22:28

My sense of smell is fairly chronic on a normal basis. Very occasionally it works well, but due to allergies and sinus issues, I very often cannot smell anything at all. Which is fine, you get used to it!as long as the time it returns is NOT when you are dealing with blocked sewers because it doesn't affect you like the rest of the household....which has happened a couple of times.

WinterDeWinter · 01/01/2022 22:31

I really sympathise - apart from breathing difficulties this was the thing which most scared me before I caught Covid. I thought it might literally (well not literally but you know) drive me insane - the sudden absence of one of the means through which we understand our environment.

I had Covid 23/12 - in the end it didn't drive me insane and both taste and smell seem to be fully back now.

Tigresswoods · 01/01/2022 22:39

Just keep trying to smell things. I lost mind for about 10 days & yes, it was super depressing. But... it returned & yours will too.
As I say, keep smelling things & trying, you'll get there. Xxx

33goingon64 · 01/01/2022 22:44

This probably won't help but I completely lost my sense of smell when pregnant with DC2 7 years ago. It's never come back. Of the 5 senses to lose I'd say it's the one I can live without (I've had periods of temporary deafness due to sinusitis and that was way worse). I miss smelling flowers in the garden and I can't rely on smelling food to check it's not gone off, but really it's not that bad. And I'm sure yours will come back. Mine probably never will.