Coronavirus prep
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claireychn074 wrote: »Any advice on getting sense of taste to return? How long before it came back for you?
How long has it been? It took a couple of months for me to get any significant taste back. Now I have probably 85-90% of taste, but I'd say more like 65-70% of smell. What I did with smell was "smell training" where I made a point of sniffing things like essential oils and other smelly things, like my jar of minced garlic, repeatedly throughout the day. Maybe something like that would help with taste. Start with some very strong flavor (maybe like black licorice candies) and if you have any kind of taste response, keep eating it in gradually smaller amounts and then try another flavor. For smell, I started sniffing very close to my nose and gradually moved it away. I feel like it helped some. Still can't smell things like candles, or rainy days, but I don't burn things quite as often.
I’m about one month out and some tastes are returning, but not always accurate. Things taste mouldy or salty when they’re not, and my sense of smell is dreadful. I can sometimes smell stuff but can’t identify it - it’s as if I can’t recognise smells any more. As a foodie it’s pretty grim - can’t even smell my sourdough baking 🤷♂️
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claireychn074 wrote: »claireychn074 wrote: »Any advice on getting sense of taste to return? How long before it came back for you?
How long has it been? It took a couple of months for me to get any significant taste back. Now I have probably 85-90% of taste, but I'd say more like 65-70% of smell. What I did with smell was "smell training" where I made a point of sniffing things like essential oils and other smelly things, like my jar of minced garlic, repeatedly throughout the day. Maybe something like that would help with taste. Start with some very strong flavor (maybe like black licorice candies) and if you have any kind of taste response, keep eating it in gradually smaller amounts and then try another flavor. For smell, I started sniffing very close to my nose and gradually moved it away. I feel like it helped some. Still can't smell things like candles, or rainy days, but I don't burn things quite as often.
I’m about one month out and some tastes are returning, but not always accurate. Things taste mouldy or salty when they’re not, and my sense of smell is dreadful. I can sometimes smell stuff but can’t identify it - it’s as if I can’t recognise smells any more. As a foodie it’s pretty grim - can’t even smell my sourdough baking 🤷♂️
If it’s any comfort, it sounds like you’re on a good track. You’re well ahead of where I was after only a month. I’m 11 months out, so where I’m at is probably as good as it’s going to get, although I have had a couple of incremental improvements to smell.
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I have a gal at work going on 2 years with loss of smell. That was her only symptom at the time also. Her husband had it a lot worse. I ask her every few months. She never lost taste tho.0
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Crikey it sounds like I’ve got off lightly. I am massively struggling to get the calories in I need to train - I don’t know what I’d do if I was a year out without being able to smell or taste properly 😳2
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claireychn074 wrote: »Crikey it sounds like I’ve got off lightly. I am massively struggling to get the calories in I need to train - I don’t know what I’d do if I was a year out without being able to smell or taste properly 😳
Yeah, it was hard enough to deal with food when my senses were stronger. Now I seem to be stuck in a crazy binge/restrict cycle. Not because I'm trying to keep my calories low, but because nothing sounds good to eat and I don't have strong hunger urges generally, so I just don't eat. Then eventually my body has enough of that and I eat everything that isn't nailed down. I thought I was pretty sick when I had COVID, but this post-viral stuff has been no joke.5 -
@COGypsy
Yeah, it was hard enough to deal with food when my senses were stronger. Now I seem to be stuck in a crazy binge/restrict cycle. Not because I'm trying to keep my calories low, but because nothing sounds good to eat and I don't have strong hunger urges generally, so I just don't eat. Then eventually my body has enough of that and I eat everything that isn't nailed down. I thought I was pretty sick when I had COVID, but this post-viral stuff has been no joke.
My neighbor is going through this, but her sense of smell has not returned. Nothing really tastes good, so she makes homemade, hot potato chips on the daily. She wants a salty crunch, followed by a sweet chaser. She's mixing corn syrup, oatmeal, peanut butter and cocoa powder together. She's living on potato chips and sugar bombs.
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Hiawassee88 wrote: »@COGypsy
Yeah, it was hard enough to deal with food when my senses were stronger. Now I seem to be stuck in a crazy binge/restrict cycle. Not because I'm trying to keep my calories low, but because nothing sounds good to eat and I don't have strong hunger urges generally, so I just don't eat. Then eventually my body has enough of that and I eat everything that isn't nailed down. I thought I was pretty sick when I had COVID, but this post-viral stuff has been no joke.
My neighbor is going through this, but her sense of smell has not returned. Nothing really tastes good, so she makes homemade, hot potato chips on the daily. She wants a salty crunch, followed by a sweet chaser. She's mixing corn syrup, oatmeal, peanut butter and cocoa powder together. She's living on potato chips and sugar bombs.
At least none of that stuff can spoil, that’s a positive. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten sick because I can’t use the “sniff test” any more. Cottage cheese, yogurt, bagged salad, meat….I pretty much live in a single serving world now because no food can be trusted.
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Hiawassee88 wrote: »@COGypsy
Yeah, it was hard enough to deal with food when my senses were stronger. Now I seem to be stuck in a crazy binge/restrict cycle. Not because I'm trying to keep my calories low, but because nothing sounds good to eat and I don't have strong hunger urges generally, so I just don't eat. Then eventually my body has enough of that and I eat everything that isn't nailed down. I thought I was pretty sick when I had COVID, but this post-viral stuff has been no joke.
My neighbor is going through this, but her sense of smell has not returned. Nothing really tastes good, so she makes homemade, hot potato chips on the daily. She wants a salty crunch, followed by a sweet chaser. She's mixing corn syrup, oatmeal, peanut butter and cocoa powder together. She's living on potato chips and sugar bombs.
At least none of that stuff can spoil, that’s a positive. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten sick because I can’t use the “sniff test” any more. Cottage cheese, yogurt, bagged salad, meat….I pretty much live in a single serving world now because no food can be trusted.
The issue I’ve got is that I cook good nutritious food, which I know isn’t mouldy. But then it tastes mouldy so I can’t eat it. I’ve ruined fish, meat, vegetables, cake, chocolate- anything with a flavour. And I usually love my decaf cup of tea but that tastes vile too. I need to eat quite a lot of protein for my sport and I’m just not doing it. Blasted virus.
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claireychn074 wrote: »Hiawassee88 wrote: »@COGypsy
Yeah, it was hard enough to deal with food when my senses were stronger. Now I seem to be stuck in a crazy binge/restrict cycle. Not because I'm trying to keep my calories low, but because nothing sounds good to eat and I don't have strong hunger urges generally, so I just don't eat. Then eventually my body has enough of that and I eat everything that isn't nailed down. I thought I was pretty sick when I had COVID, but this post-viral stuff has been no joke.
My neighbor is going through this, but her sense of smell has not returned. Nothing really tastes good, so she makes homemade, hot potato chips on the daily. She wants a salty crunch, followed by a sweet chaser. She's mixing corn syrup, oatmeal, peanut butter and cocoa powder together. She's living on potato chips and sugar bombs.
At least none of that stuff can spoil, that’s a positive. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten sick because I can’t use the “sniff test” any more. Cottage cheese, yogurt, bagged salad, meat….I pretty much live in a single serving world now because no food can be trusted.
The issue I’ve got is that I cook good nutritious food, which I know isn’t mouldy. But then it tastes mouldy so I can’t eat it. I’ve ruined fish, meat, vegetables, cake, chocolate- anything with a flavour. And I usually love my decaf cup of tea but that tastes vile too. I need to eat quite a lot of protein for my sport and I’m just not doing it. Blasted virus.
The worst for me was ironically that my taste came back first. So I couldn't smell food burning, but could totally taste the char! I've been taking a regimen of supplements that I really do think have helped (n=1 of course, but several parts of it were recommended by docs I work with. I work at a medical school and my department houses most of the specialties involved in treating and researching COVID). If you want to send me a friend request, I'd be happy to share in more detail. I'm not sure it's very interesting to the rest of the people in this thread.2 -
Wow, covid test nearly negative now! That's super fast. Seriously, vaccination helps!7
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@yirara great news that the virus is declining in your bod! I was SO HAPPY yesterday in that I was able to schedule and get my bivalent moderna in the afternoon, and did not have to wait until the 30th. I haven't had a booster since Nov 21 so it's timely for me and I will get a flu shot at work in a few weeks. It reminded me of when the vaccines first came out and you just had to keep looking to get an appt.
Either the cases are ramping up again or it's a big coincidence that quite a few folks I know are getting sick. And this new round of Omicron appears to be more flu like than the last one which was mostly a razor sore throat for many in Jan/Feb.
I was looking at our work #s because those reflect reality in our little microcosm vs official #s anymore due to home testing etc... the spike we had in mid July was similar to the one we had in Jan. Our county in Jan was red but in Jul it never got about yellow. I hope that means that less folks are having to go to the hospital and treatments are easier to procure. But I think part of it is the underreporting as well.2 -
I don't know if this will help those of you who lost taste/smell because of COVID, but when I have a bad cold and lose some taste/smell, I eat a lot of spicy Asian soup, and this does get through to my senses.3
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kshama2001 wrote: »I don't know if this will help those of you who lost taste/smell because of COVID, but when I have a bad cold and lose some taste/smell, I eat a lot of spicy Asian soup, and this does get through to my senses.
Sadly spicy food isn’t hitting the spot. I’m also having to be careful what I eat: had to have two courses of steroids for covid, which then nuked my immune system so I got an infection and needed antibiotics for a week. Which killed my tummy so I’m struggling to digest some stuff. It’s really irritating.
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SummerSkier wrote: »@yirara great news that the virus is declining in your bod! I was SO HAPPY yesterday in that I was able to schedule and get my bivalent moderna in the afternoon, and did not have to wait until the 30th. I haven't had a booster since Nov 21 so it's timely for me and I will get a flu shot at work in a few weeks. It reminded me of when the vaccines first came out and you just had to keep looking to get an appt.
Either the cases are ramping up again or it's a big coincidence that quite a few folks I know are getting sick. And this new round of Omicron appears to be more flu like than the last one which was mostly a razor sore throat for many in Jan/Feb.
I was looking at our work #s because those reflect reality in our little microcosm vs official #s anymore due to home testing etc... the spike we had in mid July was similar to the one we had in Jan. Our county in Jan was red but in Jul it never got about yellow. I hope that means that less folks are having to go to the hospital and treatments are easier to procure. But I think part of it is the underreporting as well.
Thanks a lot
And so glad for you that you got the new shot. I don't think it's available here yet but I keep my eyes peeled and will get it eventually.
Here it's totally a case of underreporting. My GP wouldn't want to see me and basically nobody cared whether I got an official pcr test or not
I got one nonetheless, after some searching on where I could do this. From what I heard, a massive amount of colleagues is off sick. Basically, most of management in my department is sick as they were in the same meeting with an infected person. Some of them don't care and still come to work 
There's a big department meeting later next week, and I will not come in, basically saying I'm still testing positive. I'm sure I'll manage some coughs and sick looks during Teams meetings. Some colleagues have said the same. Glad I'm 80% home office anyway. 3 -
kshama2001 wrote: »I don't know if this will help those of you who lost taste/smell because of COVID, but when I have a bad cold and lose some taste/smell, I eat a lot of spicy Asian soup, and this does get through to my senses.
Spice was one of the few "tastes" I had. I ordered the hottest soups I knew of from all over town and they mostly tasted like broth. I gave up because it was killing my stomach for no apparent benefit (besides nutrition, I suppose). First time in my life chile didn't blow out a respiratory virus!8 -
Hiawassee88 wrote: »@COGypsy
Yeah, it was hard enough to deal with food when my senses were stronger. Now I seem to be stuck in a crazy binge/restrict cycle. Not because I'm trying to keep my calories low, but because nothing sounds good to eat and I don't have strong hunger urges generally, so I just don't eat. Then eventually my body has enough of that and I eat everything that isn't nailed down. I thought I was pretty sick when I had COVID, but this post-viral stuff has been no joke.
My neighbor is going through this, but her sense of smell has not returned. Nothing really tastes good, so she makes homemade, hot potato chips on the daily. She wants a salty crunch, followed by a sweet chaser. She's mixing corn syrup, oatmeal, peanut butter and cocoa powder together. She's living on potato chips and sugar bombs.
Wow, that is exactly like my experience. I only ate hot chips and vegemite wholemeal bread sandwiches for a solid week (Australian here). It was akin to pregnancy cravings/tolerances. I've not heard of anyone else that had such distinct food preferences with COVID.3 -
Someone I know had Covid in Jan & still says things taste like soap. Yuck!1
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Not sure it's covid related - had my round with covid a couple months ago, and recovered like normal. No lingering symptoms. Then last week had a very mild virus - like, a canker sore, very slight congestion (like had to blow my nose in the morning and a few times during the day) - then it was clearing up and noticed a metallic taste in my mouth. Now my sense of taste is greatly diminished - smell is not though (from my new normal anyways) only taste. Sweet, salty, sour all very diminished. Food just tastes - bland more than anything. Once I'm not overtly hungry I have no desire to keep eating despite how good something smelled and I wanted to eat it.
Some tastes coming through - sitting here with a cup of lemon ginger tea (no sugar added) and can taste that in full - but my coffee tasted black this morning even though my normal creamer was in there....I think I want things, then they have no flavor and I'm just "meh" about them.
Might make intuitive eating very possible though LOL!
Could be a million things - but just odd. I hadn't bothered taking a covid test since I just had that...4 -
HoneyBadger302 wrote: »Not sure it's covid related - had my round with covid a couple months ago, and recovered like normal. No lingering symptoms. Then last week had a very mild virus - like, a canker sore, very slight congestion (like had to blow my nose in the morning and a few times during the day) - then it was clearing up and noticed a metallic taste in my mouth. Now my sense of taste is greatly diminished - smell is not though (from my new normal anyways) only taste. Sweet, salty, sour all very diminished. Food just tastes - bland more than anything. Once I'm not overtly hungry I have no desire to keep eating despite how good something smelled and I wanted to eat it.
Some tastes coming through - sitting here with a cup of lemon ginger tea (no sugar added) and can taste that in full - but my coffee tasted black this morning even though my normal creamer was in there....I think I want things, then they have no flavor and I'm just "meh" about them.
Might make intuitive eating very possible though LOL!
Could be a million things - but just odd. I hadn't bothered taking a covid test since I just had that...
Not sure how long “a couple of months ago” is, but immunity after COVID only last about 90 days. And if it’s a different variant, potentially not even that long.
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I'm receiving my tweaked vax in a few days. The hair of the dog cures the bite. 🥰 Here's to a good hair day for everyone.3
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Tested negative and been free of symptoms for two days. According to local rules I still need to stay in today and tomorrow. As it was raining and I wasn't expecting people on the street at this time I went on a very short walk outside, and fell into a short, slow run for some 500m. All went well, no big problems. Well, I noticed I'm not completely well as I was sweating more than I was expecting. Might also be related to wearing far too many clothes, mind. Guess I got lucky.6
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My parents are seeing an upsurge in their circle of people. One friend went to the clinic while positive wearing a mask. He was surprised the nurse wasn't wearing one, she said she has had it 5 times. Then the doctor, no mask, said he's had it 4 times.
Mom fell and fractured ribs last month. Coughing still hurts so she is extra diligent to not catch it.5 -
My parents are seeing an upsurge in their circle of people. One friend went to the clinic while positive wearing a mask. He was surprised the nurse wasn't wearing one, she said she has had it 5 times. Then the doctor, no mask, said he's had it 4 times.
Mom fell and fractured ribs last month. Coughing still hurts so she is extra diligent to not catch it.
Huh, here in Massachusetts masks are still required for everyone in a health care setting, which includes places like my Mom's eye doctor and physical therapy.3 -
Alatariel75 wrote: »So I had the 'rona in late July, knocked me out for about 10 days and took most of August to start feeling "normal". Then around 2 weeks ago, I started feeling like I had it again, exactly the same symptoms. Kept testing negative, for 'rona and everything else, but it was all back - the cough, the exhaustion, the razor throat, the huge dizziness on coughing (which I've not had before 'rona), the headaches and fatigue. I still haven't kicked it, I can function but I'm definitely not well again. It's so frustrating. I don't know if it's some other virus or long Covid or what.
Did you get the anti-viral meds? There are a lot of rebound cases in people who get the anti-virals. I don't know what the percentage is, but it seems to be fairly common.0 -
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My massive respect from corona, apart from reading tweets from epidomiologists stems from catching a likely flu virus a few years ago. I never felt so sick! Then it finally got better. And 2 days later got a new fever flareup for 2 days, and this whole thing continued for another two weeks. When I went on summer vacation when this was over (Phew, lucky!) I wasn't able to get up the stairs to my holiday home. 4 steps! I wanted to climb a mountain in the area. Yeah. Right. Took me months to get better again.8
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Yay, I realized I can get the new Pfizer vaccine via my employer. No need to convince anyone to give it to me. I just get it
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spiriteagle99 wrote: »Alatariel75 wrote: »So I had the 'rona in late July, knocked me out for about 10 days and took most of August to start feeling "normal". Then around 2 weeks ago, I started feeling like I had it again, exactly the same symptoms. Kept testing negative, for 'rona and everything else, but it was all back - the cough, the exhaustion, the razor throat, the huge dizziness on coughing (which I've not had before 'rona), the headaches and fatigue. I still haven't kicked it, I can function but I'm definitely not well again. It's so frustrating. I don't know if it's some other virus or long Covid or what.
Did you get the anti-viral meds? There are a lot of rebound cases in people who get the anti-virals. I don't know what the percentage is, but it seems to be fairly common.
Nope, I wasn't eligible apparently. I'm still trying to kick the cough!!9 -
Hey all, been away from MFP as I have been on self destruct for months. Anyhow, paid for the new premium service so maybe that will help me get my act back together.
Did a quick skim over the past month+ of comments.
As for new omicron being more like the flu, when I ended up getting it (first time) in June, i had the unrelenting soar throat, but also body aches. first part sounds like the old omicron, the aches sound like the new. any further insights?
Got the Bivalent Pfiser Sept 20. Felt like crap the next day. More strikingly, I believe it set off stomach pain/gerd for a week+. Was very odd. Hubby also felt lousy, as well as DD.
Got my Flu shot yesterday. Last night, went online to schedule my second shingles and I noticed that vaccination schedules are now swamped. Very different from what I saw when I scheduled my Bivalent and my Flu shots. So people are now actively booking some sort of shots. The only reason I could easily book an appointment is we moved and now live next to a town, in which the residents are not getting vaccinated, and I can practically get same day appointments.
on another note, zero reaction to the flu shot, but have heard rumors about 2nd shingrex. Kind of dreading it.3 -
I'm having a Covid disagreement with my husband.
We have a milestone wedding anniversary next year, and I want to plan a trip overseas. He thinks it is too risky to plan a trip this far in advance, because he's worried about new variants that evade vaccines. He keeps sending me articles about the next variant that is said to be emerging in Europe this fall.
I contend that we are not taking much of a greater risk going on a trip than we would be staying at home. The 7-hour plane trip would be our greatest exposure. Other than that, we would be renting a car, staying in AirBnBs, and doing a lot of outdoor activities, like hiking. I'm not talking about a cruise or staying at a crowded resort or anything like that.
In our everyday lives, we both work jobs where we encounter a lot of people, we go to family parties, we go to restaurants, we go to theatres. What in the world is the difference if we drive around a European country for 10 days?
Covid will never go away. There will always be new variants, there will always be cases. Are we never going to go anywhere ever again?
Sorry for the rant.11
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