So I had Covid about 4 months ago. Did all the vitamins, minerals, supplements, etc. I got over it in about a week. Wasn't the worst, wasn't the least cold/flu I've ever experienced. FF to about a month ago. My morning commute takes me very close to the shore of the Florida Keys. We had an unusual high tide that seemed to last for a week, or it seemed that the tide lined up to my passing every morning to be very high. Then I drove past low tide, and it was the most intense nastiness I've ever smelled from the ocean.
I asked around at work and got tepid responses. Everyone was "meh" about the smell. Cue the next several days. Suddenly I started smelling that swamp smell everywhere! I take a shit, there it is. I cook bacon, same smell. Beef. Pork. Chicken. I'm now hyper sensitive to the actual swamp smell that I'm the only one who notices it in a group.
The condition I have is called parosmia. I've researched that it can go away if I train my brain to remember what smells are supposed to smell like. Apparently the virus destroys smell receptors in the brain and when they grow back, they don't grow exactly how they used to be.
I'm writing this post for anyone who is suffering from this and thinks they're going crazy like I once thought. I don't think my sense of smell will ever be the same. Luckily for me though, it is not as bad as other people are saying. I can still eat bacon. It's like in the Matrix where the kid is bending the spoon. Don't think that the bacon is sour, instead, think that the bacon is not there at all.
I had COVID - got it from my (unfortunately vaxxed) wife. Hers lasted 3 weeks, mine 1.5 days. I have taken B,C,D vits for over 15 years and added zinc and quercetin in early 2020. I had a 103.9 fever for about 12 hours, a bad headache, and the brain fog was awful. If it wasn't for the brain fog I would've kept working (I WFH). I also completely lost my sense of smell for 6 weeks (but not taste). I am also still a pure-blood, and looking forward to the blood auctions someday :)
Fortunately I have about 100 different concentrated vape flavorings I bought over the years, before I settled down on one flavor I really like. I started using the flavorings several times a day by putting a few drops on the top of my hand, rubbing it around a little, then trying to smell the scent while inhaling deeply through my nose. After a few days I could actually detect a few of them that were very strong (like lemon or coffee). After a few weeks I could smell most of them and at the 6 week point I could smell pretty much everything (at least everything I knew that was present).
I had read somewhere that if you tried to retrain your brain to recognize smells that you already know it helps to repair the damage.
I did not have the nasty smells but my wife did. I actually got her flowers with some roses in the bunch and she said they smelled like crap. Took her longer to get her sense of smell back too.
Give that a try. Not necessarily vape flavorings unless you have them already, but find a number of things you know and use them. Maybe spaghetti sauce, lemon juice, milk, or something you are used to. Bacon should work but I suspect it will stink for a while, probably due to the grease. YMMV.
Good luck.
Ha! That's one of the things I consider a blessing from covid. I was a reformed smoker turned vaper and struggled with it for years. I would unsuccessfully try to quit many many times with spotty luck. Covid helped me to quit vaping and haven't touched it since. Such a relief to be free from smoking/vaping!