I lost all sense of taste, while the Covid tests came up negative, I hear they're not totally accurate. I had the symptoms, including the one I feared the most, I lost my sense of taste. I had read that in most cases the sense of taste returns, however the word "most" lingered in my brain. As you would imagine, a person who reviews candy would need their sense of taste, it made me contemplate this site, and even messed with my other senses. I started to feel a little paranoid and even learned just how much I depend on my sense of smell for so many other things. Below is the journal I decided to keep, just in case this was to be my last post on this blog.
Part 1 the first 7 Days
I have no taste… literally. About 7 days ago I started coming down with the flu. I figured it was the flu (and not Covid) because several days before Allison was very sick with the flu and we checked her for Covid and it was negative. She was just on the upswing of her flu when I started getting symptoms. Then it hit me like a freight train and I was out. About 3 days into my flu I started to lose the ability to smell and taste things. By the 4th day I was completely tasteless.
The flu started to clear up, which was good because we had a flight out of town on a trip. I wasn’t perfect, but I was beyond the stages of being contagious. The one thing that had not recovered however was my ability to taste or smell anything. By this point I was hungry, but unable to enjoy the flavours. It’s been 7 days now and the ability to taste has not really returned.
It should be understood, I’ve lost my ability to smell and taste only sort of. My tongue still works perfectly, so I can sense sour, sweet, salty and bitter, and spicy. I just don’t get that extra kick that you get with your olfactory senses in your nose. Food flavour is very basic for me, and I’m extremely sensitive to texture. I’ll be honest, while I’m fairly sure it will return, I’m very worried that it might not. As you might imagine, taste is very important for a person who reviews candy. Fortunately I actually have several months worth of reviews lined up, so there is no immediate problem.
Psychologically it is taking a bit of a toll on me. I’m not as interested in eating at all, I’m never really hungry. When Allison and I pick a place to eat, I really don’t care at all. I do think about texture a bit when I choose foods, but there’s no particular type of food that I crave. When I do eat, I feel a little down that I can’t totally enjoy it.
I have given more thought about texture, and realized even more the collaboration taste and texture have together. Certain textures work well on their own, however some textures need certain flavours to be satisfying. I’ve been a little experimental with texture and discovered the following things:
Pickled jalapeños - Crunchier than I thought, still burns but without the flavour.
Bread - Very satisfying to chew.
Hamburgers - All condiments are for people who can taste, otherwise just makes a hamburger into a squishy gross mess.
Gummies - Not as gross as I thought they would be, still satisfying to chew.
Meat - Tough meat is actually kind of satisfying.
Chips - Very satisfying.
Ice water - Excellent, my current favourite thing.
Day 8
We went to the mall today and I think my sense of smell might be returning gradually. Extremely smelly places at the mall smelled like something. I’d never been so happy to walk by a Lush store. The smells are still faint enough that it’s hard to identify them, but I smell something. I’m not convinced that it’s real, or if I mentally just want to smell anything again. Every time we walk near something and I think I smell something I ask Allison if it’s real and try to identify it. A few times we’ve walked by stores and I’d turn to her to ask if she smelled anything and I’d see her choking, I’m looking at you Lush.
I think I’m also starting to taste a little too. Most notably I think I can taste my most nasty of burps. I thought I tasted my Wendy’s Bacon Mushroom Melt today, but I’m not sure. In the evening we went for a walk and smelled something kind of like garlic, I turned to Allison and asked if there was a smell and she mentioned that it was a fairly rank garbage smell. So maybe the base smell in rotting food isn’t bad, but the layers on top are not.
I experimented with a few more foods today:
Salty fries - They're better crispy than soft, temperature means less so cold is fine.
Grapes - Less satisfying than before when I could taste them, but not bad.
Day 9
Allison made bacon and eggs this morning, and I think I can smell the bacon. I’m wondering if it’s actually the fat in the air hitting my tastebuds on my tongue or if my olfactory is picking it up. I’m optimistic about it being positive, so the smell feels positive, but when I objectively think about it, this fatty smell isn’t great.
Went to another mall this afternoon and the smells became more regular. I could only really smell strong odours like perfume shops, but it became somewhat regular. I even managed to smell waffle cones being made at an ice cream shop. I had a chicken Caesar salad for lunch and I could kind of taste the dressing and even the chicken on its own. I also got a slice of cheesecake, I went for key lime as I figured the sourness would work no matter what. It worked and I might have even had a hint of actual lime flavour too.
In general I’m feeling optimistic that I’ll regain my sense of smell and taste, but I really don’t know how long it’s going to take. At one point today we went into a fancy store and they offered us some chocolates to sample. I took the chocolates, but stuffed them discreetly in my bag in hopes of sampling them later when my taste comes back. After all, chocolate is almost completely olfactory in its flavour profile.
In my dreams I was hoping that my sense of smell and taste would just pop back instantly. Like one minute I couldn’t taste anything, then suddenly I’m back to normal. I’m now convinced it’s going to be a slower process. This is going to make it difficult to know when I should go back to writing candy reviews. For now however, the plan is to continue collecting things I want to review in the future. Maybe I’ll feel confident one day and I’ll get back to the reviews.
Day 10
I’ve decided that I’m going to blow my nose several times today, even if I don’t feel the urge. I feel like somewhere in my head there’s a backup, and maybe it will relieve the problem. This morning I had a bun that had no flavour, however I blew my nose and then brushed my teeth and I could taste the mint. I’m not sure if the bun is just not as flavourful, but I figure it can’t hurt to clear things out of the sinuses anyways.
As the day went on, things are starting to get better. I ate a Big Mac and I could taste the sauce. I actually ate two hamburgers and I finally felt like flavour was more important than texture. The sauce didn’t just make my food wet, it gave it flavour. I also ate a few chocolate treats and could tell the difference between the hazelnut nut flavoured chocolate and the regular milk chocolate.
I can safely say that my sense of flavour has returned, but it’s not at 100%. I can now enjoy food again, but I don’t feel comfortable writing reviews again. I feel like the flavour details are still missing. This makes me wonder about my tasting skills before. I know that I’ve been writing about food for many years, and I would always try and get as much information about flavour at every bite, but maybe the reason I enjoy doing this is because I have an ability to taste that is heightened.
I don’t feel like my entire ability to break down ingredients, or to find out why a candy is good or not is back yet. At this point it feels like chocolate and other flavours are just good to me. I’m not sure I could pick out better or worse chocolate, or tell the difference between Kit Kat bars manufactured in different countries. While I’m now much more optimistic, I’m not back to normal yet.
Day 11
Today I find that I’m drifting between tasting things and not. I find that when I first bite into something with a fairly strong flavour I taste it, but after a few bites my taste buds either fail, or I lose interest. I’m not sure if this is psychological or my olfactory is having some kind of endurance problems. I feel like it’s an improvement, but I’m not sure.
I really discovered during this entire ordeal how much I use smell all the time. Most notably I can’t really seem to keep flavours/smells long enough to analyze them in my brain. I just get a whiff and that’s it. I don’t know if other people break down flavours to their components like I do, but considering the reaction I’m getting the answer is no. People seem to think if I can basically taste things that’s good enough.
I’m also finding it odd when I walk around. I feel like I use smell often as a sense of direction and placing things around me. I not only smell food, but flowers, machinery and sometimes people (not really in the creepy way). I find that I can predict things that I might be approaching with smell, and right now it’s not really working. Again, I’m not sure if others do this, in fact I wasn’t even really aware that I did it until losing this sense.
I’m still blowing my nose more regularly in hopes that it’s helping with clearing this up. While I hope this gets back to normal, I wonder if I’m going to be more cognisant of it in the future because of this.
Day 12
I'm still rejoicing when I taste something, and annoying Allison in the process. I really think that I rely on my sense of smell more than most people. I'm not at 100%, but I feel like it's coming back. The slight whiffs of smell are staying a bit longer, and the bites of food are pleasurable again. Each day it's getting better, and now it's only waiting for the flavours to come back enough that I feel confident that I can review candy again.
Epilogue
After day 12 I stopped writing in the journal, at about day 15 or 16 I felt confident enough that my sense of taste was back, I still waited a few weeks to write a review, and at that point I was able to pick out small details of flavour. I admit that I was afraid, but more than that I was sad and a little confused. Losing my sense of taste made me feel a lot less excited about food, and also made me less interested in eating. It actually became slightly dangerous at one point as I just didn't have an appetite and didn't eat as much as I should have (almost passed out 3 times).
I also felt confused because I didn't realise how much I use my sense of smell to navigate me through my day to day. I became lost with only my sense of sight to guide me, and it turns out my sense of sight is not that reliable.
In hindsight I'm not sure if we had Covid, and just didn't test positive, but fortunately we took precautions anyways and didn't leave the house until after our initial symptoms were gone. For those of you out there feeling Covid in the long term, and those who fall on the bad side of "sense of taste returns to most", I feel for you.
CC
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