My Sense of Smell: Goodbye and Hello?

If I wasn't quite convinced before that I actually had Covid a couple weeks ago, I have my final proof: I have now lost my sense of smell.

It's not as bad as I thought it would be, but I do hope it comes back soon. I've been hearing horror stories of people who lost it for months or who have never gotten it back. 

I thought it was odd a few days ago when I was making Indian butter chicken that I couldn't smell the spices. Indian food creates a party in your nose before it becomes a party in your mouth, but, for me, the party just wasn't getting started. Husband came down the stairs into the kitchen while I was cooking and said, "That smells really good," and I, who had been practically sticking my entire face into the pot because I was puzzled by the fact that I couldn't smell the usually heavenly mix of spices even though my nose was tingling from the ginger- and garlic-infused steam, was even more confused. Later, when we ate, I found it all very bland, but I chalked it up to not having used enough spices.

A day later, I was getting ready for work and spritzed on a bit of perfume, which I belatedly noticed didn't seem to have any scent. I was in a hurry, so I soon forgot it as I got into the car and started charting out my day in my head. 

At work, however, it finally sunk in. I was drinking a soda that was supposed to taste like cherry, but I could only barely tell that it was sweet. All the little oddities over the past couple days suddenly came together and I had a realization. 

"Griff!" I shouted to my boss, "I've lost my sense of smell!" 

Griff ran out of his office. "Really? No way! Here, use this sanitizer and see if you can smell it." 

We have hand sanitizer dispensers that were installed by our employer last year, but the sanitizer smells so awful that no one uses it. I had to buy a few pump bottles of sanitizer just so people would be able to sanitize their hands without gagging. I squirted some of the awful stuff on my hands, rubbed it in, and then brought my hands to my face. 

Nothing. My gag reflex remained completely unstimulated.

"Ugh!" said Griff, making a face. "I can smell it from here!" 

Griff was excited because I'm the first person he knows who has actually lost her sense of smell due to Covid, and my willingness to talk about it and experiment had us both going around smelling things to observe my reactions. When the regional director, Shane, walked through the door a couple minutes later, Griff told him about our little experiment, and then Shane got excited and started asking me questions about what it was like to not be able to smell. I also told them about my diminished sense of taste, which made them a little sad for me. 

Update: it's been about a week since I first wrote this, and tonight, after my shower, I used some scented hand lotion and I COULD SMELL IT! Before tonight, I couldn't. This is a very promising development. I couldn't smell skunk yesterday, which didn't bother me. Maybe I'll get my sense of smell back only for the lovely smells and not for the gaggious ones (yes, I made that up).