Covid flavoring

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I had covid at the end of November. For three weeks I lost *all* smell and *a lot* of taste. So I could still taste stuff, I just couldn't smell them, but the taste was very weak. Also a lot of taste was lost: for example, carrot tasted sweet, but not like carrot.

Fast forward till now: both smell and taste are back. But now they are distorted. Yet back then, whatever taste/smell I used to have, it wasn't distorted. For example, the one thing I could smell even back then was rubbing alcohol. Well, back then it actually smelled like rubbing alcohol (albeit very weak one). But right now it smells like some other kind of chemical. So which way is it? Did my smell get better (as in I smell more things) or did it get worse (as in it distorts things).

Now, speaking of distortion, I found that there is one common denominator in which my smell is distorted. It "adds" to whatever I am smelling a substance that I called "covid smell". And likewise it adds to whatever I am tasting a substance that I called "covid flavoring". Think of sugar for example. It doesn't matter if you add sugar to a tea, or to coffee or to milk. It would be whatever taste there is, plus sugar. Well similarly here: I am tasting whatever I am tasting plus covid. It always adds the same taste or smell to whatever it is. The only way in which it is not consistent is in "how much" covid scent/flavor it adds. If I am lucky it doesn't add any at all, if I am unlucky it adds a whole lot. But the substance of what it adds is the same.

So in this terms, I would say that rubbing alcohol is probably only 30% alcohol and 70% covid, because its smell is totally distorted. On the other hand, coffee is probably 80% coffee 20% covid. Then if I eat a cookie, it might be 95% cookie and 5% covid. Same goes with pita for example. But the entrance to the math building at the university is horrible, it has that strong covid smell when I pass through the lobby. But then inside the building it doesn't smell that way any more.

I suspect it is really about smell more than taste. It is just that when I try to fully enjoy the taste I would try to smell it through my inner nose and then oops, instead of enjoying it better, I suddenly smell that covid smell that makes me like it worse.

Here is the other thing I noticed. Yes -- unlike before -- I can identify all the foods. So yes bread definitely tastes like bread in all respects, and carrot definitely tastes like carrot. But, at the same time, I don't have those unique moments when something is super special. For example, if I were to eat freshly baked bread, it would still taste like regular bread, not freshly baked one. So could it be that those really special kinds of smells that would distinguish freshly baked bread from regular bread is something that I still can't smell, and thats why my brain would fill it with the covid smell instead? Is covid smell/ covid flavor basically a big wide brush to blindly fill all the blanks? Ironically, instead of it "simply" being "regular old bread" it kind of rubs it in by putting "regular old smell" it puts into everything that I am so sick and tired of.

Well, on the bright side, my oxygin is just fine. In fact last time they measured it, it was 100. But this smell thing is pretty frustrating.

I'm lucky. I had COVID---but it was just a "3-week flu." I never lost any of my senses. My appetite was poor for a week, though.

I hope I don't lose my tastes when I get covid. My aunt got covid at Christmas and ever since then her taste has been weak.

I know I'm going to get covid sooner or later because it seems to be everywhere at the moment and me and my boyfriend appear to be the only ones who hasn't had it.

We've both been fully vaccinated but I don't know if that still protects you from losing your tastes. But I've had other cold/flu viruses that made me lose my taste but I got it back after.

Keep in mind, you could have already gotten it and just been so mild it was never noticed.

What you say makes sense to me. Very astute of you to notice your degree of "functioning". Time will tell to what degree you recover. Maybe coffee will be 10% COVID then 2% COVID by the end of this year. I hope you recover in full.

My sister is a year out from COVID (unvaccinated) and doesn't have her smell back; I haven't asked her about taste. Unfortunately she may have developed a form of long COVID (unusual fatigue). My eldest child (under 12) and husband (vaccinated) had COVID in November also and so far they appear to be fully recovered. Theirs was light and to @funeralxempire's point- I (vaccinated) probably had it, but if so, it was undetectable (negative PCR tests every two days despite similar, but lesser symptoms). Tough stuff.

I'm glad your oxygen levels returned to normal. I moved to altitude and haven't seen anything over 97% or so in decades. I'm a little envious.

The word "functioning" hits the nail on the head as to what I am REALLY concerned about, but have no idea. Because I read that people with COVID on brain scans lose gray matter on their brain and also their brain ages by 10 years. As a mathematician+physicist, those are the things I really don't want. But I have no idea whether thats the case or not because when I kept asking doctors to give me brain scan, they kept refusing to. They kept saying this is reserved for people with severe COVID. Yet I know that some people with mild covid did get brain scan -- since I read that it applies even to people with mild cases.

I guess based on my subjective self-evaluation, I didn't notice that my brain functions any differently. But is it something that anyone "would" notice? I mean what would be brain scans for in this case? And also, what if I start with what I notice and simply use logic. So I notice my smell is different, brain is involved in smell, so who knows what other brain functions are diffrent? Thats why I really wish I had a brain scan?



They probably "stayed" normal rather than "returned" to normal, because I never noticed any shortness of breath or anything of that nature, thankfully. I got my oxygen tested probably 2 weeks into my sickness when I was still sick, it was 97. And then I got it tested just a week ago (in connection to prolonged fasting when I tried to cure pre-diabetes) and it was 100. I guess nobody tested me during week 1 of my sickness -- I was isolating so didn't get to the doctor. But I haven't noticed any difficulty breathing thats why I am assuming it was probably still around 97 although I have no clue. I do know that when they did test me and had 97 I was still sick though.

Interestingly enough, the way COVID felt to me when I was sick was actually the "opposite" to difficutly breathing. Instead, it felt like I was in the middle of nature with lots of fresh air. Thats because I couldn't smell anything. As it turns out, what makes it feel like air is "not fresh" is some subtle smells. So total inability to smell made it seem like the air is totally fresh. I guess the people that do have difficutly breathing won't feel that way. But a combination of damaged smell and non-damaged breathing is what did that trick.

But then now that my smell is back and I smell all those "covid smells", no it doesn't feel like the middle of a nature any more. Not even with oxygen being 100. Which is sad, really.

Right now its raining and I just realize I miss the smell of a rain. Thankfully, it didn't get replaced with "covid smell". Rather it smells "as usual". But I am wondering: would it have smelled "as usual" if I haven't had covid? Or would it actually smell rainy?

If you haven't noticed other differences, then there probably aren't any or they're minimal... but if you're really worried, how about asking from a different doctor/hospital for the brain scan? I'm not sure how the system works there, but here it's far easier to get different checks from private hospitals than public ones, assuming one has the money to pay for it of course.

I understand your concern.

I doubt very much you've "lost" much----if at all---because of COVID.

You certainly haven't "lost" anything intellectually.

So last Friday it was a Passover seder. It was the first Passover I ate matzot with some additional flavoring. Guess what flavoring it was. It was covid flavoring

Well, unlike some other folks, I used to like the taste of matzot. So all this extra flavoring kinda ruined it. But at least it wasn't anything unbearable. The covid flavoring was relatively mild, but strong enough for matzot not to be the matzot as I know it.

Wow! That's scary! Your good description of what happened to your taste allows me to imagine what it's like to go through it. If the taste of food changes, life would not be even half as enjoyable. I hope your taste will be back to normal soon.

Where I live, the Covid-19 outbreak has only just started. It only started in January this year. For two years we managed to stay mostly free from the virus. Now I'm bracing myself for it.

I know that its hard to describe a flavor, but ...is it possible to describe this "covid taste"?

Nutty, fruity, 'a chemical taste', or like that?

I think the taste / smell thing affects different people differently. Some just lose their sense of taste, it may come back perfectly, differently, or not come back at all. Others get a distortion which may or may not change. Others don't notice anything at all. It seems to be a spectrum disorder. We don't have a very comprehensive set of words to fully and accurately describe flavours and smells, though we have many words for these things and the food, drinks and perfume industries have made a lot of inroads into it.

I don't know if I'm odd in this respect, but McDonalds fries taste weird and not-very-nice to me. Yet millions of people seem to enjoy them. Don't get me started on chillies. They just hurt, and their popularity is a mystery to me.

At first I thought its urin. But then I was thinking no its not quite urine.

I read some people say it smells like gasolin. My first reaction was "I *wish* it was gasolin since I don't mind the smell of the busy road that much but its not that". But am I right in assuming that gasoline is how busy road smells? Or does gasolin smell in some other way? Maybe I never had to smell the actual gasolin and so in fact it does smell like gasolin yet I can't say that since I don't know how gasolin smells? It sort of reminds me of *some* rare situations in the kitchen with gas leakage, but its something I would only encounter like very few times in my life, certainly not your typical smell.

I know you asked about flavor and I talked about smell. But I think its really the inner smell that distorts the flavor.

Smell and taste are closely linked. It may well be that its your nose, and not your tongue thats been altered by covid.

In the old days you would always catch a whiff of gasoline whenever you filled up at the gas station. Also when you poured gas out of that can into your lawnmower at home. Modern gas nozzles capture the fumes so you dont really smell anything when you gas up your car nowadays. It wasnt an unpleasant smell actually. But a lot of gas fumes make you dizzy. So like glue I wouldnt recommend smelling it for fun. And I wouldnt want my food to smell like petrol particularly.

Post script: I heard a reporter on the radio describing life about a US Navy aircraft carrier say that everything (food ,coffee) takes on a "slightly petroleum taste". When you take Andrews Airforce Base and shrink it down to the size of ship little more than three city blocks long I guess thats what happens. Jet fuel fragrance gets into everything. Lol! Might be like what you're experiencing from covid.

Well, I don’t drive, so I never had to gas up a car.

And no it’s not Asperger. My parents don’t drive either. In Russia it’s common not to drive since a lot of people can’t afford the car plus public transportation is much better. When my mom came to America, she tried to learn to drive, but got scared, and gave up. Her car was just standing there with no use until it got stolen.

I do remember something else though. When I was little and my mom’s friends were driving us somewhere I would often throw up. They were assuming it was because of shaking. But I know it wasn’t that; I just hated the smell inside the car.

I always disliked car smell even as an adult. But I guess as an adult I learned to tune it out. Well not really, since at times it’s conscious effort. But good enough not to throw up. Although I am sure if for some reason I decided to throw up in a car, I easily could: it’s don’t think about elephants sort of thing.

Now, does smell inside the car have anything to do with gasoline?

No, COVID smell doesn’t remind me of a car either. If anything it just reminds me of a kitchen with gas leakage of some sort. I guess it’s good that it’s not the car smell: at least I am not throwing up.

The smell inside a car is from the upholstery.

NEW cars have always had that [what most folks consider to be] pleasant "new car smell". You can even buy sprays to maintain that smell.

But no. The smell has nothing to do with gasoline. Dont even know what the smell is that would have caused your childhood self to vomit. Maybe cigarette smell? Old (by 'old' I mean more than 72 hours away from the dealership) cars dont really have any particular smell in my experience. Am frankly baffled as to what you could be talking about.