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I had a mild case of covid and the loss of smell and taste was unlike anything similar I've ever experienced. It's not like having a stuffed nose or just being
by bodono 6y ago
I had a mild case of covid and the loss of smell and taste was unlike anything similar I've ever experienced. It's not like having a stuffed nose or just being less sensitive to smell. For me I could breathe just fine but could not smell or taste anything, literally zero. Even very strong smelling things did nothing for me, and food had zero taste. It's a very unusual experience and I think a dead giveaway that you had the virus (it appears near the end of an infection typically).
- carlmr 6y agoI had that exact experience for 12 days after a fever and a light cough in March. I couldn't even smell Thai fish sauce. They wouldn't test me because it wasn't on their list of symptoms in Germany, even though South Korea, UK and China were already reporting it as a strong indicator for Corona.
- ed25519FUUU 6y agoI really wish they would get in gear and start rolling out widespread serologic testing. Many people have similar stories to you. For a lot of people symptoms were before there was any testing available. With widespread serologic testing, we can at least get some waypoint data, and for people like you some peace of mind.
- remote_phone 6y agoCurrent serological tests aren’t effective after a few months because antibodies counts decrease very quickly.
- lostlogin 6y agoWhat is the peace of mind aspect about? Are you meaning that a reliable test that was negative would tell people they hadn’t infected anyone?
- _jstreet 6y agoThere's currently no evidence to suggest that you're immune after an initial infection (as far as I know!?)
- mlavin 6y agoIs there evidence to suggest that standard immune response to coronaviruses doesn't apply to this particular strain?
- jlokier 6y agoThere was concern initially, and still somewhat, that it might not confer long-term immunity. Not everything does, even if your body fights something off in the short term. This novel coronavirus is different enough from others, and the human body's response to it is very unusual, so it's reasonable to ask whether infection confers immunity. People were quick to assume immunity at first, because that's what people want to be true. But it was recognised as a dangerous assumption, which has a realistic prospect of being wrong. Some people end up with antibody levels too low to measure after infection, which adds more weight to the idea that they might not be immune afterwards. You could think of that as a level of evidence; certainly it comes under "we should take this seriously". (Fortunately the human body has other mechanisms for long-term immunity (T-cell memory), but that still needs to be studied.) The difference between assumption and evidence on this is important because it strongly informs our models of its propagation, how many people will get it how fast, how best to contain and limit it, and whether people who have had can safely (for themselves and others) behave differently afterwards. If you've had Covid-19 and you're still struggling with Long Covid 3-6 months later, you're going to want to know if there's a realistic chance you could catch it a second time, especially because by then you know you are one of those susceptible to awful symptoms. It's not enough to assume it's just like other coronaviruses - you will have personal experience that it isn't.
- rootusrootus 6y agoIf you didn't gain any immunity, how would you fight off the infection to begin with?
- philippoi 6y agoI had some symptoms in mid-March as well, and actually on my birthday noticed I couldn't smell or taste nearly as well as normal. It was very apparent because I work as a barista, so naturally I rely on my sense of smell quite a lot, and I had really enjoyed the same green tea the day before and the day of my smell loss; it just tasted incredibly flat. My birthday meal and birthday wine were just a waste on me. My wife and I were tested for antibodies about 6 weeks later, when our son was born, and neither of us was found to have antibodies. It wasn't until around the first week of April that I first heard loss of your sense of smell was a symptom of COVID19. In spite of the antibody test, I suspect I had the virus. About how quickly does the antibody count drop if you develop specific antibodies to COVID19? I read somewhere that some people recovered from their infections without developing antibodies tailored to COVID19 and it was thought that these individuals overcame the virus due to their body's already existing store of antibodies for other types of Corona virus. I can't remember where I read that article now.
- rindalir 6y agoSame thing happened to me -- and I also tested negative for antibodies about five weeks later. My partner (who had more of a flu-like illness) did test positive for antibodies though, so I'm very certain I had it. My hypotheses are: test was not specific enough, i fought it off quickly with t-cell immunity, or my antibodies fell off very quickly since I really was not sick (I had fever of 100 for about three hours and some burning pain in my nasal cavity and that's it)
- nradov 6y agoThere is a huge variance in antibody response and duration between patients. It seems to correlate with symptom severity but there are other factors still not understood (possibly genetic). In some cases the innate immune system fights off the infection before antibodies are generated. In other cases the antibodies fade away quickly, but a high level of immunity is retained through memory T cells. Unfortunately there's no quick or easy way to do a specific T cell assay. There is a hypothesis that prior exposure to other similar viruses provides a limited degree of immunity from SARS-CoV-2. It's plausible and fits some of the case patterns but we don't know yet if it's a significant effect.
- Rainymood 6y agoSame happened to me. No cold, runny nose, or any problems with airways. But my smell was just gone. I literally ground up basil and garlic and stuck it up my nose... nothing.
- takeda 6y ago> (it appears near the end of an infection typically) Hmm doesn't that contradict the article? Of it is at the end of the infection, then it feels like it isn't good as a warning to others that you got the virus, and more of an indicator that you had the virus
- bodono 6y agoFor me it was at the end of very mild flu-like symptoms (general malaise, sleeping a lot etc.). It's possible I was still contagious when I lost my smell and taste so people should probably self-isolate if they experience the same. Though my guess from personal experience is that this is a lagging indicator and possibly anyone with this has already been infectious for a while.
- makomk 6y agoThis was actually the UK government's justification for not including it on the list of symptoms that they asked people to self-isolate for initially - even though it was fairly specific to Covid, they reckoned it appeared too late in order to be all that useful as a criteria to get people to self-isolate. Notice also that the article doesn't say anything about when the symptom appears.
- pps 6y agoI have something like that right now (started exactly week ago), I can't smell or taste and I can easily breath through the nose, but I also feel some pressure, like it would be a little bit swollen inside. It's cold outside and breating through the nose is mildly painful when I go out. Looks more like sinus infection without typical symptoms. I wonder if you felt it like that or the loss of smell was the only indicator of illness.
- autokad 6y agoI was sick with something like that at the end of nov 2019 - end of dec 2019. normally cold air is relaxing to my lungs, but then cold air stung. no loss of taste though, does the pain feel like stinging or something else?
- remote_phone 6y agoThis sounds like a sinus infection. Go to your doctor and ask her to prescribe medication and a covid test.
- pps 6y agoAnd it feels like sinus infection, but on the other hand I can't imagine why I can't smell and taste stuff if I can easily breath. I'm taking already meds for sinus infection, will call my doctor after the weekend if there will be no improvement. Unfortunately in Poland we can't get covid test without having all four symptoms of it... I could do this myself, but it's very pricey and I'm doing my work from home and wearing a mask in shops anyway, so I'll just isolate even more.
- lordnacho 6y agoMy wife was ill earlier during the first wave. She literally gargled TCP (the chemical, not the protocol. Handshakes are illegal.) and couldn't taste it. If you've ever been around this chemical you know how strong it smells, people can smell it across the house. That's when we suspected Covid. Couldn't get a test until months later, and it was negative. But still suspect it.
- pertymcpert 6y agoShe took an anti-gen test?
- lordnacho 6y agoAn antibody test, yes
- dekhn 6y agoWhy would you gargle TCP? [edit: this was a confusion between an antiseptic whose name is TCP, and a chemical which is acronymmed as TCP. The former is mostly phenol (which I wouldn't recommend drinking, but apparently has been approved for that), the latter is a dangerous industrial solvent which you should not drink.
- roywiggins 6y agoAs a sore throat remedy probably.
- arcticbull 6y ago"TCP is recognized in California as a human carcinogen, and extensive animal studies have shown that it causes cancer. Short term exposure to TCP can cause throat and eye irritation and can affect muscle coordination and concentration. Long term exposure can affect body weight and kidney function." Doesn't sound like something one should gargle tho.
- 6y ago
- autokad 6y agohow did that effect your eating? were you able to eat much?
- bodono 6y agoI ate a little less, mostly because the lack of taste made it less interesting. I felt fine otherwise and my smell was back in about 4-5 days.
- 8note 6y agoWhole growing up, we had a dog that I was allergic too, and I could barely smell/taste anything It made for a very picky eater, since all that I cared about was the texture
- mderazon 6y agoHow much time did it take to gain it back ?
- deadmetheny 6y agoFor me, it started to return a bit over a week after it was first lost, and recovered to mostly normal after about three weeks.
- chadash 6y agoSame here. What's was funny about losing my sense of smell is that unlike vision or even hearing, it's hard to remember how strong things were supposed to smell before, so it was also hard to know when it was fully back. But at around 1 week I smelled a raw leek and got a whiff of something and then within about 2-3 weeks, it wasn't noticeable anymore.
- deadmetheny 6y agoAbsolute same - a vague whiff, tastes coming back to food with varying strengths depending on what it was, then a return to normalcy. I'm still not sure if it's back to 100%, simply due to the fact I also never really had a mindful baseline of what was normal.
- bodono 6y agoIt took about a week to be back fully.
- adventured 6y agoWith a mostly mild case, it took me three weeks approximately, for my full sense of smell to return. I lost maybe 85% of my sense of smell, and 1/2 the sense of taste. I could no longer smell anything in the air, atmospheric scents. Like if you walk into a restaurant you might be able to smell food broadly in the air; I couldn't smell what was cooking on the stove six feet away. I could only smell something if it was right under my nose (within ~20-30cm). A lot of people seem to totally lose the sense of smell, I didn't reach that level (and it still took most of a month to return).
- kbrisso 6y agoBack around 2010 I had this happen to me, It was so bizarre. Someone told me it was do to a sinus infection but I never had to go on antibiotics for one and no pain. I was sick that year with other things not related to the nose and it took a long time to get my sense of smell back. It never fully recovered to what it was. One thing I remember is it was like a filter and some things smelled awful and some things like nothing at all. Onions smelled like ammonia is what I remember most. I had lots of test done and never found out why. It wasn't a pleasant experience and freaked me out a little.
- whoisburbansky 6y agoDid this apply to everything? Could you taste spiciness, for instance, from really hot peppers?
- bodono 6y agoNot sure, I don't recall trying spicy food. I had sensation in my tongue so any physical harm I would feel no problem, just no taste.
- deadmetheny 6y agoI mostly ate spicy food during my time with it due to the fact the physical sensation of spiciness being one of the only things that made food interesting. Same with saltiness. I actually ate a lot less during that period due to not having much drive to do so with a lack of taste.
- kyleashipley 6y agoI currently have this symptom. I ordered extremely spicy Thai food last week. I could feel the heat, but not taste anything at all. After about 4 days, I regained some ability to differentiate between salty/sour/sweet, but it’s been in and out for the last 2-3 days. I accidentally poured too much mustard on a sandwich at lunch today and could not have told you there was any mustard on it at all in a blind test.
- exabrial 6y agoI could still "taste" the burning sensation, but the "flavor" (savoriness?) was gone. Hard to explain.
- danso 6y agoHow long did it take to recover your senses, and do you feel that their recovery has been 100%? Edit: nm, I see it was answered: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24665323 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24665323
- gdsdfe 6y agoI have the same questions ... I heard reports of people that didn't recover their senses weeks after recovery
- andrewla 6y agoMy wife lost her sense of smell and taste, likely from COVID, back in March and has not yet recovered it. She has recovered "impressions" -- things smell or taste bad or good, but can't distinguish an actual identifiable odor.
- rodolphoarruda 6y agoIn my case the symptom lasted for 3 days. In my wife's case, 1 week. In both cases the recovery was 100%.
- rindalir 6y agoWhen this happened to me I recovered my senses within about two weeks, but coffee smelt like a combo of burning plastic and rotting flesh for several weeks after. To this day (six months later), certain things smell different than they did before: low tide, poop, some foods when heated. [edit: and they all smell like the same thing]
- qz2 6y agoSame taste outcome here. Coffee and Coke Zero became very disappointing. I was swabbed and confirmed diagnosed with it. It really did me in and I’m not sure I completely recovered form it yet. Took me 3 months after it was over to be able to run more than 30 seconds again. I could do a 5km run easily before. It’s a struggle now. But I’m in my 40’s so I expected a longer recovery cycle.
- Negitivefrags 6y agoCoke Zero doesn’t need caronavirus to be disappointing. It stopped tasting good years ago.
- qz2 6y agoDepends where you are. UK variety is ok.
- jghn 6y agoDid it change at some point? Back when I drank soft drinks I had become a diet soft drink consumer and Coke Zero was a godsend as being at least somewhat like actual Coke.
- Negitivefrags 6y agoI can't be certain if it changed, or I changed. All I know is that when it came out 15 years ago it was awesome, and at some point probably 5 years ago I realised it tasted like crap and switched to pepsi max. Nowadays when I do happen to drink some it tastes extremely terrible to me. Edit: Apparently Coke Zero is no longer sold anywhere except where I live (New Zealand), so I guess nobody else in this forum will be able to check for themselves. The rest of the world switched to "Coke Zero Sugar" and no longer has Coke Zero. In NZ the new product is called Coke No Sugar and Coke Zero continues to be sold because it was really popular I guess.
- kstrauser 6y agoDid that include tongue-based tastes, too, like sweet / salty / sour / bitter / umami, or just olfactory ones? Like, if you ate an orange would it be sweet and sour at all?
- arronax 6y agoI had experienced loss both of smell (completely, kitty litter smelled like nothing) and taste (not completely). You still sense if something's salty, for example, but it's very remote. As an anecdote, the aubergine paste, which is usually off-putting and bitter to my taste (but smells nice) started tasting like nothing, really, so I happily ate my wife's supply. Soy sauce also seemed far less salty than usual. Taste remains, but very far, and smell is just lost. Very bizarre experience, would not recommend.
- pps 6y agoGood question, I'm also interested. In my case (more covid-like symptoms than anything else, but no confirmation) I can feel difference between lemon and banana. But the sourness doesn't bother me at all. Also onion doesn't work anymore, normally I would cry like crazy, now I can keep it under my nose and feel only a little bit of pain inside the nose.
- thedrbrian 6y agoFor me yes. Couldn’t taste anything for about a week so I just ate soup and toast. After that the sweet , salt ,fatty etc came back so I swapped to lasagna and cannelloni as it was the most normal tasting food. Couldn’t even smell the alcohol in a bottle of whiskey. Only symptom I had.
- cft 6y agoDid it come back? How soon?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- aPoCoMiLogin 6y agoMy girlfriend had that symptoms for few days, so I've told her to make the test, she got back and told me that the test was positive and we've got 2 weeks quarantine, it was august 26th. The very next day I got really painful arthralgia (august 27th). The next day was fever that lasted till the thursday (august 29th). On the next day (30th august) I was feeling good, though that that was the end. Oh boy how I was wrong. Later on the same day I've had issues with breathing, friday night was nightmare with short shallow breathing and fever, that scared me a lot, never feel that way. I've gad few times pneumonia when I was a kid, but this was next level. The next day was better, so I didn't call an ambulance as they were already overwhelmed, but got to the hospital by myself and did the test with positive result. On the monday (september 2nd) I started coughing a lot, but the next day was much worse. With tuesday I started having headaches, dizziness and ear ache.. Coughing, headaches and dizziness lasted more than a week, with better and worse days. It was the worst experience of the last few years, and it started with loss of smell an taste.
- jhardy54 6y agoarthralgia = joint pain
- Red_Leaves_Flyy 6y agoThank you.
- headmelted 6y agoWhere I live the virus is fake and/or only infects the really old and infirm. It’s really convenient actually that the virus is fake here while it’s real in the rest of the world as it means people were able to give up on the social distancing and masks and such, which they were very eager to do. It seems to have stopped transmitting from 5G towers if the physically very close gossip is any kind of barometer for these things.
- Zardoz84 6y agolucky I don't experience respiratory problems but I got a false recovery like you, this last Tuesday. Before I had some fever and headaches for four days. I had some fever this two last days. and I'm experiencing weird tastes with a few good ingredients. Today, I don't had fever but nearly all day I feel a lot of sluggishnes.
- ctdonath 6y agoThat was how I knew. Had a vague sense of coming down with something; smelled a scented candle which I KNEW i could smell (normally), didn’t sense it at all. Test followed. Strange that this was known early, yet never was considered an indicator easily tested.
- zobzu 6y agoThis has happened to me countless times with the flu where i can't smell or taste anything at all.
- Red_Leaves_Flyy 6y agoI've suffered reduced smell and taste from colds, though I've never entirely lost either. Even with the worst colds I could still clearly identify the acrid smell of smoke from idling diesels from 50 yards away at work.
- dustinmoris 6y agoSame here, although I also had a cough and fever. My wife is a doctor and got infected at work, she suffered only a mild illness with mild fever on day one and then a cough for the rest of the week. After 7 days she went back to work (according with gov guidelines) and was never unwell again. When she was self isolating at home I looked after her and must have been exposed to huge viral loads as I was obviously in very close contact and didn’t change my behaviour at all. I was just there as if she had a normal flu or cold, so warm hugging her at night, still giving her kisses and going normally about life. 5 days into her isolation I got a fever as well and I had a very high fever for the first two days. Then it disappeared like it normally would and I just had a cough left for the week and felt a bit tired obviously. After roughly 10 days I felt like I was all good again and even started to go for runs in the park again and to work out at home again. Weirdly we lost our sense of taste and smell entirely towards the end of the first 7 days and it lasted for about 5 days in total despite all other symptoms having disappeared. It was a complete loss, like nothing I had ever had before. All in all the loss of smell and taste was literally the most annoying about it, otherwise it felt like an extremely mild flu like not even worth talking about. Luckily smell and taste came fully back, just suddenly one day it was back and that was the end of story. This happened in early April in the UK. Since then we felt great, no lasting symptoms whatsoever. I’m not a super athlete or anything, but I do enjoy sports and I have maintained a great condition and actually even feel a lot stronger than before. Probably because due to the extra work outs I get from all the extra time. This virus is just a regular respiratory illness and it’s honestly so mild I cannot believe how the world is going bonkers over this. I actually hope that the more people get it hopefully they will realise like me that this whole reaction to COVID is massively over the top. There will always be some people with complications and some who die. But that is literally just like with other viruses which we don’t care about. If you’re in normal health, are not fat and not end of life, then there’s nothing to worry about. EDIT: I’m 33 and my wife is 32 btw.
- underwater 6y agoYou can't take two cases and extrapolate any meaningful conclusions from it. On top of that, hand waving away the death of people because they are fat or elderly is both incorrect and pretty fucking callous.
- thomasahle 6y agoI had covid three weeks ago, but I never noticed a lack of smell and taste. I had all the other symptoms, including some of the post effects, but not this particular one.
- Lich 6y agoDid your sense of smell and taste come back? How long did it take to recover?
- bromuro 6y agoTo me it lasted 3 days. I felt so happy when I could smell again. It was a bit scary.
- DhxLgt 6y agoIn February of 2019 I flew to SF for a business trip, and a few days after my return my wife became sick with an unknown illness -- she was complaining of shortness of breath, had a cough, lightheaded feeling and migraines. Her breathing continued to get worse over a period of days to the point where she was waking up with blue lips and would become totally winded when walking a few feet. Eventually she decided she needed to see a dr so we went to an urgent care -- due to the fact we had no car (we were living downtown Denver at the time) we walked and only a few blocks from the house she nearly collapsed -- I had to hold her up while we walked very slowly the rest of the way to the urgent care -- once we arrived she was immediately put on oxygen and given an IV. later that night she was sent home, but in the morning her condition was worse, so we went to the ER but she was sent home again this time with asthma medication including an emergency inhaler. Her breathing was labored for months and she continued to use the emergency inhaler during this time. In August of 2019 she completely lost her sense of taste and smell. In October 2019 she got exponentially worse so we went back to the ER and this time they checked her in. They ran loads of tests on her, checked for cancer, HIV etc. -- eventually they gave her a bronchoscopy and found lots of very thick stringy mucus all in her lungs and found that she had a collapsed lung. During this time they treated her with oxygen and antibiotics. All of the tests they ran came back negative -- she remained in the hospital for a week and eventually recovered. I was in close contact with her during this time I even laid next to her in the hospital bed but did not contract her illness. After 7 days the doctors concluded that she must have developed asthma and sent her home with an inhaler which she relied on daily until around February. She is now able to exercise on a treadmill without ill effects. However if I cook things on the stove and it produces smoke this seems to trigger mild issues, and occasionally she has a stuffy nose that seems like allergies. I'm not saying she had covid-19 but she had many of the symptoms. She had no fever during this time.
- randycupertino 6y agoHave you guys gotten antibody tests?
- dTal 6y agoI'm sorry to hear your wife has been ill. >I'm not saying she had covid-19 but she had many of the symptoms. What are you trying to say? If she got ill in Feb 2019 it's definitely not covid-19.
- baryphonic 6y agoThank you for posting this. I've never been able to tell what "loss" meant in media reports. I've had instances where I don't have much of a sense of smell, but I can still smell certain strong odors.
- raducu 6y agoI probably had decreased smell, and it felt like I was tasting with the sides of my tongue and cheeks(2 weeks later the middle of my tongue peeled off almost looked like I was getting a snake tongue). I did test multiple times and I could still smell and taste, though it felt like maaaybe my smell was decreasing, but every article I read said completely gone smell and taste. I realises my smell was reduced when I was in the hospital and I suddenly could smell how stinky the room and I were, then it hit me "yeah, my smelling was probably bad untill now. My wife "realised" she lost her smell and taste right after her test came back positive. But she most likely lied for the attention(I know this sounds harsh, but I have goos reasons to think so). So I wouldn't call this reliable.
- disillusioned 6y agoThis was my exact presentation of the virus. A deeply profound loss of smell and taste, with an otherwise clear nose. I did develop some significant fatigue and fogginess and a slight cough, but the complete loss of smell and taste was upsetting. The early articles about this connection back in March is what prompted us to get tested. In our cases, though, this symptom appeared almost immediately and stuck with us throughout the infection, so I don't think it's fair to generalize about when anosmia is likely within the course of the virus.
- sparkie 6y agoI had an almost complete loss of smell, unlike anything I've experienced before, but could still smell some aerosols like air freshener. My sense of smell was back to normal in about 3 days.
- saturn_vk 6y agoI wonder if that loss of taste is at least a good way of quitting something like sugary foods
- fn1 6y agoWhen you're sick you should take care of yourself, not push yourself harder.
- drdeadringer 6y agoYes, but when one is sick should sugary foods be on the top of the menu? Granted everyone's different, but I'd rather soup than gummy bears if I'm unwell.
- john4532452 6y ago> I had a mild case of covid and the loss of smell and taste was unlike anything similar I've ever experienced. Very much true. Usually when you bite a lemon you feel a strong sour taste followed by involuntary movement of hands tightening towards the chest and shivering briefly. With covid's loss of taste, i felt no taste at all when biting a lemon, but the body wants to shiver which i could control easily but was very confusing experience i never felt before. Very unique experience. Also realized the appetite falls rapidly. Without taste i had to force feed myself. During normal illness your are tired and don't want to eat, but this is very different experience.