One Year Since I had Covid-19 and it’s Long-Term After Effect—Parosmia

On September 28th 2020, my family caught Covid-19. Now, we don't exactly know how and where we caught it, like most of the other people, but all we knew, all four of us had a sore throat and high fever together. I, my mom, dad and my brother, all suffered the Covid-19 symptoms together.

We weren't sure at first but within a day or two of fever, I and my brother lost our sense of smell and taste. We were sure then.

We took antibiotics and other meds prescribed by the doctor over call and self-isolated ourselves.

The fever and cough lasted for a few days while it took around two weeks for our senses of taste and odour to return to normal.

Right after recovering from Covid, I got engaged. And my wedding was scheduled only a month and a half later.

What I didn't anticipate was the after-effects of Covid that were to come in the following months.

I got so busy with the wedding shopping, preps and a whole new life that I could not figure out why some things smelled stranger than they really were.

Beginning with Onions, things started smelling really really bad. I thought it's because I'm in a new home and new environment now.

I suspected it to be one of Covid after effects but I also highly doubted it to be so because my senses were normal when I had regained them after Corona. They were normal for like two months and suddenly after my wedding, I began noticing how repelling things that I once loved had become.

I started almost swallowing food because it didn't smell or taste normal. I am the kind of person who throws the least to negligible tantrums when it comes to eating. I eat whatever I am served (except non-veg).

I took pride in that until, I became choosy because certain (I mean, most) things didn't feel right. I missed the food I used to have at my mom-dad's home, not realising that the food at both my homes is quite similar.

My senses became distorted in December 2020, and it was in March 2020 that I could not bear it anymore and finally decided to Google the symptoms!

It was then that I finally got to know about Parosmia. Parosmia is a health condition in which a person's sense of smell is distorted.

You may read more about Parosmia here.

Since the sense of smell and taste are closely linked to each other, the taste too becomes distorted since we taste flavours through our sense of smell.

Like, when I had anosmia (lost sense of smell) during corona, I could tell if the food was salty, sweet or sour but I couldn't tell its flavours. Remember how when as a kid, you won't drink warm milk because of its repulsive odour and your parents said, pinch your nose and gulp it down? That's how anosmia works. It shuts down the odour of everything. Parosmia, on the other hand, makes things smell even worse.

A person with parosmia can't describe the odours because they are so so strange and new and only displeasing to the senses.

Only after I had read about parosmia and knew that I was one among the rare ones but not alone, I began telling my both family's members about and they have been so supportive, I can't put it in words.

I didn't tell earlier because I was not sure what it was. But when I knew, I opened up. They helped me a lot on this journey. They helped me recognise my trigger foods.

Onions have been most triggering and hence, my mother-in-law always made sure not to cook onions and other trigger foods. She kept a note of my triggers more than anyone else did.

After a year, things are starting to get better now, if not the best. I can eat cooked onions, for example, but raw ones get on my nerves. I can now eat fruits that were once triggering. I can eat spices that were once on my list of triggers.

There's apparently no cure for Parosmia yet. My doctor could do nothing more than to provide immunity booster tabs and vitamins. 

So, I allowed time to do its job. 'Time heals everything' is as true as cliché it sounds.

My reason for writing this post was to make people know that Covid wasn't just a one-time deal… it has ruined the lives of those who survived it and those who didn't. Every person who has had covid tells me how weak their body has now become.

It tore apart so many families, taking away their family members.

Some faced minor losses and some, too major to be put into words.

My heart goes out to all those who have been affected by Covid directly or indirectly.