Tell me about getting your sense of smell back after covid ?

[bimble]

How long did it take to return ? Is it fully restored? Did you find that anything you did helped bring it back ?

I think I’m almost over the illness (pretty mild) but the total loss of my sense of smell is disturbing me a lot right now. Am finding it weirdly frightening.
Keep sniffing everything lemon coffee multisurface cleaner and nothing at all not anything.
Google is not my friend on this I think.

 

[moochedit]

Didn't lose my sense of smell or sense of taste when i had it back in March. Sore throat and cough were my main symptoms. Cough took about 4 weeks to completly stop. Everyone is different. It'll come back eventually.

 

[Bus Honeygun]

Had Covid a couple of weeks ago. The loss of smell and taste came late, as I started to get better. Had about 2-3 days of getting nothing, then gradually it started to come back. Probably affected me about a week in total. My wife was the same.

 

[purenarcotic]

Came back gradually over a couple of weeks. Some friends reported a really sudden return which threw them slightly as it felt like sensory overload. But for me I started to smell certain smells (my deodorant was the first), then i started to get the broad flavour profiles (so ‘oh that is sweet / sour butter’) and then it finally came back.

 

[King Biscuit Time]

It took me a while to realise it had gone because I was laid up in bed and a bit out of it, and could still get the tongue part of taste.

So satsumas still tasted sweet and cheese salty for example, but with no smell aroma component it felt like tasting in black and white.

It wasn't until I was fully better for a week or so that I could ram my nose in the coffee jar and get anything at all. Over the next couple of weeks it came back enough so that I could smell stuff being eaten in other rooms etc , so I was fairly convinced that I was back to normal. Although it is really hard to objectively assess whether you can smell as well as you used to be able to.

 

[SpookyFrank]

How long did it take to return ? Is it fully restored? Did you find that anything you did helped bring it back ?

I think I’m almost over the illness (pretty mild) but the total loss of my sense of smell is disturbing me a lot right now. Am finding it weirdly frightening.
Keep sniffing everything lemon coffee multisurface cleaner and nothing at all not anything.
Google is not my friend on this I think.

My smell/taste was fucked up for a week, maybe a bit longer. Lots of normal stuff tasted rancid and smell was pretty much gone.

I dunno if it actually helped but I got into a habit of taking a deep sniff of the same few things every morning; cloves, vinegar, mustard etc. Supposedly this helps 'retrain' your sense of smell but mostly it just allowed me to notice when things returned to normal, when the indescribable foul smell associated with any kind of acidic food finally went away.

 

[SpookyFrank]

The loss of smell did persist longer than most other symptoms tbf. It was upsetting to think about it being permament but permanent changes seem to be rare, and usually only happen in people who get seriously ill with the covid. All the best bimble.

 

[bimble]

its just so unsettling isn't it, sticking yr nose in a bottle of vinegar inhaling deeply in the way that would usually make your eyes water and.. nothing at all not a hint of anything. Yeah going to try that, doing the sniff test in the morning and watching to see when it improves.

 

[emanymton]

I finally caught it a few months ago and was very ill for 3 days. But was really thankful I never lost my sense of smell and taste as it must be a rsally odd thing to go through.

 

[Elpenor]

I don’t seem to have much depth of smell post covid. I can smell things, but not at the same level as before

 

[dessiato]

I had covid at the very end of July/beginning of August. I've got most of my sense of smell back.

 

[klang]

I had a few days when I couldn't taste, smell, hear, nor see. Felt like Tommy. Taste and smell didn't take long to return, but hearing took a few weeks. Went to have my ears syringed, but they said there was no wax in there, and it was the inner ear, swollen.
Sight was fever related, I think, everything went fuzzy / blurry when I moved my head.

 

[editor]

Mine took a couple of weeks to get back to more or less normal but still seemed a bit weaker for a few weeks more. Not sure if it's entirely back now, to be honest. It really was an odd sensation!

 

[Throbbing Angel]

It seems to vary a great deal.

Mrs A and I have had Covid twice and regained our senses of smell and taste within a few weeks after recovering. TBH, my sense of smell and taste are pretty shit anyway so I didn't notice much change until some things tasted a bit metallic or otherwise different.

Needless to say, lil'Angel also caught (gave it to us ) it twice too. She was at school with Gawd knows how many girls, a fair chuck of whom were travelling by bus or train to get to school. It was pretty much inevitable that she'd bring it home at some point.

Lil Angel lost her sense of smell totally and had very odd taste sensations for approximately ten months after the first infection. She still isn't 100% on taste - most meat tastes awful to her now - other things still taste odd, coffee for example. As a result, she is now 90% vegetarian and has lost weight. It has been a long job. We're 14 months past that first infection now and she seems to be 75% recovered. I think it has had other effects on her besides the smell and taste issue, but that's for another thread.

 

[Winot]

First time - most taste back after 2-3 weeks but bizarrely red wine took about 6 weeks. Mrs W had it at the same time and had no loss of taste/smell.

Second time - no loss of taste/smell.

 

[mx wcfc]

A year later, mrs mx is fine, except she still can't taste salt properly.

 

[ouirdeaux]

My sense of smell is relatively poor, probably a combination of natural deficiency and smoking. I may need to get quite close to a smell to sense it.

I didn't notice any difference after Covid, but a few months later, there were a few bizarre things. Crisps occasionally had a weird metallic taste I'd never noticed. I tend to buy whatever soap the nearest shop has in stock -- they're all more or less OK to me in different ways, and I like variety -- but suddenly the Palmolive soap I happened to have smelt so foul I actually went online, expecting to find people bitching about the change in formula. Instead, I saw only people who liked it for the nostalgia of what they called its old-fashioned smell.

I have no idea whether the episode of Covid several months earlier had anything to do with either the crisps or the soap, but I can't recall things ever tasting or smelling suddenly different in my life beforehand. But it all wore off, and crisps are as boring and unmetallic as they've ever been, and Palmolive has returned to its previous banality.

 

[Hash4Cash]

I got covid in Sept last year after Beautiful days, knocked me for 6, slept for 2 days, lost two stone in that time and had no taste or smell for a week. Then while cycling to work i passed a guy smoking a spliff outside the station, i only knew that because i could smell it. Took nearly a month to fully get over it, i was aching all over all the time and had no energy, then i saw a post on Facebook to take vitamins, and it fixed me overnight.

 

[bimble]

It’s coming back! Can smell a bit again not a lot but definitely something. Thank fuck for that.

 

[Callie]

It’s coming back! Can smell a bit again not a lot but definitely something. Thank fuck for that.

Keep up the sniffing!

 

[Riklet]

It can take months to fully come back. I know loads of peoole that lost it for weeks/months and then took 6 months+ to get it back fully. My taste and smell are still a bit off I would say and thats 2.5 years later but I am a long covid weirdo perhaps and they are def much better than before.

I wouldnt worry about it and keep training your smell regularly without forcing it.