Taste And Smell Missing

[allenlondon]

My taste and smell are missing, well maybe impaired would be more accurate, as I can taste, I can smell, but it's not what it was a few weeks ago.
History:
February, community-Pneumonia. Hospital, antibiotics, cured, home
March, bronchitis, apparently caught in hospital (gord). Home still, but on more antibiotics, plus an inhaler.
Sense of smell etc okay up to then. After a few weeks, noticed sense of smell disappeared. Blamed inhalers (Dr.Google said so). Stopped using the inhaler, but 3 weeks later, not back.

Evidence. When I came out of hospital, I was pleased to be able to wash my face using my favourite Dove soap, and the perfume was lovely. Then, 2-3 weeks into the inhaler, it just went, and now using Dove soap is like using an unperfumed soap.

Hopefully it'll get better, but I wondered whether other ABers had any similar experiences.

Ta.

Allen

[Old_Geezer]

Can go for a variety of reasons, but it is a noted symptom of the virus, so you may have a low level infection. Monitor the situation and stay in.

[allenlondon]

Thanks geezer, but from my history (see original post) it's doubtful it's the virus. Possible, I suppose, although no other 'virus'-type symptoms. And we're already staying in, as we both have things on the list, plus we're old.

As I said, Dr Google does say it's a not uncommon side effect of inhaler use, and it (i.e. the loss) did co-incide precisely with me starting the inhaling.

A

[Old_Geezer]

Sounds plausible then.

[rowanwitch]

My sense of taste and smell are diminishing since restarting steroid inhalers......seem to live on highly flavoured food now just to taste a bit

[Smowball]

OG is right - it is a know symptom of the virus.

[allenlondon]

Yes, Smow, but not ONLY of the virus.

Coughing is another one... but again, not ONLY a virus symptom.

As rowan confirm, broncho-dilators/inhalers can have a similar effect.

Rowan: if mine returns having stopped inhalers I’ll let you know.

[rowanwitch]

stopping Not an option for me,

[Peter Pedant]

yeah people are lurching - yes lairching toward the right statistic

53% of people with covid report anosmia but - - -
you wanna know the chance that if you have anosmia then you have covirus....

and that is called PPV - positive predictive value
um - -- and i dont know what the figure is.
surprisingly the figure depends on how common covid is

lots of covid around - useful a as diagnostic indicator
and if it is rare then there will be other more likely causes

the full house - cough, temp and fatigue has a surprisingly low predictive value - 26%
that is if you have all the leading signs that will cause you to self isolate - then the chance of you having it is one in four .....

[allenlondon]

Ok, but how many people using inhalers report anosmia? (Round here it’s 100%!)