Never heard any follow ups on the taste thing, so I need answers
4 years since 2020. Time really flies when a catastrophic global event hits you in the face
Didn’t lose my smell or taste but after the initial flu-like stage of my infection was over I didn’t really get any better. And my doctor made it worse by telling me to power through and start working again. Nowadays I can only leave the bed to go to the toilet.
I’m about to participate in a study with some experimental treatments. Stupid thing is that I have to do an exercise test at the beginning so that they can measure the effectiveness. I took a shower last week and that’s left me in pain that will persist over the next few weeks. I shudder to think about what that exercise test will do.
But Portal taught me to do everything for science.
I got it towards the end of 2020 and was hospitalized for a week with pneumonia and a collapsed lung. The acute infection had me sick for a month. My last day with a fever was exactly 4 weeks after the first day I felt symptoms. I had lingering symptoms for about 6 months after.
As far as taste, I got that back quickly. I lost my taste within the first 2-3 days. I heard from someone that spicy food helps so I ate the spiciest food I could find. My lips were burning, my hair was tingling and I was sweating so I knew it was hot. I could almost feel like I was tasting spice, but the sensation would quickly go away. The next day I was able to taste a little bit and within 24-48 it was mostly back. By the time I was hospitalized, I had fully regained taste. I didn’t get my sense of smell back for probably another 3 weeks after that.
I never fully lost my taste (maybe 80% lost during active infection) but it only partially came back. It feels like there’s a “section” or “zone” of flavor I can’t taste anymore. Like a blind spot. I am extremely saddened by it and have an even more complicated relationship with food now.
It also rewired my taste and some smell so some things taste really different. For example, coffee tastes like stagnant mildewy mop water and smells like a recently used litterbox. Only minor variations for brand, at home drip vs. barista, etc.
Going into a coffee shop smells like venturing into a crazy cat lady’s condemned home.
Smell and taste took maybe 3 weeks to come back fully, as far as I can tell.
I found that making myself smell strong things seemed helpful, whether placebo or not. Like whiffs of essential oils and stuff.
The fatigue was the worst part. That took at least a month to get over the hump.
Just a reminder that not only is covid not over, but in many places infections are on the rise again and people are still dying, while vaccines become less and less accessible, no other official measures taken (like recommending masks on public transport), and more and more long term effects of infection come to light.
As a vulnerable person, the fact that people talk about it like it’s in the past scares the shit out of me.
It also seems like most people think that if they are vaccinated they can ignore it entirely.
Vaccinated individuals still experience the first stages of infection and still develope a high enough viral load to be contagious. The vaccines are effective at decreasing the duration and severity of infection, but they can’t prevent it entirely.
People who know they were exposed should still isolate for a few days even if they are vaccinated.
Thanks for reminding me I need to start wearing masks again.
Yup, covid really did ramp up the ableism in society to a whole new level…
It’s not only that people think that because they didn’t feel that bad or have long term side-effects, covid simply isn’t that bad or have serious long term side effects, so in their own minds they not only don’t need to make any effort to protect themselves, never mind others (mostly already marginalised people they prefer to ignore in everyday life, so why not now), they also have a new (and constantly growing) group of people to scapegoat and gaslight and tell it isn’t really that bad because it wasn’t that bad for them, and that they should just “suck it up”.
I won’t even start on the part capitalism and the governments and media who uphold and serve it have played in making it this way, and how a desperate and divided population benefits them, which is why they’re never going to do anything about it…
The more you look the worse it gets…
Had it in 2021, taste was gone for only three days. Afterwards some things tasted off for a few weeks, chocolate tasted like ammonium. That’s gone now. Endurance was mostly gone afterwards, and I stil have trouble remembering names, even of people I’ve known a long time.
I had the name thing before covid was even a thing (sorry not belittling your pain just had to be a smart alek. really though I have always been so bad with names and faces im not sure I would notice if covid made it worse.)
Don’t worry, I get that reaction a lot. Also the “that’s just aging” reaction regarding both the forgetting and the endurance (stamina?). But if you can’t remember the names of people you speak every week, and who don’t have forgettable face and demeanor, that’s not normal for me. Also, if you suddenly are exhausted after walking a stair where this was no problem before, that’s also not normal.
I lost what little faith I had left in our current arrangement of society and our capacity to cooperate within this context. My worst fears were realised as it became apparent just how many people, entire governments even, are more than willing to abandon the vulnerable to the capitalist machine. The fact that at one point people were trying to argue that death is actually not that bad and not being able to go to bars and cafes was actually the real injustice. I’d say that’s a pretty long term consequence for me personally.
No pb with taste and smell. However, I experience difficulties staying focused when I talk, finding words, finishing sentences, especially at work
My sense of taste was dulled and my sense of smell was totally 100% gone(I’m certain I could’ve been sprayed directly by a skunk and still smelt nothing at all) for about a month, with them slowly going back to normal over the course of another month or so. I also developed minor brain fog, which still hasn’t fully left over 3 years later.
The brain fog was the worst. I had horrible insomnia too. I had to start on sedatives and anti-anxiety meds after I recovered. They initially put me on some poison shit like Xanax. I quickly switched that out for trazodone and medical marijuana. I could sleep but things were still way off.
I eventually got put on sertraline and adderall during the day, a 10 mg edible in the evening and I take a trazodone a hour before bed. I sleep better now than I have at any time in my life and I feel great. I don’t feel like I have the same raw cognitive capacity that I used to, but I’m attentive, productive and don’t struggle to perform basic tasks like I did after I got sick. Overall, I feel more capable than ever even if my mental processing speed is lower than before.
I had COVID at the beginning of 2021, I’ve lost smell, even when I got out of it for a few months soft drinks like Coke, sprite or tonic tested like paint thinner, raw onion and my own sweat smelled like rotten eggs, fortunately after some time it stopped, drinks sooner than onion though
