“Oh, you have post-Covid parosmia,” she said. “Don’t worry, I have it also.”
If Covid was going to turn the world upside down, it would have been nice if it had at least left me with some superpowers.
But no. First there was the illness itself, which was certainly not fun, although I thankfully recovered without too much drama. Then there were all these weird lingering effects. I was perpetually exhausted, and I had terrible word retrieval.
I would say things like, “It was out of my… um, not ballpark… what’s the word… um… just, out of reach.” It was like the word league had been erased from my brain and I had to relearn it again, the way you would study vocabulary words in a foreign language. I soon collected a whole list of vanished words to practice — league, mindset, evaluate, rationalize, Sweden, credibility…. I found myself talking slowly, trying to pick my words without getting stuck and sounding like English was my second language. It was not such a fun place for a writer and editor to be.
Then there’s the “temporary” loss of taste and smell. I mean, I hope it’s temporary, because it’s going on ten months and counting. I can’t smell a thing, and my sense of taste is very dull.
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