Scared of long covid - loss of taste with omicron

[cattia]

Hi everyone,
So after two long years of avoiding it I finally tested positive for covid this week. The first day was mild cold symptoms and fatigue (tested negative that day) then on Monday when I tested positive I started with headaches, body aches and fever. Been in bed for three days, today my temperature seems to have stabilised although I still have the fatigue. But the new symptom I have today is a loss of taste. I can still taste some things but not very strongly at all. Same with smells, I can smell strong smells but they are less powerful than normal. Now I know this isn’t really meant to be a thing with omicron, I googled it and read some scary article that said it was genetic factors that make you lose your taste and smell and there could be a link with long covid! Long covid is literally the thing I have lived in fear of since the start of the pandemic so now I’m freaking out so badly. When I read that I came out in a complete sweat and my heart started racing with fear. I am so terrified of getting long covid and now I’m worried that this is a sign! Has anyone else had this with omicron and it’s been OK?

[cattia]

Anyone? I'm losing the plot really badly over here. I was just about holding my nerve until the loss of taste and smell. It's worse this morning, can't smell or taste anything.

[pulisa]

You were holding your nerve until you googled about the "possible" link with long covid though. Please don't google or "research any more, cattia? It won't help and you need to look after yourself and get the virus out of your system as soon as you can. Scaring yourself won't help your recovery so please be kind to yourself, rest and don't overthink the situation because you are only a few days into the virus.

[cattia]

Yes Pulisa you are right, that was definitely not a good move. I've been scared of long covid for 2 years so I knew if I got it I'd be like this. And I'm doing what I always do which is looking for evidence of the worst case scenario.

[Scass]

Hi Cattia, I’m sorry that you have it, but hopefully it’s not too bad.
I only lost my smell for about 24 hours and it was very weird.
We don’t really find out what variant we have in the UK, so it’s guess work over which strain we have. I’m not sure which one I had, as I had head cold symptoms, but I’m guessing it was omicron. My sister had similar and she lost her taste for a few weeks. Whereas my partner and daughter didn’t. It seems to be a lottery.

The long covid profile seemed to have been written with me in my mind as I tick every box, but other than a bit of brain fog, tearfulness and tiredness - which I already had anyway, I don’t think I got it, and I’m pretty sure I’d know if I did?

So try not to worry, worrying will not help you get better, it will just stop you from fighting the actual illness. Get on the sofa or in bed, watch something absorbing, or read something nice. You deserve the break and you need it.

I should warn you that after I started testing negative, that’s when the tiredness hit me. But it only lasted a few days at its worst. Listen to your body.

Feel better soon. Xx

[Scass]

Ps. The only person I know with long covid didn’t lose their taste. All the people I do know who lost their taste, don’t have long covid x

[cattia]

Thanks so much Scass. I don't know for sure I have omicron but I think that's what everyone everyone now. Although apparently now there is new variant that's half omicron and half delta so who knows? It's reassuring to hear about other people who have lost their taste and gone on to be ok. I think it freaked me out so much because I really wasn't expecting it as its meant to be less common with Covid. It's so strange how one virus can affect people so differently. I just want to get back to normal and I hope that starts to happen over the next few days.

[glassgirlw]

My stepmom got Covid a few weeks ago, she lost taste/smell but it did come back. It look a little longer for taste to come back but it did happen for her! Try not to worry too much.

[Scass]

Thanks so much Scass. I don't know for sure I have omicron but I think that's what everyone everyone now. Although apparently now there is new variant that's half omicron and half delta so who knows? It's reassuring to hear about other people who have lost their taste and gone on to be ok. I think it freaked me out so much because I really wasn't expecting it as its meant to be less common with Covid. It's so strange how one virus can affect people so differently. I just want to get back to normal and I hope that starts to happen over the next few days.

The problem is that normal non HA people don’t take to the net to write about their symptoms!

[cattia]

OK, well I may as well admit, I've totally lost control. I'm now completely obsessed about my heart rate since I started getting heart palpitations. Didn't even need to Google this because I already knew it was a symptom of post covid complications. I get them sometimes but they were really bad yesterday. So then I started measuring my heart rate and nondy really needs to give me the lecture about what destructive behaviour this is because oh trust me, I know and I knew when I was doing it too. So my heart rate rocketed when I stood up which I also know from googling is a sign of POTs (been down thus road before). And POTS is seen in long covid. So basically I've got myself in a right state.
To be honest I kind of could see this coming. I've been over doing it at work for weeks, it's been so stressful for lots of reasons. I've been run down but chosing to ignore it. I've not been feeling great physically or mentally for quite a few weeks. So then to get covid and to open the floodgates on my long covid anxiety, it's a perfect storm really. In my twenties, ME was my biggest fear. Even bigger than my cancer fear now, so long covid really taps into that.
I know I'm not in a good way and all I can think is that my physical and mental state are making me more susceptible to long covid. Don't really know how to get myself out of this hole, other than that I can at least recognise it as a place I've been several times before.