I’m freaking 50 years old and this has never happened to me. I apparently have a cold. As of this morning I can’t smell nor taste anything. Yet I’m not sneezing, coughing, wheezing, nor is my nose stuffy or runny. And I feel great.
Does this actually happen? or am I going to wake up tomorrow feeling like shit?
Or do I have some disease that killed my taste buds/olfactory senses?
This happened to my father once, only he was older (70’s, maybe). He said he completely lost his sense of taste and smell. Some months or years later, it came back. I never did know what caused it, and I don’t know if he knew either.
The only thing I know of for sure that he had going on at the time was an enlarged prostate, but I really don’t see how that could have been the cause. He also smoked for like 50 years, which at the time I thought was the culprit, but he had pretty much given it up by then.
Roddy
Well waaaaay back in my day, once we had a NBA player who participated in a finals game and basically won it for his team while in the midst of a stomach virus/flu caused by a one John Stockton who poisoned the player the night before the game… http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/espn25/story?page=moments/79
Something is true in that statement…
What makes you think that “loss of taste and smell” is only the symptom of a cold? If it were me, I’d be a little freaked out and would be making a doctor appointment.
I presume he threw out the bell bottoms and nekkid-woman-belly clock when he recovered.
Thank you, I’ll be here all week; don’t forget to tip your waitress.
Because the only time these symptoms have happened to me is when I’ve had a full blown cold. They’ve never happened when I felt fine or stubbed my toe.
BTW, I woke up this morning with a stuffed up nose. It’s a cold.
Personal anecdote:
Around age 13 I was playing football with some friends in the snow. Guy I was chasing slipped and his foot flew back and kicked me in the shin. It hurt of course and I fell and minorly sprained my knee in the fall. No biggie though…I kept playing. When I got home I wrapped my knee with an Ace bandage and didn’t give it much more thought.
As it happened this was around Christmas and my whole family was home. All of them, except me, were suffering from a cold or flu (I forget). Apparently the bug was in me too but I had no symptoms.
What happened instead is the cold (or flu) decided to collect at the site of my shin injury (really nothing more than a minor bruise). Several days later I noted to my mom that my shin was slightly (barely) discolored and she decided to take me to our doctor. He didn’t know much about it so sent me across the street to see a specialist. Specialist met me in the ER (not because it was an emergency, just where we were told to wait) and in 30 seconds told my mom I needed to be admitted immediately.
Mind you I felt fine. I was in no pain at all.
As it happened my leg caught a cold (called osteomyelitis) and is quite serious.
Eventually, after many tests and days in the hospital, they treated it with drugs. Now it seemed it was super concentrated cold/flu bug and when it got out I got sicker than I have ever been from a cold. That lasted a couple days then I was fine.
Well, the cold was probably unrelated to your osteomyelitis. The most common cause of osteomyelitis in an adult is Staphylococcus aureus, whereas most upper respiratory infections are caused by viruses like rhinovirus.
What you may have is respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. 'Tis the season for it.
In babies, especially preemies, it can be deadly, but in adults, it generally presents with mild cold symptoms for 2 or 3 days. It’s that kind of “cold” you have when you’re not sure if you’re coming down with something or not, and three days later you’ve forgotten you were sneezing and blowing your nose all day a few days ago.
In any case, don’t sneeze on any babies or pregnant women today, okay? Just to be safe. 