Let’s get this fact out of the way: yes, I had COVID-19 about a month and a few days ago. I am not wanting to indulge on the politics of Coronavirus; rather, I am here to tell you my experience with a certain symptom. I will tell you my stance in a nutshell at the end of this. For now, here’s a timeline of my symptoms that were entirely not terrible whatsoever.
July 24th: Exhaustion galore, elevated temperature (but never a fever), slight headache, tickly throat.
The next five to seven days: VERY mild sore throat. It felt as if it was at the end of a sore throat cycle and it was just hanging around just to annoy, barely hurting; Tightness in my chest that only existed when I freaked out or thought about it.
The whole two weeks: sporadically tired.
August 2nd: Began losing my sense of taste and smell
August 3rd: Lost my taste and smell entirely.
So, let me say this one thing about losing my sense of taste and smell… it… was… HILARIOUS. 10/10 would recommend experience. Bros. Dudes. Yo. It was such a funny experience! That initial Sunday – and let me say that I had NO idea I had Corona; my symptoms were kind of a normal thing for me, so… – I had noticed after eating my breakfast that my strawberries weren’t fully tasting like, well, strawberries. I tried to pick out their taste to not much success. I broke off a piece of my mom’s bacon and, nope. Nothing. I broke off another bit and REALLY tried hard to taste it and I slightly could. That was enough for me to dispel it. At work that night, I finally noticed that I couldn’t smell the best either. I could, but not really. Again, I could STILL taste and smell, just not as well. In any case, the following day, I noticed I couldn’t taste my breakfast in the slightest whatsoever none nada nothing zilch, etc. I told my mom, who, being a mother, said I’m just overreacting of which I wasn’t. I went to work, couldn’t smell my own breath in my mask and I ate my what I can literally only assume was a delicious piece of chicken and Spanish rice with chips whose salt I couldn’t even sense and that’s when I knew… I more than likely had corona. Well, I told my parents, we decided to get tested the next day, however, the place our insurance covers wouldn’t take my until Thursday. So, I had to keep my distance, keep my mouth shut, and wait for two days to be tested and wait however many more it would take to get my test results back. All in all, I got tested Thursday, the 13th day I would’ve had Rona, came back positive (detected, but whatever) and I was put on two-week paid time off for my work. Great. Well. Now, I have the lingering side effect of NOT BEING ABLE TO TASTE MY FOOD.
Let me break it down for you: Foods have flavors and essences. I would know because I couldn’t taste any flavor for 2 ½ weeks, but I could FEEL the flavor. That’s right. I could FEEL the salt or sweetness, but I couldn’t fully taste it. I can FEEL the yogurt essence that Greek yogurt has, but I can’t taste the blueberry. I could feel the saltiness of the chip, but I couldn’t really taste the salt itself. Ya feel? Where my fellow Coronies at to corroborate my story? At first, I could BARELY even feel my food. I was just eating a bunch of flavorless solids and drinking flavorless liquids. Slowly but surely, I could begin to feel the essence of apple juice (which is different from orange juice, lemme tell ya), chips, etc. Pick a food, they have a certain essence.
My taste, I thought, was at a strong 40-50% and my smell was at a weak 20-30% still. It wasn’t until VERY recently that my smell came back to what I thought was 60-75%, as well as my taste. I could suddenly smell the peanut butter cookies in the oven and the Public Fried Chicken. I could suddenly taste the strawberry, albeit very faintly, in the Greek yogurt. BUT NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT COLLEGE…
I’m beginning to pinpoint what I can’t smell or taste… A few prominent things on that list are: my own breath (therefore, I assume I’ve brushed my teeth and go to bed only to realize I never brushed my teeth and now have to get up and do so), farts of any kind, Italian sausage, car smells, fragrant smells, more sweet stuffs, more salty stuffs. Yo. The BURGERS at my school’s cafeteria ACTUALLY taste GOOD because I couldn’t actually taste IT but the savory sensation that comes from meat. I added barbecue sauce and mayo to add flavor as I can still taste that. Get this, my roommate and I pranked our friend by claiming my roommate’s probiotic pills smelt of berries (as everyone knows, I LOVE berries, the taste, smell of – oh…) and that I could actually smell them! Well, he felt for it. They are made from mussels (clams) and they, apparently, smell AWFUL. Many of my friends have gaged hard where I… cannot even smell it at all.
Here’s the thing about having lost my taste and smell: it’s fun. I have had the BEST time making jokes in the most opportune moments and just being able to FEEL foods. I am pretty sure, if I practiced more, I could potentially be able to tell you which food I’m eating just by identifying how the essence feels. Confusing? Yes, but that’s the best I could do for you. Even now, as my taste and smell are… I don’t even know what percentage they are at; I think they’re honestly broken. One day, oh, hello orange! The next day, it is just somebody that I used to know. It fluctuates and the only consistency seems to be in the sweetness and saltiness department. My last theory on this is that my taste and smell charge and recharge and once I smell one thing, the entire gauge gets used and it’s a slow recharge to smell something else. I’m currently laughing and refraining from using my traditional xD that I usually use in informal situations.
I’ve been having fun and I hope this is a nice little thing to let you know that your taste and smell WILL eventually come back, it will just take time. Yes, I did get frustrated for a bit at the beginning, but why? What can I do? Complain? I already do that and I already have a big que of things to complain about, so I might as well have enjoyed it!
So, my stance on Coronavirus. In a nutshell: on its own, it cannot kill you. Coupled with other diseases, it cannot kill you. Coupled with fear, stress, anxiety, being overwhelmed, it has the potential to kill you. All of those things mentioned are proven to make ANY disease worse and doctors tell you to not be afraid. I’ve known people to get it and have had underlying critical health issues and they kept calm, knew how to control their emotions, and they got over it. Yeah, it was rough for them, but they got over it. That’s my stance. You can believe or do what you want, but that’s the truth of it. Be afraid, you’ll die. I’m not here to debate with anyone over this.
Oh, I don’t have corona anymore.