13th month with no taste or smell for Stéphanie, 46 years old, resident of La Roche-sur-Foron, north of Annecy. Mother of a 13-year-old daughter, she has not felt anything since September 2020. The situation is becoming critical, she has been followed by an ENT doctor for a year, but progress has been very slow. She is therefore preparing to live for the second time in her life the end of the year with this long covid.
You no longer take pleasure in these end-of-year celebrations?
Stéphanie: “That’s it. I cooked a foie gras for Christmas, I know I’m not going to appreciate it, it’s complicated. Champagne is one of the things we love and keep on. these moments of celebration, I will not appreciate it. No papillote because chocolate disgusts me. Salmon is also a smell today which is a little sickening to me. So yes, this year is even more complicated than last year. “
Are you dreading your last meals of 2021?
Stéphanie: “Yes, especially since these are very important times for me. For the first time, it’s a moment that I dread. In fact, I don’t like foods that I’ve been eating for far too long now. In addition, the smells that exist today for me are not identifiable. I really dread being sickened, just by a smell that I don’t like. And suddenly, everything becomes frustrating and we don’t want to. We don’t want to sit down at the table. We don’t want to. I, who cooked a lot today, cook almost more! “
What touches you the most?
Stéphanie: “I have the impression of moving away, of not fully enjoying the holidays with my 13 year old daughter. We have always put in place traditions, we bake our cookies, we spend moments where we make hot chocolate around the tree, music, etc. There, chocolate, I can’t eat it, I can’t drink it, I don’t like it. So suddenly all those moments that make you prepare for Christmas, I didn’t appreciate them. “
A weakened social bond
Stéphanie: “We all link taste and smell to the simple pleasure of eating or smelling what we eat. Eating a strawberry, a chocolate or a foie gras because we are talking about the holidays. You also have in the link social things that isolate you because, quite simply, the smell of simple perfume makes you sick. I no longer smell my daughter, I no longer recognize her scent. So, yes, on a day-to-day basis, it’s impacting a lot more things than you might think in the long run. ”
What do you miss the most ?
Stéphanie: “It gets complicated at these moments when we have fun. What is missing most today is this little moment after a meal where you take your coffee with a small square of chocolate. “
You are followed by an ENT doctor …
Stéphanie: “Yes, for a year now. I’m starting to distinguish between sweet and savory, I have olfactory tests to do every day. I’m not losing hope, it will come back! But what is scary is that even specialists do not necessarily have perspective, they are a little at the same stage as us on the disease. “