New symptom! bizzare smell and taste developed 2-3 months post covid

Posted by sslariz @sslariz, Nov 7 11:50am

I had covid again around Aug 1 - I took paxlovid and recovered very quickly and actually while on paxlovid had best energy ever, no headacches, and back pain significantly reduced.

However about 2 months post covid I started to develop a weirdness in my sense of smell where certain smells were enhannced and changed. Dawn dishsoap smelled disgusting.. at 3 months post, this increased to the point that anything savory smelling smells disgusting and the taste of it is also reduced and worsened.
I can taste salty and sweet things, they taste ok, but cant eat anything savory or fruity. so I'm reduced to very bland foods - cottage cheese for example.
The rest smells strongly like a mix of rotting and smoky. My sense of smell is also very strong for some things like bleach is overwhelmingly strong.
have others had this? I had long covid previously but this is the only symptom I have had since the recent covid infection. I'm planning to get the most recent vaccination and hope it goes away.

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I had covid last September and subsequently got various symptoms.( I won’t list them here.) I was diagnosed with post covid syndrome, but still am not certain which symptoms it caused. However, I did lose most of my sense of smell and some taste for almost a year. (Discovered by tests.) It did return. I also simultaneously got a constant metallic turned bitter taste, which remains. And, I got a recurring phantom smell of a sweet smell like fabric softener. It was very pleasant, but came out of no where and was intermittent. I don’t use fabric softener. It stopped after about 6 months.

I fear the constant bitter taste is indefinite.

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Hey SSLariz, I had COVID a 2nd time in October 2023. I completely lost my taste for coffee. I always looked forward to it in the morning. It tasted so bitter to me that I could no longer drink it. My first round of COVID in 2022, I did not have this with either taste or smell.

After a year, my taste for coffee is coming back......not 100% yet.

Definitely COVID can affect your sense of taste and smell. I am praying you get yours back because as I know what you are experiencing is difficult.

Blessings....

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SSlariz, After developing LC, I periodically got an unexplainable garbage dumpster smell. It was faint and took me a while to figure out it was a LC symptom. 9 months into LC and it comes and goes - still usually faint. Frankly, I’d happily live with it forever if I could trade it for the fatigue. Hang in there.

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I have read your story and can somewhat relate. I contracted Covid in December of 2022 and lost my taste and smell on day 2 of the virus. I still don’t have it back, but have done 6 Stellate Ganglion Block injections and they have brought back some taste to my tongue on some days, like sweet, salty and bitter, but still, no flavors. I can’t smell anything and have been to an ENT and had all the CT’s and X-Rays I could have, even a brain MRI and nothing was found. The doctors say it’s long Covid, but I also have Hashimoto’s and am wondering if that is really the cause. I’m at a loss right now as to where I should go next, as these injections aren’t really doing it for me, it’s just a tease and then after about 4-5 weeks, it goes back to nothing again. Life is quite dull these days, needless to say. I wish you well and hope that in time…we will be normal again.

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@covidstinks2023

Hey SSLariz, I had COVID a 2nd time in October 2023. I completely lost my taste for coffee. I always looked forward to it in the morning. It tasted so bitter to me that I could no longer drink it. My first round of COVID in 2022, I did not have this with either taste or smell.

After a year, my taste for coffee is coming back......not 100% yet.

Definitely COVID can affect your sense of taste and smell. I am praying you get yours back because as I know what you are experiencing is difficult.

Blessings....

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Yes coffee is one of the things that smells most disgusting. but tea is fine so I'm drinking that now, but I do miss coffee.

I did find that if I try really expensive good coffee its not as bad. I think my sense of smell has gotten stronger - but especially for bad smells.

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@dawg

SSlariz, After developing LC, I periodically got an unexplainable garbage dumpster smell. It was faint and took me a while to figure out it was a LC symptom. 9 months into LC and it comes and goes - still usually faint. Frankly, I’d happily live with it forever if I could trade it for the fatigue. Hang in there.

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this is definitely the smell sickly sweet and garbagey. started faint, but got stronger.

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