I’m not allowed to get the vaccine because of my heart birth defect. So I’ve been unlucky to have caught Covid five different times. Case #1 April 2020 was bad, Case #2 Dec 2021 was mild. Case #3 March 10th 2022 was very bad. Lost my taste 25 days later, 6 days after that I lost my sense of smell. I’ve been a long hauler ever since. Both came back but disappears off and on. Case #4 May 10th, Variant VA.4 and was mild. Then Case #5, July 2022 Variant BA.5, very nasty, easy to catch, symptoms were over the top wicked, less than 2 days after exposure, I had bad earaches in both ears. By day 3, I felt a strange sense of pressure inside my right ear, then a popping sound and I was totally deaf in my right ear. It took almost two weeks before some hearing came back but not fully.

I still suffer from intermittent lose of taste and smell and my hearing is still affected. I know one woman with both taste and smell gone for almost 1 1/2 years. So even though I’m still a long hauler since March 2022, I still suffer from it. The thing I’m learning is you may be a long hauler for years. It also seems if you lose taste and smell and it comes back in weeks, your less likely to be affected by it again. My best friend had both shots plus the booster and still got Covid again. She gave it to her two children and her grandmother who ended up in the hospital. That’s when she lost her sense of taste, then got it back. So it seems no one knows how long it’ll take to get better, each person is a different case Good luck.

I read the following on a credible medical website and applied it to my loss is smell and taste. The operating concept is to stimulate the nerves to recover. It was recommended to apply a sm amount of flavors such as citrus juice, cinnamon, etc to your tongue at least every 4 hrs while awake. Also, inhale individual fragrances + odors up each nostril which I did in between. I used peppermint oil, lavender and other essential oils. I gradually regained full + accurate senses of the taste + smell.