Distorted Smell

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I had covid in September 2021 and lost my taste and smell pretty much straight away.

Over the months my sense of taste has come back and disappeared again in varying degrees, and I can currently discern sweet, salty, sour and bitter tastes although getting any flavour still eludes me.

My sense of smell however is driving me crazy, I've gone from smelling nothing to smelling diesel everywhere and now today I can constantly smell burning, although I still can't smell anything else.

A quick google tells me that I have parosmia, distorted smell and I'm finding this really difficult, especially the smells as diesel makes me nauseous and burning makes me worried about an actual fire.

I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing anything similar with weird changing smells and if there are any tips for getting things back to normal.

Yes. I lost taste and smell in August and it seemed to return normally.
I got a whiff of smoke now and then but nothing too bad. Then I got a cold and after that I had a constant smell of smoke.
It wore off after a few weeks but I still get it sometimes, especially if my nose is a bit runny or blocked.
I tried all sorts. Nasal irrigation with a neti pot helped a bit.

It's true I would never know if the house was on fire as I smell smoke so often. Can smell it now.

@FredBair I was hoping you were going to say your smell is back to normal.

It's absolutely awful isn't it?

Same here. Covid October 2021, lost smell & taste. It came back in a week or two. Last week, smell went strange, then constant smell of burning. Like someone smoking outside and the smell drifting in?? Been about 9 days now. Getting slightly better. Really hoping it’s going. Do one PCR which was negative. Burning not quite as bad today but all smells/ odours are strong and distorted.Doctors don’t seem to be aware of this but if you Google it there’s loads of people reporting the same thing.

Same here, covid September 2021, haven’t been able to smell anything properly since. I can smell overly sweet smells, even a fart smells weirdly sweet. It’s horrible and has really impacted my quality of life. I am thankful that I can mostly taste though, but I really miss smelling. I used to love smelling my sons hair after his shower, hope I get to again some day.

My dd (age 15) is really suffering with this. She had Covid in September 2021, smell went but then came back and she seemed ok for a few weeks. Then she had a light cold and ever since then - probably November - everything 'smells and tastes of Covid'. It's so awful for her. She has lost about half a stone (which she didn't need to lose) since December. Has now got another cold and things seem to be getting even worse for her. Feel helpless

I had Covid in 2020 and definitely have a problem…I keep on telling my husband I can smell a woodburning smell…I get wafts of this particular smell regularly..he thinks I am mad but I can definitely smell it . So bad that I go outside to check there isn’t a fire !!

@Lovemydoggie Yes that's exactly what I get. It's not hugely unpleasant and others have much worse.

I do have allergies and hay fever and the smoke smell is much worse when my nose is blocked so I feel like maybe there is some damage to the nerves in there? It's odd because I had Delta and while I was very unwell with shortness of breath, cough, dizziness, fatigue and other things, I had no cold symptoms with covid.

My sister has had similar. Finally getting better, several months on.

Out of interest, has anyone had this even despite being double or triple jabbed when they caught it? Or does the vaccine prevent this smell thing from happening?

ThingThatIBring I was double jabbed when I cought it.

@ThingThatIBring I was double jabbed (before boosters were available) so no, the vaccine doesn't prevent it.
I think Omicron is less likely to affect taste and smell though? Mine was Delta.

Oh that must be frustrating @FredBair and @McNibs. Hope it all clears up soon anyway.

I had covid mid September. I lost all taste and smell. I thought I had it back, but at the end of November I had norovirus and because I felt queasy for a few days I realised that some things did not smell right. For instance, meat smells terrible to me, especially ham. I can't bear it. I threw a joint of beef away because it smelled so bad to me, I didn't think at the time that it might be OK. And this is gross, but any kind of poo smells including farts, all smell really chemically to me, its so weird!

This doesn’t make me feel optimistic!

I had it almost 3 weeks ago, and I’ve lost my taste and smell. I can still distinguish between salty, sweet and spicy but no flavour, like you.

My smell I get wafts of familiar smells but then they disappear. Worst I cant smell myself, and it’s made me paranoid.

I was reading an article about anosmia a couple of months ago, in which they talked about retraining your smell. Apparently coffee is a good thing to sniff to reset your smell and there were other essential oils that help.. I’m going to try and find it.

I’m finding nasal rinsing is the best thing for me… it’s awful but gives some relief for a couple of hours. I believe you can get a kit from the pharmacy or a neti pot. Hope this helps others 🤞🤞