29/01/2022
LOSING MY SENSE OF SMELL....and getting it back, sort of.
It has now been 17 months. August 2020 I had a head cold that lasted three days and after that I felt fine. Except that I realised I couldn't smell anything. For about two weeks I steamed myself with lavender, thinking it was just my sinuses that were a little infected. Eventually I had to accept that I had probably had covid. It took about 6 months before I could smell anything. But how it was altered is quite difficult to explain. Nothing smells the way it used to. Even smells that sort of resemble my smell memories are only a shadow of what it should be. Chemical smells such as petrol fumes, washing powder and a lot of other things smell absolutely awful. Understandably, the literature available on this problem is still new and not conclusive, but most articles say that almost all people regain their sense of smell within a year. Not so. And I am beginning to wonder if it will ever become anything close to normal. Herbs are part of my daily life and I am trying to relearn the smells such as they are now. Sometimes I can smell a hint of rose in the dried petals, and I can identify thyme and rosemary (both very resinous scents), but basil is so altered and also tastes of almost nothing - I miss the delights of a fresh pesto! Coriander doesn't smell like it used to, but at least I can still enjoy most of the flavour. Lavender, pennyroyal, fresh cut grass, to name just a few, smell so strange. All I can do is trust that any damage in my olfactory sense will heal over time and is restored to what it was. I thought I'd share for the benefit of others who might be struggling.
