Regaining sense of smell - positive stories please?

[Ruggyleaf]

it officially 2 wks since I last had a meal and tasted it. I am so unsettled by this. It’s giving me anxiety at night and I can’t go back to sleep. I have two DCs in nappies and can’t smell their dirty nappy anymore. I feel so bad.

I get my sense of smell for like an hour in the morning but then it disappears again 😫 I am no longer blocked but do have mucus during the day - don’t know what all this means but it’s driving me crazy and I feel lost 😞

I had Covid really badly and was ill for 5 weeks, it was the most ill I've ever been. Losing my taste/ smell was horrendous so I know how unsettling it was. It was about 2.5 weeks before it slowly started to return. I used an essential oil kit every day, I don't know if that helped but it felt like I was being proactive.

It's such a weird thing and not like not being able to smell due to a blocked nose, is it?

I hope it returns soon x

I had covid pre vaccine days. I lost smell for a good 9 months so much the same with taste. I did come back after a year. Wasn't so bad actually I did get used to it and it was very handy at times.

I don't think the newer strains take so long to get over? I think a month is possibly more like the norm now. But you won't notice it coming back. It sort of fades back in. I didn't wake up one day as it was before. It was a just the odd wiff so sounds like your going in the right direction already.

I was really ill with it when it first arrived. I can’t remember exactly when my sense of taste and smell returned but it was weeks rather than months.

Couldn't scroll past this as I remember desperately searching for positive stories when I lost my taste and smell with my first bout of covid. I did the daily smell training exercise (lemon, eucalyptus and peppermint oils) and tried to make use of it by drinking a foul-tasting anti-viral and anti-inflammatory concoction of turmeric and ginger and mine did return, gradually over a couple of days.

I think of you can smell for an hour in the morning you're on the mend! Good luck OP, it's weirdly upsetting

Oh goodness, this reminds me of 2021 and my first dose of Covid. I lost all sense of smell for about 3 weeks. It then slowly started to return and was back after about 6 weeks. I did have bouts of the “burnt toast” smell for a few months after that though.

I remember going round the house testing myself to see what I could and couldn’t smell. It was really tricky and I remember worrying about not being able to smell anything burning in the house (not that anything did).

I think tea tree oil was one of the first smells I could smell followed by vinegar.

Just keep sniffing strong smells in your home. It does sound like it is coming back if you can smell a bit in the morning. But I do feel for you @Ruggyleaf and hope all is back to normal ASSP.

I had a virus in August, ?covid. I still can’t smell or taste anything.
Hoping I’ll be ok by Christmas.

Thank you all for your messages. That gives me some hope. I feel so disorientated without it, especially as a mum when it comes to cooking, changing nappies etc 😞 still nothing this morning. Over 2 wks now. I am not snotty at all. My nose is dry as hay. So bizarre.

Are there any strong smells with strong associations you can think of? Eg my mum used to bleach the bathroom once a week. So strong childhood smell. Put some bleach in the loo once a week and recall its smell to test it. Don't think about it during the week. I will come back but it's so tiny to start with you don't notice it. I was scared I'd never smell a fire or gas but be reassured you don't live alone. There are other noses keeping you safe

Hi! Posting an update for anyone going through this - it cane back! After 2wks+ I can finally smell snd taste. It comes on slightly after I wake up. Perhaps to do with mucus when lying down but it all clears up 😁 never been happier smelling dirty nappies! Missed my DCs smell snd my dog’s!!

I lost my sense of smell after a ‘bad cold’ in 2022. I had tested negative for Covid, but only tested once.

Anyway, it took over a year to even begin to come back. I remember one day I suddenly knew I could smell something. I couldn’t identify what it was, but my brain knew it was something. Hard to explain, but incredible after a year of nothing at all!

Regaining a sense of smell was very slow. Sometimes it seemed like it was back, then DH would comment on the smell of something strong and I could smell nothing. Other times, I’d be convinced I could smell something, but nobody else could smell it at all.

At first, my brain was identify smelling something, but not correctly. For example, I couldn’t identify smell turpentine or paint thinner really strongly in the house, turns out, it was a lamb roast.

Two years later I couldn’t identify smell get more things right.

Now, three years on its mostly back to normal.

Yaay, so happy for you OP! It really does give you a new appreciation for something we easily take for granted doesnt it?!

I am never taking it for granted again! Loving cooking, waking up to the smell of my coffee - oh I could go on! I’ve got a second wind through it all 😁

That’s good news @Ruggyleaf

Mine's only come back very weakly after 2 years, and no change for a year more - i think that's it now. Hard to judge but I think I've got about 75% smell loss, and unevenly over different types of smell.