I was diagnosed with an ILD about a year ago. I now have ambulatory oxygen around the house and take low dose morphine to help with breathlessness and cough.
About 2 - 3 weeks ago cooking smells started making me feel a bit nauseous. This is now getting worse, I’ve become very sensitive to food smells and it’s affecting my appetite. I find the smell of toast or e.g. bacon horrible.
I don’t know why this is happening or how to overcome it. Can anyone offer any advice on how to overcome this as I already have a low appetite and this is making it worse.
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RaspberryRed
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I ask because I have had the same problem with hot food since I had COVID in October. I've now been referred to ENT but doubt there will be much they can do.
My niece also has the same problem since having COVID and I have read that it can be an unwanted side effect of it.
My own sense of smell and taste have been distorted. The smell of some hot food - especially meat - makes me want to gag. However, the smell I get is the same, regardless of what the food is eg eggs smell the same as roast meat! I now regularly hold my head away from the plate, take a breath and then hold it while I chew and swallow. I guess you may find this rather difficult and so I don't know what else to suggest.
I find I can eat and enjoy sweet things eg cake! I can also enjoy spicy food, although it doesn't taste the same as it used to. I am very sad that milk chocolate now has an odd taste to it and I don't enjoy it any more.
All this is better for the waist line (excluding the cake!) but blooming miserable when we go out to eat and the food on my husband's plate makes me recoil!
My niece has been told that certain receptors in her nostrils have been wiped out by the COVID and this affects the smell of hot food. She is better with cold food, and so am I. She has also been told that things should eventually come right again!
I don't know if anything I've written will be of any real help to you, but at least you know you're not alone with the dilemma!
I hope you can find a way to get around the issue as it is very unpleasant and, of course, it's not really an option to avoid eating, so it's hard to get away from the smells.
I'll keep an eye on any further replies as I'll be interested to know if anyone else is similarly affected and, if so, how they deal with it.
I don’t think I’ve had Covid - but your symptoms sound pretty similar to mine. I wondered if I was having a subconscious response to my calorie counting - I’m trying to keep my food intake up to maintain my weight, even though I’m often not hungry.
Sorry I can't help but hope you are able to find out the cause and overcome it. You don't need that if you have a poor appetite anyway. Good luck and keep us posted ❤️xxx
Hi RaspberryRed, I think if I were you I'd head to the GP to get checked out.Personally I'm finding I still can't smell or taste much since testing positive for covid a couple of weeks ago. I hope you get to the bottom of what's going on. Best, P
Unfortunately I can smell and taste too much! Although not tasting might make eating even harder! I’ve also now had some tummy pains and diarrhoea for a few days. If it doesn’t pass in a couple of days I will follow your advice and contact the GP. Thank you
I am suffering the same symptoms and had been putting it down to the medication, I am on Pirfenidone for ILD, but even stopping the medication for 2 weeks hasn’t helped a great deal. I bought some pressure point wrist bands from the pharmacy yesterday that are “supposed” the help stop nausea, I will let you know if they work. I’m hoping that if the feeling of nausea is not there I may be able to eat more and also enjoy my food again
Are you on medication that may be causing the problem?
Hi Hazel-Mary, I’d be interested to know if the bands work for you. I’m not on any anti-fibrotics. Just morphine, Omeprazole and some osteoporosis medication.
The bands do help a little bit with the nausea but not enough to make eating any easier. I wish I could work out what is causing it, as stopping the anti fibrotics, which is what I thought was causing it, hasn't made any difference.
I am finding the smell of food is awful and it’s so hard finding something that I actually want to eat really difficult. I am going to try to see my GP tomorrow to see if he has any ideas to help.
Do you get dizzy or lightheaded with it. I have found that I am getting spells of feeling lightheaded and off balance as well
I hope you feel better soon and please do let me know if you find something that helps
I can't offer any advice to you RR but can sympathise I have been quite poorly for the last few weeks and have felt very sickly leaving me unable to eat properly. I lost my sense of smell a few years back to sinus issues so don't suffer that thank goondess. I have found eating things like rice, noodles, orzo with vegetables , cooked fish and meat mixed in is easier to eat. I think alot of the problems I am having at the moment is down to medication and am waiting to discuss with my gp. I hope you can identify why this is happening to you and that it passes soon x
I haven't had Covid, but have a terrible problem with smells. I'm like a bloodhound😍
I can smell people's perfumes etc. before I see them.
Like you, it affects eating. I don't cook and cannot be in the kitchen whilst cooking is in process. It is best if the air is recirculated, prior to you eating, so the smells have had time to evaporate. An extractor is also important. This helps me be able to eat. I had absolutely no sympathy from my GPs - I appear to have developed an eating disorder at 60🥵
I was wondering if my strong sense of smell has developed since shielding and not mixing with many people, but it can make you feel very sick. You have my sympathy!
Sometimes I find that foods smell 'normal' and at others they have this absolutely disgusting smell - always the same smell, despite the food being different. Sometimes I can't smell anything at all so am paranoid about keeping the cat's litter tray clean in case it smells and I don't realise it.
It seems we are not alone with the problem of taste and smell causing us to not enjoy eating.
I hope you get something sorted soon - if only a way of managing so that you can get enough nutrition.
At the moment I could happily live on cake as it tastes like - cake! However, I don't think it would do me much good! Lol!
Loss of appetite sometimes accompanies lung ailments. I have never knowingly had covid but lost my appetite about 9 months ago and lost a lot of weight. The dietician recommended cakes, trifle, ice cream and all the things i have avoided since a chubby teenager.
I have had the same advice but finding it’s difficult to eat enough to make up for a full hot meal. Just feel like I’m forcing junk down all the time - although I do like fruit and salad.
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