People who have had COVID--did this happen to you?

[biibii]

Hey! So I got COVID this New Year's Eve that just passed and I'm on about day 10 of being symptomatic. I am immunocompromised so at about day 4 of having COVID I had to get monoclonal antibodies. This is just for context bc I have no clue whats going on with my taste buds. I had heard about losing your sense of taste or smell, but it usually seems to occur in entirety or even making food taste rotten or like garbage to some. Initially, I had all my sense of taste and smell. Now, I feel like it is gone. However, I can still taste in the most basic sense of the word, and food does not taste bad. For example, just now, I was drinking a chocolate shake, and although I can taste the sweetness of it, I cannot taste the chocolate at all. The same thing happens with spicy, savory, or sour food. I can taste the general flavor of it, but its almost as though my tongue cannot make out the specifics of the flavor. I haven't heard of anything like this myself, so has anyone else experienced it? How did you manage to get your sense of taste back?

P.S. I think I can still smell just fine??

 

[hakutaku]

This happened to me! I tested positive for COVID on Christmas and ended up having it for around 12 days afterwards. My taste felt weird during this time, like it was muted? I could taste stuff but not fully. For example, I could tell when things were sweet but I couldn't get their more subtle flavours. Chocolate just tasted like sugar to me. My sense of smell was also muted, which left me much less sensitive to smells than I usually am.

My other COVID symptoms included being slightly short of breath when doing activities I'm usually fine with, and very minor cold symptoms in my throat and nose. But other than that I was asymptomatic, probably because I got my booster shortly before I caught COVID. I did self-isolate for a long time though lol, luckily my university course doesn't start up again until late-January.

Don't worry though, I think your sense of taste should go back to normal within a week or two. My sense of taste is back to normal now, I just had to wait a while.

 

[daringred_]

my girlfriend had COVID sometime in october, and she told me her sense of taste/smell both went, but she did get them back after the virus passed and she was healthy again. of course that's not the case for everyone, but i think for the majority it should come back on its own. i think being able to taste the sweetness etc. is more to do with how your mouth reacts than the taste specifically. when i eat something sweet like strawberries, for example, the inside of my cheeks go all fuzzy (and almost hurt, but not in a painful way) because of the sweetness. so even though you can't taste it, your mouth still reacts as though it can. does that make sense?

 

[k e r f u f f l e]

Yup. I couldn't taste things properly. It's like my brain was "trying" to taste them, but couldn't "get it right".

Like, coca-cola was just pure syrup to me. Nothing else. And with canned food, I couldn't taste the salt, so it was like slop!

It's been a couple months and I'm just starting to get those tastes back.

 

[slzzpz]

Yeah my taste went somewhat away but certain things started tasting weird lol My taste is normal though, lasted about a week. The taste issue was worse for my fiance though.

 

[-Blue-]

Yup. I couldn't taste things properly. It's like my brain was "trying" to taste them, but couldn't "get it right".

Like, coca-cola was just pure syrup to me. Nothing else. And with canned food, I couldn't taste the salt, so it was like slop!

It's been a couple months and I'm just starting to get those tastes back.

I had it differently with canned soup. I had chicken noodle soup and it just tasted like straight up salt water with chunks of meat/noodles. It was hard getting it down and I ended up throwing half of it away.

I think it was mostly the regular tastes like sweet, salty, bitter/sour, spicy. You just can't taste the more advanced flavors. At least that was the case for me.

 

[Aniko]

Hey! So I got COVID this New Year's Eve that just passed and I'm on about day 10 of being symptomatic. I am immunocompromised so at about day 4 of having COVID I had to get monoclonal antibodies. This is just for context bc I have no clue whats going on with my taste buds. I had heard about losing your sense of taste or smell, but it usually seems to occur in entirety or even making food taste rotten or like garbage to some. Initially, I had all my sense of taste and smell. Now, I feel like it is gone. However, I can still taste in the most basic sense of the word, and food does not taste bad. For example, just now, I was drinking a chocolate shake, and although I can taste the sweetness of it, I cannot taste the chocolate at all. The same thing happens with spicy, savory, or sour food. I can taste the general flavor of it, but its almost as though my tongue cannot make out the specifics of the flavor. I haven't heard of anything like this myself, so has anyone else experienced it? How did you manage to get your sense of taste back?

P.S. I think I can still smell just fine??

I experienced the same, basic flavors were still there like salty, sweet, sour, but the spicy just burn without specific flavor. I couldn't taste or smell: mint, garlic, cinnamon, ginger, chocolate, nutmeg, gochugaru and some other spices. Even vinegar didn't taste that much. Kimchi just tasted like wet old cabbage. I got Covid in November 2023 and at Christmas eve party, I couldn't tell the difference between Brie and Blue cheese. Yesterday I tried a peach-ginger tea and it still tastes like peach only, although I can taste now fresh ginger.

It's so annoying I hope it will come back to normal one day.

 

[-Blue-]

I experienced the same, basic flavors were still there like salty, sweet, sour, but the spicy just burn without specific flavor. I couldn't taste or smell: mint, garlic, cinnamon, ginger, chocolate, nutmeg, gochugaru and some other spices. Even vinegar didn't taste that much. Kimchi just tasted like wet old cabbage. I got Covid in November 2023 and at Christmas eve party, I couldn't tell the difference between Brie and Blue cheese. Yesterday I tried a peach-ginger tea and it still tastes like peach only, although I can taste now fresh ginger.

It's so annoying I hope it will come back to normal one day.

It will, don't worry. It took me a while and I got it in 2022. Took me a few months and also a few months for me not to feel the fatigue.

 

[DaCoSim]

Yep. I lost my smell and very muted taste when I had it before. My last infection (sinus that caused Upper respiratory ) I lost my smell around day 9 though I tested negative for Covid a couple of times. I still am somewhat muted even over a week later!!!!

 

[cornimer]

Yes, I had COVID in September 2023 and experienced something very similar to what you've described. For the first week of the illness, my sense of taste and smell were totally normal, but then one day I woke up and they were gone. I could taste that something was spicy vs sweet vs bitter but not taste any specific flavours. Thankfully it came back partially after 4 days and fully after maybe another week.