Loss of Smell, Now What?

By Preston Young

Last January, my family had a trip planned, 11 of us were going to Disney! This was before many of us were able to get a vaccine so we figured ‘how about we all get tested the day before we’re supposed to leave just to make sure’. So we’re in a huge group text and everyone is texting “I’m negative!” Well, my text said just the opposite. Yup. I tested positive for Covid the day before 11 of us were supposed to leave for Disney.  

I didn’t believe the test because I felt totally fine! I went to 3 more CVS’s to get tested and they all came back positive. I also have an 11 year old brother who was going to Disney for the first time, telling him I had Covid and we’d have to postpone was heartbreaking, especially after his reaction. Long story short, we postponed for a month later, all tested negative and had a great trip!

During my 16-day stint with Covid, I was in bed, lost my taste, had a stuffed nose, my throat felt like I was swallowing knives, and I had very little energy. Fast-forward a couple weeks and my energy gradually came back, my throat felt great, my nose wasn’t stuffed anymore but my sense of taste and sense of smell just weren’t there. The taste eventually came back, thank god! However, during my Disney trip I was not able to taste much but I was happy to be there. But where was my sense of smell?

Fast forward to last Monday, Paul came in the office a few minutes after I did and immediately said “What’s that smell?” I said, “What smell”? He responded with “You don’t smell that?” I said, “No, I don’t smell anything” after a little while of searching around, it was the garbage can full of K-Cups that we forgot to bring out that sat over the weekend. 

Well, turns out I still don’t have a sense of smell. Last Monday wasn’t the first time I realized this though. There have been numerous times throughout the past year where someone has me smell something, I try and just don’t smell anything, but Monday is where I really thought to myself, this can be an issue. Paul had smelt the garbage can as soon as he walked in and here I was, 3 feet away from it, unable to smell a thing. 

Losing your sense of sight, hearing, taste, or touch is very crucial in everyday life and something you notice with most things you do. However, losing your sense of smell isn’t as crucial, until it is. Fortunately for me, I have yet to run in to a time where it was very important. And to my benefit, I’m unable to smell the horrid things that many of us smell everyday: skunks, garbage, sewage, etc. 

Then I was thinking, if you lose part of your sense of sight, you wear glasses. If you lose part of your sense of hearing, you wear hearing aids. If you lose your sense of smell, then what? Are there any solutions to this? Looks like it’s something I’ll have to investigate.

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