Covid and sense of smell - Page 2

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chanty 77 (original poster)
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#11: Post by chanty 77 (original poster) »

Thankfully, I regained my sense of smell at the beginning of the 4th day. I was so happy. It's amazing how one depends on sense of smell--whether it be for coffee, food, fragrance, rain, whatever. It felt so foreign those 3 days of not smelling anything, surreal. I did take the strongest perfume I own & sprayed it on me & kept sniffing my arm as deeply as I could. I would get faint whiffs of the fragrance but only if I did that. It kept the panic at bay at least getting those faint whiffs.

On the beginning of the fourth day, I opened up our cat's canned food & normally my nose would tell me GROSS, but this time I smelled it & was thrilled to smell the gross smell--same when I scooped the cat litter. Okay, maybe TMI, but you get my drift.

BodieZoffa
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#12: Post by BodieZoffa »

mkane wrote:And I refuse to get Covid. My taste buds are already shot anyway.
I refuse to be bothered by it or any other illness as it can't begin to match what happened to me 4 yrs ago. Survived that so this world is mine to conquer, bwahahaha. Actually did get COVID at the end of 2021, but found it to be a pathetic joke in the grand scheme of things and simply not phased on any level. Taste/smell was affected, but made no difference as I kept roasting/extracting as I knew what it should taste like and it recovered quite well in a bit of time.

jpender
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#13: Post by jpender »

I've asked a bunch of people I've encountered who have had COVID about loss of smell/taste. Often they have told me that it came back after days/weeks/months but that there was still something a little off. Certain things taste funny or whatever. Studies have shown that some people have a measurable deficit in their sense of smell due to COVID even long after recovering (e.g. 2 years). Are those changes permanent?

It may not be the same as, say, losing one's sight, but I can totally relate to the joy in smelling the cat food or even the litter box. Our senses are what connects us to the world.

That said, maybe a better brand of cat food isn't a bad idea. :-)

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Brewzologist
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#14: Post by Brewzologist »

I got COVID this summer and was fully vaccinated. I didn't lose taste/smell but it was altered for awhile without the usual intensity or ability to discrminate fine flavors. I'm 4-6 weeks out now and feel like taste is much better. Hard to tell if there are any lingering longer term effects as it may be a bit psychosomatic for me.

chanty 77 (original poster)
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#15: Post by chanty 77 (original poster) »

jpender wrote:I've asked a bunch of people I've encountered who have had COVID about loss of smell/taste. Often they have told me that it came back after days/weeks/months but that there was still something a little off. Certain things taste funny or whatever. Studies have shown that some people have a measurable deficit in their sense of smell due to COVID even long after recovering (e.g. 2 years). Are those changes permanent?

It may not be the same as, say, losing one's sight, but I can totally relate to the joy in smelling the cat food or even the litter box. Our senses are what connects us to the world.

That said, maybe a better brand of cat food isn't a bad idea. :-)
I'm fine now. It lasted about 3 days. Don't notice any oddities left. Everything smells like it did. There is joy derived from the scent of things whether it be food, coffee, flowers, trees, lake water, fragrance of any kind is something we just take for granted, and when it leaves us for even a short time, it is frightening.

jpender
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#16: Post by jpender »

It's good to hear you are back to normal. Sense of smell is very primal. I'm often amazed at how scents elicit old memories and feelings from the past, sometimes without even being consciously aware of the (faint) scent until later.

In one study I read about, people who had gotten over COVID and reported complete return of their sense of smell nonetheless tested significantly lower in scent perception threshold tests. That suggests that they still had a deficit even though they were unaware of it.

It begs the question: If you don't know you have lost something does it matter? Loss of sensory acuity is a normal, gradual, part of aging.

chanty 77 (original poster)
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#17: Post by chanty 77 (original poster) replying to jpender »

Maybe those people in the scent perception threshold tests had already lowered deficits but never were aware of it until the tests? Yes, aging does cause some loss of sensory. Yet my 89 year old mom ate & loved food with a gusto til she passed.

jpender
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#18: Post by jpender »

chanty 77 wrote:Maybe those people in the scent perception threshold tests had already lowered deficits but never were aware of it until the tests?
Yes, that's certainly possible. They couldn't go back in time and test the post-COVID subjects. All they could do is match them in terms of age and gender with non-COVID controls and then hope the statistics were meaningful.

There is ample evidence that people underestimate perceptual loss. So given that there is a spectrum of outcomes from COVID it would seem to be very likely that some fraction of people would be in this category. The statistics can't prove it but are suggestive. If you flipped a coin twenty times and got 18 heads would you wonder about the coin or just figure you were lucky? It could be either but it's more likely that the coin is funny.

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