What do port-a-potties, salmon and garlic have in common?

I still have a profound loss of taste and smell from Covid in January 2021. I have recovered more taste than smell. I can taste dark chocolate – it is a subdued “normalish”. I can taste some wines – again “normalish” while others have NO taste. They are “heavier” than water in my mouth but without flavor. I can enjoy oranges, bananas, peanut butter, grapes, salmon by which I mean they are more than texture. Spicy coconut milk Thai soup makes my mouth “happy”. Otherwise most food is experienced as a texture covered with a spicy sauce of some sort.

I hadn’t recovered as much smell as I did taste. Cycling through a yard while it is being mowed, I would sense a “heaviness” as I inhaled but no specific smell. I have not noticed any improvement since mid-June or so. I have pretty well adjusted to it. While I miss the full experience of food, the lack of taste is an important part of why I have “effortlessly” kept weight off – something I have never been able to do before. I am grateful that I do not have fatigue, respiratory or cardiac long-haul symptoms.

Three weeks ago when I used a port-a-potty, I got a whiff of the heavily scented urinal cake – but nothing else. This past Sunday when I used the port-a-potty, I smelled more than just the urinal cake; not the full experience but definitely more. That evening I got a hint of salmon as I cooked it and Monday morning a hint of garlic as I sautéed it.

I was so excited about having more smell at the Habitat for Humanity build site that I had to share my excitement with the other Supervisors on Site (SOS) as I introduced myself. They are a great group of people that I look forward to working with. The SOS is an informal apprenticeship – I feel pretty comfortable with caulking, tacking up blue foam around edge of what will be the ceiling and siding (the easy parts). I can see that it will not take too long for me to feel comfortable supervising some aspects of the work on my own.

Perhaps I will continue to recover some taste and smell gradually. Time will tell.