[jcgrillo]

I lost my sense of taste and smell for a few days when I had covid, I was eating a bowl of spicy ramen at the time and I completely lost the ability to taste anything over the course of about 2 minutes. No spice, no salt, nothing. I usually have a pretty high spice tolerance, but to be certain I ate an entire birds eye chili. This would normally leave me in pretty excruciating pain for a few minutes, it did nothing. Strange that others report retaining their spice taste to some degree, that wasn't my experience at all. I wonder what was different?

[graypegg]

Huh! Thats really interesting, though I’m sorry you had to go through that. Losing a whole sense for a few days is scary. I’d say that me poking at you over the internet saying it’s cool isn’t exactly nice of me, so apologies for that.

I guess this must be nerve related somehow. Specifically localized to the mouth and throat, but affecting any kind of nerve tissue? And also presumably in a way that’s recoverable for some.

Did it ramp back up to full sensation all at once, or was it more gradual?

[jcgrillo]

No worries! The recovery was much slower and more gradual than the onset, it probably took about a week. This was compounded by the congestion and general cold symptoms. I suspect my sense of smell is still impacted ~3yr later, but I have no way to be sure.