It’s somewhat alarming to take a bite of something and not be able to taste it, yet that is exactly what happened to me earlier today. I was trying a new batch of gummies that we made at work, and while they are usually very flavorful, I couldn’t taste a thing…I could only tell that I was chewing something.
I’ve been sick. That’s a new thing for me, I really never get sick, so just feeling off was no fun; but the symptoms have also been consistent with COVID. The thing is, I took two rapid home tests, and both were negative. Things still didn’t feel right, and so I scheduled a PCR test, which also came back negative. I’m happy for that, but it just didn’t seem right. The loss of taste today, about a week and a half after my symptoms first appeared, alarmed me.
Me being me, I decided to test it a little more. I poured a glass of sugar-free orange soda, and a glass of water and tried them side by side. Although I could tell which was which, it was almost more by feeling (carbonation, probably) than anything else. I could smell the orange, I just couldn’t taste it. So weird. Then I made a burrito with extra hot beef, extra hot salsa, jalapenos…the works. A flavor explosion. In theory. Eating it, I may as well have been eating warm clay.
So here I am, typing away, smelling things, but tasting nothing…with three negative COVID tests. I suppose the only reason I care is because of long COVID, I am double vaxxed and boosted so I am not concerned with the hospital, but the unknowns of long-terms effects rattle me.
