My dear husband has spent the past 35 years listening to me ask, “What is that smell?!”
But then, in late November, I got Covid 19 and lost my sense of smell.
Along with the rest of the state of Minnesota, I came down with Covid 19 last month and, like 80 percent of Covid sufferers, my case was mild.
I used (prescribed) ivermectin (for humans) and was symptom-free in three days.
The weird part was, of course, losing my super sensitive sense of smell. I’m not sure of the definition of a “super sniffer,” but I think I’m close.
Having a keen sense of smell was particularly brutal when we were hog farmers. I can smell “hog stuff” from miles away.
But even now, living in the city, my super schnaaz remains tiresome. From the back bedroom I can smell the gas from the kitchen stove. “The burner got bumped!”
I can smell a spoiled bowl of something in the fridge – usually from the garage. My super nose is a gift – and a burden.
I can’t fall asleep easily on sheets or pillowcases that were washed with scented laundry soap.
God help me if dryer sheets were used.
Stale dishrags? Bad breath? Stinky feet? Diapers? That time in college dissecting the formaldehyde-soaked fetal pig? None of that goes well for me.
But for a few days, I was free of the burden of being a super sniffer.
I was able to use the dishrag without first subjecting it to the smell test. I opened the fridge without hunting for “something that smells funny.”
I was free of my “judgey” attitude toward whoever used the restroom before I did.
I painted our home office and never smelled the paint fumes.
But there were challenges, too.
It was difficult to determine if the three-day-old cooked chicken in the fridge was still good, so I erred on the side of “throw it out,” which was well received by the stray cat.
I could not tell if the feta cheese had expired. (Can anyone really tell if the feta cheese has expired?)
My bathroom looked sparkling clean, but did it smell sparkling clean?
I had no idea.
But as quickly as I lost it, I got it back.
In less than a week, my sense of smell returned and I was back to my old self again wondering, …
“What is that smell?”