Some of you may know, some may not! Let me explain. In December 2021, our household got covid. I tested positive December 22nd, Jeramy and Ethan tested positive December 23rd (Abby tested negative, but pretty sure she had it as well). Christmas was ruined! The 3 of us experienced cold and flu symptoms, body aches and the dreaded loss of taste and smell.
Abby had cold symptoms and recovered very quickly. Ethan had cold and flu symptoms, weakness and parosmia (Everything smelled and tasted like cocoa (the baking kind, not the good kind))! He recovered about a week and a half into it.
Jeramy and I were hit the hardest, I like to think we are healthy, so this surprised me! We called our Dr after Christmas and we both went in to get the IV fusion. This was supposed to help us recover faster, with less body aches as well as bring back our taste and smell. It did not. We literally felt like we had been hit by a train. I experienced some breathing issues (not enough to land me in the hospital, thankfully)as well as hair loss. My long thick hair was unmanageable, I finally chopped it off.
Mid to late January, our taste and smell came back, but like Ethan, it was distorted, it wasn't right. Mid May it changed again, it was bad. I described my taste and smell as Asian Food. Jeramy smelled more chemical. Everything was terrible. We completely changed up what we could and could not tolerate, had to retrain our brains to drink coffee. This was the worst, right? Wrong! Mid September, Jeramy tested positive again, not as severe, just the flu symptoms and body aches. Nobody else in the house had any symptoms and all was well when he recovered, except, this triggered another change in both of our taste and smell. The chemical smell was introduced to me, and was even stronger for Jeramy now. Some things smelled Rotten, some burnt. It is so hard for us to describe what we smell or taste. This changed our lives again. It was really terrible. The kids have to smell foods for us to make sure we don't eat anything spoiled. The are on duty to alert us of any smells throughout the house. As we are driving down the road, we are hit with the chemical smell and we have to ask the kids what it is, sometimes it's skunk, sometimes menure, sometimes campfire.
Now, if you know Jeramy he looks into and reviews everything. We don't buy anything on a whim, until he's done his work. (Remember, we are still in September) He saw a video, of a Dr that is performing a procedure, just a trial study, down in Texas, that was successful for some patients with parosmia (loss of, or distorted, taste and smell). This procedure, the stellate ganglion block, has been around for decades, and is performed as pain mangement and most commonly used for those who have ptsd. It's not new, just in trial for long covid. We looked into it, insurance would not cover it and there were no Doctors in the state of Iowa at the time.
Fast Forward to now, just shy of 16 months, going on 17 months. And we are in the same place. Don't get me wrong, we tried all the hacks. Baked oranges, smelling oils and a wide variety of supplements. Nothing has worked. We are exhausted! We are desperate! We are hungry for food to taste the way we know it should. We only eat, disgusting tasting food, because our bodies need the nutrients. And when we find something that isn't terrible, we count that as a win! About 4 weeks ago, my mom sent me a text letting me know there was going to be a news segment on, regarding getting taste and smell back after covid. Wouldn't you know, it was another Dr performing the stellate ganglion block, this time in Ohio. We looked at each other and knew this was something we needed to try. I did my research and found all the pain clinics that say they do this procedure and started making calls, Ames, Omaha, Iowa City. Guess what? There is a Dr, right here in the Des Moines metro, that has been approved for this procedure for long covid. We had to get a referral from our doctor clinic, done. We had to have a consiltation with the Dr that would perform the procedure, done. And...we are scheduled for our injections on Wednesday morning. 50% chance that it will work, but we are willing to take that chance. And hoping it works for both of us, not just one, because that would suck!
I am asking everyone, who prays, to pray hard! Thank you.
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