I haven’t posted about it because I didn’t want to jinx it, but my sense of smell is sporadically coming back. For a few minutes throughout the day, on and off, I can detect some strong smells like cinnamon, coffee, freshly ground black pepper, etc.
I tested negative yesterday and if I test negative again today on a second test, I can ditch the mask and go about my business normally. But I think I’m going to mask up during Costco runs from now on.
I just had COVID for 2nd time about a month ago, and while I lost taste and smell the 1st time I had it (about 18 months ago), I didn’t this time. I also didn’t have any body aches this time. So I wonder if symptoms just naturally get milder the more our bodies get accustomed to the virus, or if I just happened to get a nicer kinder variant this time.
When I lost my sense of smell, it was kind of just gradual. My main symptoms (basic head/chest cold type) lasted about 4 days, then started to clear up quickly. A few days later I started noticing that I couldn’t smell anything at all.
Not even the most pungent stuff - garlic, peanut butter, fish sauce, nothing. Strangely, though, I generally retained my ability to taste. Certainly it was muted in the same way it’s muted when you have bad nasal congestion, but I could still tell salt/sweet/acid/alkaline.
After about a month my sense of smell started gradually returning, and finally I was able to tell various herbs apart (daughters blind tested me).
I thought it was fully recovered, but it’s hard to know for certain. What I mean is, I don’t know how to prove to myself that it’s “just as good” as it used to be.
This was from an earlier (May 2022) bout of Covid, by the way. I got it again in September 2023 and had a similar course (again just basic head/chest cold symptoms for a few days) but no new impact on my sense of smell, thank goodness.
My wife had it with me both times and never had smell impacted, but the May 2022 episode did kill her sense of taste for about 2-3 weeks following recovery.
Coming back to report that my sense of smell is fully restored. It came back bit by bit over the course of several days and it’s back to normal.
Thank goodness. I enjoyed every bite of yesterday’s homemade mapo tofu.
Glad to hear! I think I’m mostly recovered too.
I did not lose my taste or smell.
….nor my sense of either.