Some Recovered COVID-19 Patients Tend To Experience Certain ...

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - Some people who have recovered from COVID-19 can’t get rid of a smell that sticks with them wherever they go.

If you have or had COVID-19, you might notice something very unusual getting your daily morning cup of coffee.

First you might not even be able to smell the coffee at all, second the coffee might give off a vile stench and third that stench might follow you everywhere you go.

The smell of coffee is not the only thing that has changed for some people in our area.

“I smelt crispy bacon or burnt bacon 3 or 4 times a day during that time,” said Aaliyah Thompson, who smelled bacon for six weeks.

“Any type of sauce, I could smell vinegar,” said Blanca Gallardo, smelled vinegar for two weeks.

“Gasoline and the smell of burnt toast are very common,” said Rodney Young, chairman of the family and community medicine at TTUHSC.

“A perfume they think it’s an oil or they think its gas,” said Constantine Sadeeh, Allergist Immunologist at Allergy A.R.T.S.

Sadeeh says half of his COVID-19 patients go through some sort of smell alteration called dyssomnia, that can sometimes last for about a year.

“You pick up a smell you’re familiar with, chocolate or coffee or something that normally smells good to you and in fact it doesn’t smell well, it sometimes creates a nasty, like stomach acid type smell for some people or something more bitter,” said Young.

This occurs when the virus attacks cells in the nose all the way to your brain that are in charge of smell.

“It kind of ruins your food I guess, when you’re trying to eat and then you smell that, it’s like you can almost taste it, so I would try to avoid any type of food in that category,” said Blanca Gallardo.

“I want to smell good lotions, that’s the only thing, burnt bacon, no it’s annoying,” said Thompson

Sadeeh says there are some mechanisms that sometimes help this disorder.

“It’s called cognitive cell training, you try and train the nose, you try and bring the patient in you try and train the nose, how you should smell this. it’s like re-training of the nose to smell,” said Sadeeh.

Sadeeh also recommends some sort of nasal steroid to his patients.

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