YANMD, but I'm concerned — got a cough and loss of taste/smell.

November 25, 2023 11:29 AM

This is not normal for me. Normally, I get colds and sore throats/coughs that go away within 2-3 days. This time, about two weeks ago-ish, I started having a persistent cough. About 5 days ago, I completely lost my sense of smell/taste, although the cough has healed somewhat. Been coughing up a lot of mucus and have a somewhat runny nose.

When the cough started, it was very persistent and heavy. I suspected initially I had bronchitis. The cough started to go down, but I got a runny nose. After that, I completely lost my sense of smell and taste—I can't taste anything, and my sense of smell is also gone.

I have tried:
-NyQuil every night for about a week (didn't help the cough, and I still got a runny nose)
-DayQuil severe (helps somewhat with the coughing)
-Cough drops
-Tea and honey
-Vicks on my chest (1 night, didn't really seem to make a difference)

It honestly doesn't seem to be making a difference, and I still have some hoarse/raspy coughing every now and then, and generally feel tired. I also have headaches every now and then.

This is a new experience for me, and I'm not sure what else to do, because I've tried everything. Any ideas/suggestions would be welcomed. I don't know if I want to bring my PCP in this just yet, but I have been trying everything.

I also wonder if this is some kind of side effect of the chemo I finished back in August—perhaps that somehow made me more sensitive to colds/whatnot (even though my oncologist said I was no longer immunocompromised). FWIW, I'm vaccinated against COVID (had the booster last month) and had the flu shot.

The loss of smell/taste is so "strong" that it literally feels like I don't have any taste/smell anymore at all. It's a bit scary.

Again, YANMD, but suggestions would be welcome!

posted by dubious_dude to Health & Fitness (22 answers total)

Have you taken a COVID test?
posted by mefireader at 11:36 AM on November 25, 2023 [59 favorites]

Even though you're vaccinated it could still be Covid, take a test. Two weeks is too long. I had something like this about a month ago and after a week, on the weekend, I went to local urgent care and got something for my lungs. Please go see somebody.
posted by mareli at 11:37 AM on November 25, 2023 [15 favorites]

Have you tested for covid? You're aware that the vaccine isn't 100% prevention, right? Because loss of smell is the hallmark of covid ...
posted by Dashy at 11:37 AM on November 25, 2023 [26 favorites]

Loss of taste/smell is a common Covid symptom and there is a lot of Covid around right now in many places. Even if you don't test positive now, two weeks after your symptoms started, Covid is the most likely candidate. Take it easy and give your body time to recover, many people have fatigue and other symptoms and it does not help and may even be harmful to push through them.
posted by ssg at 11:44 AM on November 25, 2023 [11 favorites]

I got Covid this year (for the first time) about a month after getting the latest booster. What you're describing is pretty much exactly what I experienced. The cough lingered for awhile, but my sense of taste/smell came back fairly quickly. If your cough continues to hang around, you may want to ask your doctor for a prescription for benzonatate.

FWIW, I never tested positive for Covid, but my spouse did, and we had identical symptoms. My doctor said it's not that uncommon for home tests to fail to pick up the virus if you get sick shortly after having been vaccinated.
posted by paper scissors sock at 11:50 AM on November 25, 2023 [4 favorites]

My understanding is that many respiratory viruses can cause a loss of taste/smell. Though it is seen as a hallmark symptom of COVID. They can also cause lingering coughs, my doctor is not typically concerned unless they've lasted for more than 6 weeks (though my doctor is not your doctor).

You likely had a virus, maybe COVID. You are still experiencing symptoms.
posted by muddgirl at 12:02 PM on November 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

Yes, I would assume quite likely you’re getting over a case of covid, and would consider going for a PCR test even though it might or might not show positive at this point. If possible I’d do that at an urgent care where I could also ask for some prescription-strength cough medicine.
posted by Stacey at 12:09 PM on November 25, 2023

For the future, it may be worth getting tested for flu and/or COVID at the onset of symptoms as you may be able to get some anti viral drugs, but generally these need to be taken at the beginning of illness to be effective.

If this has been going on for 2 weeks without improvement, it is time to bring in your doctor. You may have some kind of secondary infection that would need antibiotics, or maybe you need a steroid taper to get on top of it.
posted by jeoc at 12:10 PM on November 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

The vaccinations are why you a) can still have Covid, and b) not be completely destroyed and/or in the hospital.
posted by amtho at 1:14 PM on November 25, 2023 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Okay, thanks, everyone. Will definitely discuss that with my PCP/a doctor when the week starts. I am aware you can get COVID even if vaccinated, but was hoping it wasn't that, and was simply allergies or whatnot, but the loss of taste/smell got me concerned.

In the interim, YANMD but based on your experiences:

-Would you recommend I continue to take NyQuil to help stave this off, or do you think NyQuil has been rendered meaningless by now?
-Is there any way or secret shortcut to get my senses of taste/smell back sooner?
posted by dubious_dude at 1:27 PM on November 25, 2023

If the NyQuil is helping you feel better and the package says it's ok to keep taking it, then keep taking it, but it isn't going to stave anything off (your immune system is doing that). It's a treatment for the symptoms. In your place I would make sure I rested as much as possible, and after a few days of that if I weren't improving I might call the doctor. But if I were getting even a bit better I would tend to assume that I'd be ok in the end, and keep resting as much as I could.

I hope you feel better soon.
posted by altolinguistic at 1:48 PM on November 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

Just do everything you can to take care of yourself. Rest, eat healthy, __use a humidifier__, etc. NyQuil might not be the best choice - get someone to go to the pharmacy and get you _real_ Sudafed, with pseudoephadrine in it. Stay warm - take a hot bath if you can (that gives you warmth, humidity, and relaxation). Rest. Take time off from work - please don't work if you have Covid.
posted by amtho at 2:05 PM on November 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

OTC meds aren't going to help you get better faster themselves, but they might help you rest, and that will. So by all means, take them if they are easing your symptoms.

You might look up "olfactory training," which some people find helpful in recovering a lost sense of smell. I suspect you might need to be further along in your recovery and less actively ill before it would make sense to try that, but it may be helpful to you to know about it as an option if your sense of smell doesn't come back on its own as fast as you want.
posted by Stacey at 2:11 PM on November 25, 2023

If it helps, I was definitely more sensitive to sickness for about a year after finishing my chemo despite no longer being officially immunocompromised. It was like my immune system was less robust and a little tired. I even managed to get shingles (at age 36).
posted by daffodil at 2:19 PM on November 25, 2023

-Is there any way or secret shortcut to get my senses of taste/smell back sooner?

Figuring out what you have will make a difference, and after a week of symptoms, it's not a bad idea to talk to your doctor anyways.

Every few years I get a bad sinus infection and lose my senses of smell and taste entirely (can't even taste raw garlic). It returns as soon as it clears up, which sometimes means antibiotics and other times just resting.

I didn't lose my sense of smell with Covid, but my husband did. He did the olfactory training, which he thought helped, but obviously may have been a coincidence.
posted by ghost phoneme at 8:48 PM on November 25, 2023

Just a thought for you: last month I had COVID and thought that was causing my awful, wet coughing, but when I finally went to the doctor, it turned out the COVID had come and gone. I had pneumonia.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 4:34 AM on November 26, 2023

Seconding Short Attention Sp, except in my case the original illness was flu as this was a decade ago. Even in “healthy” individuals, any upper respiratory viral infection can result in opportunistic bacterial problems afterwards. For those of us with other issues (for me, asthma) it’s a little more likely.

In my case the pneumonia definitely needed treatment so it was good I went in and asked for help.
posted by nat at 9:50 AM on November 26, 2023

Side note: chemo may also have reduced the efficacy of your covid booster at less than 90 days post-discontinuation, which I mention as another reason why this sounds like covid + just in case you wind up doing chemo again in the future. (And I also know at least three people without recent immunocompromise who have gotten covid after their fall booster.)

The prevalence of covid definitely seems to have raised awareness of viral/post-viral taste and smell distortions, and it is absolutely something to bring up with your PCP if it lingers -- there is occupational therapy for this.
posted by LadyInWaiting at 12:07 PM on November 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

NyQuil can help manage symptoms but can't "stave off" a viral infection that has already taken hold.

Hoping it isn't covid doesn't prevent it from being covid. If you want to keep living with Schroedinger's virus instead of simply taking a test and knowing what's going on, at very least please wear an N95 when you're in the presence of others. If you're still symptomatic you're likely still contagious and could be infecting people with whom you interact. Some of us are still trying our best not to get covid over and over again.
posted by jesourie at 12:47 PM on November 26, 2023 [5 favorites]

I had COVID for the first time in October, had total loss of taste/smell and still really diminished after about 6 weeks. I saw a doctor for a routine check up recently - she said could easily take 8 to 12 weeks to recover sense of taste/smell.
posted by ElasticParrot at 3:30 PM on November 26, 2023

Agree with others it may well be COVID, but as a datapoint to your question about whether it could be related to aftereffects of chemo, I got pretty unprecedentedly sick with bronchitis something like 6 months after chemo, I think your system stays pretty sensitive for a while during the longer-term recovery period even if your immune system is no longer detectably compromised. So it may be good to treat illnesses with extra caution and rest for a year or two post treatment and follow up with doctors (i.e., for chest x-rays) if they linger.
posted by space snail at 6:05 PM on November 26, 2023

I'm surprised I'm the first person to recommend Mucinex (generic name: guafenisin), which helps thin mucus and will likely help you feel MUCH better. Mucinex also lessens your cough at the source, since a lot of coughing happens due to irritation from mucus running down your throat-which you likely don't feel. If you're still coughing and miserable, take mucinex around the clock until you feel better. It's a standard recommendation for covid and a bunch of other respiratory illnesses. Hope you feel better soon.
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 9:46 AM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]