An apple tasted sweet, but not like an apple. (source: Unsplash)
My stomach growls. I have not eaten since yesterday afternoon. But I am not hungry. I have anosmia.
Just before Christmas, I developed what I thought was a cold. The most annoying symptom was a dry hacking cough that would awaken me at night. At the pharmacy, I purchased cough syrup to help break up the mucous in my lungs. The packaging said it was strawberry flavored. As I took my first dose, I detected only sweetness. “This doesn’t taste like strawberries!” I commented to my dog, Poochini.
The next morning, I noticed that my coffee didn’t taste like coffee, but only slightly bitter hot water. I ate an orange that was sweet but lacked a citrus smell or taste. I then bit into a sweet but otherwise tasteless apple. It suddenly occurred to me that I was unable to smell or taste anything. My tongue sensed only sweet, salty, sour, and bitter.
As I reexamined the symptoms of my “cold”, it dawned on me that I must have, in fact, contracted the Covid-19 virus. Anosmia, the loss of sense of smell, is a common resulting condition.
