Searching for answers around loss of smell be taste pre/post surgery

Seems like I’m not alone here but wanted to throw this out there and see if anyone had any suggestions.

I had a severe case of sinusitis, not polyps but inflammation. I got constant sinus infections since I was a kid and always had post nasal drip/bad congestion.

3ish years ago, it hit its peak where I started losing my sense of smell and taste. 4 ENTs later, we decided on surgery.

At this point, my smell and taste would come and go. Steroids would help, antibiotics did not.

Had the surgery, everything went well. 1 week post op had stents removed and immediately I could smell a little bit. Like not as if smell was up close but far away if that make sense.

3 months after, things seemed to be getting better, was doing 4 flushes a day, 2 with budesonide. Then out of no where, it went away completely.

That was almost a year ago — I had days where I can sometimes smell a little bit, but not taste a thing. Some days I can’t smell or taste anything at all. Hold a bottle of whiskey under my nose, and not even a flinch.

I’ve tried stopping certain medications I take that have smell loss listed as a side effect, but still nothing. I’ve gone in probably 6 times in the last year and my ENT is always very excited on how things look.

Eventually I forced him to take a culture and it came back with Staphylococcus Aureus which was resistant to every antibiotic he prescribed thus far. Gave me a new one and within hours I could start smelling again. Ran its course, felt great could smell but taste was still mostly gone.

Got another sinus infection and this time I decided to see an infectious disease doc. He said that we needed to kill the entire colony which involved a 7 day run of antibiotics (sulfur based) and scrubbing my entire body with Hibiclense daily in the shower for a month.

Did this, worked but now I’m back to intermittent smell and sometimes no taste at all.

I’m looking for any and all help. Thanks in advance.