{"id":8338,"date":"2026-01-18T10:23:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T15:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=8338"},"modified":"2026-01-18T10:23:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T15:23:06","slug":"the-end-of-my-nose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2026\/01\/18\/the-end-of-my-nose\/","title":{"rendered":"The End of My Nose"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a Sunday Story.  There are no politics today (whew!!), just a story about, of all things, smells.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Covid<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It was the middle of track season in 2022.  We all \u201cadapted\u201d to Covid, now a part of our lives.  It\u2019s still out there, by the way.  About 47,000 Americans died with Covid as a \u201cfactor\u201d in 2024, the last year there\u2019s good data (NPR<\/a>).  And of course, there\u2019s the whole \u201cpolitics\u201d of Covid.  It\u2019s been stricken from our collective memory, as well as official reports.  So it\u2019s tough to be sure how \u201cCovid free\u201d we really are, or were, or will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this essay isn\u2019t about the politics of disease.  It\u2019s about a known side-effect of Covid, long term consequences of having the disease, called \u201clong Covid\u201d.  And on April 11, 2022, I wrote an essay (What\u2019s Missing<\/a>) about my experience with it.  I lost my sense of smell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a Forrest Gump riff about it:  I couldn\u2019t smell \u201cshit\u201d.  Really, we had five dogs at the time, and my job was to pick-up the backyard.  And, I couldn\u2019t \u201csmell the coffee\u201d either.   I\u2019m a \u201csmoker\u201d guy, I enjoy smoking ribs and turkeys and hams and all sorts of other things.  I could stick my head in the actual smoker, filled with hickory smoke.  I could sense the \u201cburn\u201d, but I couldn\u2019t smell hickory.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gone Missing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

More importantly, I couldn\u2019t smell the gas if the stove was left on, or burnt toast, or whether it was a clean or dirty t-shirt, or whether there was a radiator leak in my twenty year-old Jeep.  My sense of smell just disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could still taste, but there\u2019s a huge difference between a perfectly done ribeye when you can smell it, and when you can only taste it.  I found myself moving to more spices; hot sauces and peppers.  No smell, but I definitely could taste them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s the \u201cway it was\u201d, with one exception.  In September of 2022, I did something really stupid, and flipped a lawn tractor over on top of myself (see Stupid Human Tricks<\/a>).  <\/em>That required a \u201crebuild\u201d job on my shoulder.  And what I found was, after a couple of hours under general anesthesia, all of a sudden I could smell again.  It came back in a rush, and lasted for a couple of weeks.  Then, almost as quickly as it arrived, it was gone.  Two weeks of one-handed \u201csmelling the coffee\u201d, then it was \u201cblank slate\u201d again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frustration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s how it was for the past three years.  It was a note in my medical chart \u2013 \u201cLong Covid, loss of smell\u201d.  And while there were theories about how to get it back:  \u201cPut your nose in a coffee bag, inhale deeply, remember what coffee used to smell like\u201d, they didn\u2019t work for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most frustrating experiences was going to the \u201ccandle shop\u201d.  There were all the jars with exotic names:  Grandma\u2019s Christmas, Summer Grass, Grandad\u2019s Pipe, Cinnamon Spice.  Open the jar, stick my nose in and\u2026nothing.  It could have said Marty\u2019s Old Running Shoes, it didn\u2019t matter.  Going there was a frustrating experience, both for me, and for Jenn, who wanted my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s Back!!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Medically it\u2019s been an annoying fall.\u00a0\u00a0Without going into detail, getting old sucks.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s required lots of very personal medical procedures (nothing too serious).\u00a0\u00a0Suffice is to say, that I was under general anesthesia twice in the past six months, with one more to go.\u00a0\u00a0None of it is \u201cfun\u201d, and here I am, a couple of months after the second surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there is one upside.  I can smell:  the coffee in the morning, the burnt toast in the toaster, even the ribeye cooking on the grill.  (The advantage of winter:  the poop is frozen in the back yard and doesn\u2019t smell!!).   And so far, for the last couple of weeks, it seems to be getting better (stronger?).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was a little kid, my eyes got progressively more near-sighted.\u00a0\u00a0I didn\u2019t realize it, until the \u201cgrade-level\u201d eye tests.\u00a0\u00a0We stood in the cafeteria pick-up line, where we got our milk cartons at Southdale Elementary in Kettering, Ohio.\u00a0At the other end by the \u201ccheck-out\u201d, there was an eye chart posted on the wall.\u00a0\u00a0I distinctly remember being told, \u201cmove up until you can read the top line\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0I was already past the main course to the vegetable area, when I called out \u201cE\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s when I realized all the other kids could read what was on the chalkboard, without going up at the end of class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My sense of smell \u201csnuck up\u201d in the same way.  And even when I realized I was \u201csmelling\u201d, I didn\u2019t put much faith in it.  I\u2019ve been fooled before.  But right now, today, I am smelling stuff.  And I hope it lasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I even put my nose in the cinnamon candle jar this morning.\u00a0\u00a0Christmas was right there, three weeks late.\u00a0\u00a0It was right at the end of my nose.\u00a0
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sunday Story Series<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

2021<\/h4>\n\n\n\n