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Comment by disillusioned | Hacker News Reader

I had Covid-19 (confirmed antibodies test, wife had confirmed PCR) in early March. Lost my sense of smell and taste _completely_, almost immediately. I've lost some smell before with bad allergies or a congested nose. This was otherworldly: no smell, at all. Not solvents. Not strong fragrances. Nothing. And this, with a perfectly clear nose. It freaked me out.

It lasted for about 2.5 weeks. Around week 3, it started to very, very slowly come back. I went from literally 0.0% to about 10%-15%. I could smell traces of things if I inhaled very deeply. I was super paranoid it was gone forever. I can't tell you how joyless eating becomes when you have ZERO sense of taste or smell.

Finally, around the end of week 4, I was probably close to 75%. I'm _finally_ back to 100% today. This virus sucks.

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For a medical reason not related to Covid in any way, I've lived my entire life not being able to smell anything, whatsoever. I'm getting a surgery in two days that should give me a sense of smell. While I'm over the moon excited to be able to smell... I didn't even think about how it would affect taste...

The La Croix trend will make sense to you once you do.

It won't necessarily appeal to you, however.

There's a lot of great smells out there...and some not so great. Good luck!

What surgery? I know someone with no sense of smell and didnt think there was any hope of fixing it.

Nose replacement surgery

Nasal Polypectomy as well as severe deviated septum

My mother has 0% sense of smell. Her cooking skills were... spotty.

Just another anecdote: my grandmother lost her sense of smell in her 20s after a car crash. Her cooking skills were pretty ok. She wasn't an amazing cook, but definitely made food better than me and my mom.

As far as I know, the smell has a bigger impact on tasting foods than taste itself, you’re going to have a big surprise.

You're going to love what it does to your sense of taste. The problem is, you're likely to gain weight as well.

Very interesting description, since the early casual discussions of this symptom assumed that it was simply mechanical ('flu symptoms, inflamed mucous membranes, stuffed nose, of course they can't smell). Later I saw it described as a neurological issue and so potentially being a lot more serious, which your experience seems to support.

Other than the concomitant anxiety and stress ("freaked me out") did you notice other neurological symptoms?

it's definitely not stuffy nose, I had the same utterly dry nose. In fact I felt more aware of the inside of my sinuses than I ever have before... they felt completely empty. It was almost nice except that it was really freaky and something felt off about the sensation.

My nose has recovered significantly and I have a more familiar pressure in my cheekbones and forehead that was missing when I was sick.

IMO, based entirely on my own anecdotal experience, it's probably that the virus is really, really lethal against the respiratory lining. I have no idea what would make it so specific- maybe ACE? But it felt like it was just burning through my lungs and then my nose. It felt... dead, inside.

The ~8 hour period of losing my sense of smell was characterized by an extremely powerful smell of snot and a subtle kind of ammonia-like sensation. The distinctive smell of snot is apparently mostly due to free radicals generated by dying cells. I'm not sure this contradicts with nerve-related action though, which could presumably cause similar sensations.

Suspected case here with similar symptoms a few months ago. Eating felt so weird. It's really just sad and bizarre, like your brain is almost reflexively telling you you're eating something inedible because you're not getting the taste and smell feedback of "this is food". I was so relieved when both senses started gradually coming back.

Might be really good for weight loss.

Would be real sad when I drink some paint thinner and eat a stale load of bread though.

Pretty much exactly the same thing happened to me. I had a very mild case of suspected Covid-19 (no fever or cough). However, I was mildly fatigued for weeks afterwards, and my sense of smell, though it has returned, is still not at 100%. As you say, the freaky thing about it is that you really lose your sense of smell completely. It's quite different to the experience you have with a cold or a stuffed up nose.

Zinc deficiency also results in loss of smell. I heard the theory that your immune system consumes your Zinc reserves to fight the Virus.

No, that doesn't track. Smell impairment (not even loss) only comes with very severe zinc deficiency- which is not happening over a single day. I lost my sense of smell over roughly 8 hours. There are also tons of other symptoms of zinc poisoning that would be very obvious. It doesn't make sense that it would do smell, but not sight or hair loss.

People have been trying to tie covid to zinc since the beginning, IMO mostly out of desperation. Zinc oral sprays were pulled by the FDA for causing permanent total loss of smell- by coating the inside of your nose with zinc. People just wanted it to be related.

Did you have no sense of taste at all? I had to live with almost no sense of smell for about 20 years, but I could taste sweet and salty. So if you put a spoon of sugar in your mouth, there was no sense of sweetness at all? If so, that would really be a next level experience.

Interested to know how that happened! I've got a neurological condition (MS) that one time meant that sweet tasted bitter, but only on one side of my tongue. It wasn't a pleasant experience, but thankfully it only lasted a couple of weeks before improving and eventually returning to normal (for now).

For me, I could not tell the difference between coffee and water. Energy drinks did not taste at all sweet; they felt slightly syrupy/viscous and I could feel the bubbles on my tongue. I could sense saltiness to some degree, but not in a way I can relate to how I taste things now.

Then this was definitely not caused by congestion. Would be really interesting to know what was going on with your senses at that time.

Same here. Recovered approx 6 weeks ago and coffee only just tastes reasonable again. My eating habits have changed in the recovery time. Probably for the better!

How bad was the typical symptoms (fever etc) compared to the smell issue?

Absolutely awful. Temp hit 41 oC regularly over the space of 3-4 days. Couldn't move. In agony and sweating constantly.

I lost my sense of smell for a couple months for other reasons, and yeah it's awful. Lost a lot of weight because I didn't eat as much, or as often. I've never been a big eater/foodie to begin with but it surprised me how little interest I had in food.

Same exact thing happened to me. I had a negative antibody test.

If you were to take another antibody test, I bet you would test positive. They are proving to be somewhat unreliable.

Happy to hear you’re doing better. Any idea how you contracted it?

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