This morning, most of my respiratory ailments are abating and showing signs of progress, albeit slowly, yet I'm experiencing vivid and persistent body aches, skin sensitivity, joint pain, general fatigue, yada, yada, yada. I muscle through it, I'm fatigued with dealing with it, frankly.
I smear a smattering of my deodorant of choice on my pits and go about my morning. No shower today. I don't shower every day. Why should I? I don't do anything to get dirty. I'd taken a nice, hot and soothing shower yesterday which was great for my aching muscles and helped open up stuffy airways too. Wonderful. Anyway, I'm messing around and I just happen to think about the fact that I'd just a few minutes before applied a goodly amount of my Speed Stick Irish Spring Original Scent deodorant and I hadn't noticed a whiff of it at all. I smelled myself closer. Nothing. I went and got the deodorant applicator stick, opened it and huffed it directly... NOTHING!
Now, if you know anything about the smell of Irish Spring, it's not a faint aroma... it's quite hearty. I well remember its TV ads from the 70s with the hot Irish dudes and the lasses that dug their scent sidling up to them saying "Now that's a MANLY scent!" And it is. Although actually, it's mostly lavender and other herbal essences but the magic of marketing makes it manly I guess. Well now, for me, I guess thanks to COVID, it's NOTHING!
This had me running around the house checking everything out to see what else I couldn't smell. I was determined to test out even the most potent stuff I could find:
Witch Hazel...NOTHING!
Halston 1-12 (This is VERY strong cologne)...NOTHING!
Listerine...NOTHING! (But I could taste it just fine)
Essential Oils:
Frankincense...NOTHING!
Peppermint...Maybe .5% out of 100%? That faint.
Eucalyptus...NOTHING!
Tea Tree...Again maybe .5%?
Rosemary...NOTHING!
Lavender...NOTHING!
To the kitchen...
White Distilled Vinegar...A little stronger, maybe 1% or 2% out of 100%.
I'm out of bleach, but, oh, here we go, this should do it, the most potent of all, right?
Ammonia...NOTHING! (But inhaling it, my nostrils burned and I started to feel dizzy!)
But I can still taste everything. I raided the fridge to sample things...a spoonful here and a spoonful there...
Marinara, relish, peach yogurt, ketchup, strawberry jam, mayonnaise. Yes, a crazy combo, but it was small samples and it's science, bitch!
And yes, at least at present, I can make distinctions not just between sweet, sour, salty, and bitter but flavor profiles. For instance, I knew that the yogurt I sampled was peach yogurt because I tasted peaches and I would have been able to make that distinction even if I were blindfolded.
But now with almost 100% loss of smell, is my loss of taste soon to follow?
In other words, will I soon be TASTELESS?
Oh Faith and Begorrah!