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March 28, 2024, 01:16:39 PM

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Phantom smells after Covid

Started by dmillburn, October 18, 2021, 11:30:22 AM

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dmillburn

Anyone else getting this? It's been 3 1/2 weeks now since me, my wife and daughter all got vidded up. The lack of taste and smell for a couple of weeks was really odd (I survived on ready salted crisps as it was literally the only thing I could taste) but that's come back now, but in it's place is the weird phantom smells. They seem to be a pretty common side-effect but it's very disconcerting. It only seems to be unpleasant smells people get, usually sewage or rotten meat etc, and never anything nice.

I often get a horrible rotten vegetable smell, which happens maybe once a day and is really intense but only for a couple of seconds then it's gone. The first time it happened I was genuinely concerned that I had somehow shit myself without realising as it was when I was still quite ill and in state of confusion and it was absolutely vile, but then it went away seconds later and I was thankfully shit free (and it's more of a mouldy bin smell than shit anyway, like you've been away on holiday for 2 weeks and forgot to empty the rubbish).  My wife has been getting a constant smell of cigarettes, despite not smoking, and a  friend who got it a couple of weeks before us gets regular car exhaust fume smells. This first started when we had no sense of smell at all, but has continued even now that I have regained most of my sense of smell and taste.

It's very weird and mildly annoying but could be much worse. One of our mates doesn't get phantom smells but has developed a heightened sense of smell instead, but only for actual shit. She works in a nursery and now is the only person that can tell when a nappy needs changing, long before the whiff hits anyone else - the merest hint of a soiled nappy starts her gagging when all her colleagues are completely oblivious to it. As super-powers go, being able to smell shit really well has to be one of the worst.

So, can you smell shit after Covid? It's not me, promise - I've checked.

Chedney Honks

I actually had this during but not since. I could best describe the smell as burnt phlegm. It wasn't an actual smell though, it was somewhere between a taste and a smell but only in my brain rather than whatever receptors. Kind of like the tinnitus of smells.

Janie Jones

Quote from: Chedney Honks on October 18, 2021, 11:33:37 AM
Kind of like the tinnitus of smells.

That's very well put. I had the same for ages, it reminded me of that sort of scalded chloriney feeling/smell you get in your sinuses when you're learning to swim underwater.

Quote from: dmillburn on October 18, 2021, 11:30:22 AM

So, can you smell shit after Covid?

I'd say I'm 60-70% back to normal sense of smell (luckily I had no other symptoms) but it's bad smells I can't smell. You'd think this would be great but it's not. I feel disempowered and unsettled by it. Mustn't grumble etc but I'm getting a bit peeved about it now, I've been at this level for over a week so I feel like I'm maybe stuck here, unable to tell whether I reek of cooking or whether the fridge needs cleaning or whether this hand cream has gone rancid.

Uncle TechTip

I had the loss of taste but only for one day, the rest of the 4 days it was more like a dulled taste like you might have when you get the flu. What was weird though was that the sense of taste just disappeared completely. So if I ate a strong flavour like hot crisps, I could feel the intensity of the taste on the back my mouth as normal but the taste itself was completely blank. It was very odd, but just one day.

flotemysost

I know Lloyd-Webber is a twat but that's a bit harsh, it's been a tough time for the theatre.

I've not had it myself but it's interesting reading about people's experiences, especially

Quote from: dmillburn on October 18, 2021, 11:30:22 AM
One of our mates doesn't get phantom smells but has developed a heightened sense of smell instead, but only for actual shit. She works in a nursery and now is the only person that can tell when a nappy needs changing, long before the whiff hits anyone else - the merest hint of a soiled nappy starts her gagging when all her colleagues are completely oblivious to it.

as pretty much everyone I know who's had symptomatic covid has found the precise opposite (i.e. couldn't smell shit, methane or sweat, though it has gradually come back - as you say Janie I can imagine that must be pretty unnerving).

dmillburn

Quote from: Uncle TechTip on October 18, 2021, 08:35:55 PM
I had the loss of taste but only for one day, the rest of the 4 days it was more like a dulled taste like you might have when you get the flu. What was weird though was that the sense of taste just disappeared completely. So if I ate a strong flavour like hot crisps, I could feel the intensity of the taste on the back my mouth as normal but the taste itself was completely blank. It was very odd, but just one day.

We had 2 weeks of almost zero taste and it was really, really fucking boring - as I said above literally the only thing I could taste was salt but even then it was only a really dulled down suggestion of salt. After a week I was so bored I ordered a curry to see if that would cure me, going much hotter than I normally would with a lamb naga, and it was a complete waste of money - there was a weird tingling sensation of heat but that was barely perceivable there was still no actual taste at all. It was the same with ice cream - there was the sensation of coldness but that was it. It was almost fun for the first day before the novelty wore off (eating slices of lemon and it not registering) but after 2 weeks it was driving me mad so I massively sympathise with anyone that's had it going on for longer.  Whilst all that was happening I couldn't smell anything at all which made the onset of the phantom smells even more intense.

Quote from: flotemysost on October 19, 2021, 12:02:59 AM
as pretty much everyone I know who's had symptomatic covid has found the precise opposite (i.e. couldn't smell shit, methane or sweat, though it has gradually come back - as you say Janie I can imagine that must be pretty unnerving).

She's the only person I know that's had that happen so I did think there's a chance her colleagues are just pretending they can't smell shit so that she changes all the nappies.  She also told me she smelt out a decaying rat in the wooden hut for pram storage, when everyone else claimed they couldn't smell anything, so it might just be an elaborate workplace bullying scheme.