Mild parosmia more than a year after Covid with protracted insomnia

Posted by thisnthat @thisnthat, Jun 11 10:35am

Mostly better, but still have a few post-Covid symptoms lasting more than a year. Things like cottage cheese, yogurt, fresh dill/cilantro, fresh ground coffee, plastic, vinegar….all have an off taste or smell. And while not a good sleeper, since Covid the insomnia has been life altering. I have to stay in bed around 10 hours just to be human the next day, but wake up several times during the night. And I mean AWAKE.

I take supplements like melatonin, NAC and alpha lipoic acid along with other anti-inflammatories. Any other suggestions would be helpful. This is just getting really old.

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celia16 | @celia16 | Jun 22 9:29am

Have you tried scent retraining? I did that to aid with my post covid loss of smell and taste. My sense of smell and taste mostly returned within 7 months. Unfortunately, my constant bitter taste remains 19 months later.

My sleep issues are much improved. I think working out and talk therapy helped with that. Also treating my vitamin B12 deficiency.

thisnthat | @thisnthat | Jun 22 10:53am

Thanks, Celia16, for your reply! Sorry to hear that you are still suffering with that bitter taste 19 months later! (I endured a constant off-taste for about a month after my initial infection. Yuck!)

Yes, I did do scent retraining for about 5 months. By midway I seemed to have had little or no problem with distinguishing the smells in the scent retraining kits, and got very bored at the end trying to visualize images related to the scents. However, certain other smells remain stubbornly problematic. I try and sniff things when out and about, when I can remember to do so, particularly the bad ones 😵‍💫…..and try to remember how things used to smell…..

I am very diligent about exercise, diet & supplementation, and do take an excellent multivitamin, so I think my B12 is probably fine. Think I might try sleeping listening to Green Noise next, as it seems to have helped some people. Don’t want to get hooked on any prescription sleep meds. 😴

celia16 | @celia16 | Jun 22 6:09pm

I may explore the green noise. I haven’t heard of it. I have abad habit of falling asleep to tv. I know…that’s bad.

I forgot to mention that post covid I also had a phantom smell that appeared intermittently. Even when I had poor smell I would intermittently get a few minutes of fabric softener smell. I don’t use fabric softener. It would happen anywhere. That finally left. A brain MRI ruled out anything abnormal.

thisnthat | @thisnthat | Jun 22 9:41pm

Oh, I had that phantom smell thingy, too! It kinda smelled like rotten oranges…..That’s one thing the smell retraining seems to have vanquished!
I also had a brain MRI. Did not reveal much!