No pleasure in eating. .. with anosmia ?

Urmstongran

Just back to share the good news that today my anosmia (sense of smell & taste) has CLEARED! Yay! How fantastic do I feel? I’ve just eaten chicken curry with rice and coriander naan bread and truly it was the Food of the Gods.

One full week without which was horrid but I’m so grateful I’ve got it back again.
?

I thought I’d return so that anyone starting with this and might be curious as to how long it may last would perhaps be heartened by my news!

????????????????

You have my sympathies, Urmstongran, and good to hear your taste is returning at last. I've just started a second round of chemo at Wythenshawe Hospital (my first was 7 years ago) and my taste buds are up the wall completely. I can't eat anything sweet and I'm left with the taste of metal for hours afterwards - no chocolate, puddings, biscuits, jam, sugar in my tea etc. It's horrible. I'm throwing food away left, right and centre searching for something that tastes like it should. And the worst thing is that a cup of tea tastes like I've been sucking on an old penny coin!
I've got to put up with this until the end of January!

Glad to hear it Urmstongran. Best keep testing it though. I'm thinking a big breakfast the a roast lunch and probably something like chocolate cake mid afternoon? You have to be sure it's really back.

Brilliant news Urms welcome back ???

Just back to share the good news that today my anosmia (sense of smell & taste) has CLEARED! Yay! How fantastic do I feel? I’ve just eaten chicken curry with rice and coriander naan bread and truly it was the Food of the Gods.

One full week without which was horrid but I’m so grateful I’ve got it back again.
?

I thought I’d return so that anyone starting with this and might be curious as to how long it may last would perhaps be heartened by my news!

Urmstongran, I have lost my sense of taste and smell due to Covid. I’ve decided to eat all those unidentifiable items that lurk in the back of the freezer and larder as it doesn’t matter what I eat at the moment. The moment my sense of taste comes back I will be eating a lovely steak and grilled tomato!
Hope you get back to normal soon.

It's early days and I expect your senses will soon return without intervention.

I recently heard about this organisation, Abscent, they're a registered charity with eminent doctors on their advisory board. Worth having a scroll through.

Smell training

Oh you are such good eggs responding to my query! Thank you so much for your help and advice. It really is very kind of you all.

I stuck my nose in the coffee jar again this morning. Nope. I do now realise this road back to smell could take a while longer than I expected so not panicking (yet). I do love my food too. Imagine not being able to smell bacon frying? Or a roast in the oven? Subtle flavours in a dish. It is a bit miserable.

Yes, absolutely nothing at all grandMattie. Thanks for your suggestion, I will bear it in mind for the future if needed. Hope not though!

And Jax I just opened the jar of mint sauce in the fridge and inhaled deeply. Nada. I dipped my finger into the mint & vinegar. Nothing yet. Perhaps I should spread some on my morning toast instead of butter to give my system an unexpected jolt!
?

I will buy some zinc stuff from the chemist in a few datpys when I venture out 3dognight. I never usually buy supplements but I’m sure this with vitamin C would be worth a punt.

How sweet of you kim19 and you dragonfly to add your kindnesses too. I do keep thinking ‘this too will pass’.

I won’t continue to bore you all with any lack of progress but will continue to read and appreciate any comments that are left for me. And of course, hopefully soon, I will joyously report back when the anosmia disappears. I will most definitely celebrate then by eating something delicious and being able to delight once more in the scent of my luxury range shower gel and body lotion! Until then. xx

So sorry you are suffering. My DiL lost her sense of taste due to Covid and it lasted about three weeks. Btw you can send for a PCR on the NHS website.
Hope you feel better soon.

Just want to say hi, Urm, and so sorry you're suffering this way ?. I do believe you're doing the absolute best thing for yourself by staying in complete isolation. Good luck matey. I'll be watching you progress with interest and fingers crossed. Nothing more constructive than that I'm afraid (medical ignoramus!)

Grrr.. ???
Necessary smell bulb in the brain…

I’m really sorry about that. No sense of sweet/sour/salt and or umami at all? TBH, I suspect your sense of smell/taste will be back, but it may take time.

A friend had a brain injury some years ago which left him as no mic. He has joined a group run by Cathy Klugston of R4 fame. She was born without the necessity smell, therefore taste. They may be helpful. I could ask him for the website if you can’t find it.

I have also heard that you can ”exercise “ your sense of smell by smelling strong things to start with - like, say, menthol and work up to milder smells…

I lost my sense of smell temporarily sometime in mid 2019. We hadn't heard of covid of course, and I can't really even connect it to a flu. I just realized one day that my food was very bland, and someone mentioned an awful smell at work (who cooks fish for lunch at work?), and I couldn't smell a thing.

Of course I let the web be my doctor, and figured out that it was a symptom of early onset dementia. I was very worried for quite a while, but eventually my sense of smell and taste returned.

Urmstongran, make sure you eat foods you are familiar with, and you will find texture more important now. Go ahead with smooth custards and puddings, which your palate might appreciate. I hope this resolves quickly for you.

It might be timely to take extra zinc with vit c in tablet form. That should help your anosmia, I have had this odd times after a cough/cold and zinc always seems to help restore the immune system and help with anosmia.

I lost my sense of smell about 10 years ago, no known reason but I can still taste. At the beginning I could smell nasty smells that weren’t there, then just nothing really, lately after Covid, I can again smell faintly!

I lost my sense of taste and smell a few years ago due to a virus. It took a while (a few months) to get back to normal. But eventually it did.
Hope you feel better soon

Yes, you have described my symptoms in December 2019 exactly.
Of course, I caught this before Covid so it couldn't have been Covid, could it!
I found BronchoStop lozenges helped but I could have been getting better by then, after seven weeks, anyway.
I rarely lose my appetite but I did then and it did come back. Every afternoon, if I sat down, I would nod off.

Yes, go for a PCR test which should be accurate (now the Wolverhampton lab has closed).

I hope you feel better soon, Urmstongran.

Missedout
I’m doing the smell train with essential oils. It’s been a month but no joy except for peppermint.
I don’t get depressed about it because when I read and see what some people are really suffering from it’s a drop in the ocean in comparison.

Just like MerylStreep, I also coughed for England in December 2019 and lost all sense of taste and smell.
I struggled through Christmas with family staying. I clearly remember trying to make my mince pies and Christmas cake and I couldn't smell any of those wonderful cooking smells, grated lemons, oranges, spices etc. I was so miserable. Everything tasted bland, cooking for everyone was an ordeal.

My sense of smell and taste sort-of returned over time but has never been as good as it was. I believe you can 'smell train'. I regularly 'sniff' foodstuffs and pick herbs in the garden, scrunch them up then bury my nose in them! There is real joy when I can enjoy crushed lavender leaves.

I hope things get better for Urmstongran and others suffering anosmia, it is depressing and debilitating.

Oh sorry, that sounded selfish of me Deedaa! Obviously it must have been horrid for him living with the anosmia.

THank you Deedaa it’s reassuring to know this happens when it’s not Covid.

Thank you Pamela. I’m such a scaredy-cat I’d rather just carry on as I am and be in (partial) denial of it. Albeit very sensible.

I honestly haven’t given a thought to a PCR test as (a) I trusted two LFTs and (b) assumed it was what our granddaughter had had. youngest daughter (aged 41y) had Covid last year and was very poorly, followed by breathlessness and long-Covid.

I only really posted to enquire about the anosmia!

When you go for a PCR test you have to do it yourself in the car.
IMO it is much easier to do the swabbing whilst looking into the mirror, taking your time and with good lighting. Less risk of spoiling the sample. After reading your link I’m even more convinced that the LFT is pretty accurate.
If you presume you have Covid, keep yourself to yourself and phone for help if you take a turn for the worse. Sounds like you are doing the right thing.

Many years ago my father lost his sense of smell and taste after an attack of flu. He never did get it back and lost most of his interest in food (not that he ever had been that interested) He also got food poisoning once because he couldn't tell the sausages he was eating had gone off - long before the date stamping of food.

LtEve ? thank you! And you did make me smile too so double ??