taste n smell

When I had the covid thangy a few years ago, it was fairly regimented... 2 days of fever and fatigue, 2 days of cold-like symptoms: sniffles sneezing etc, and 2 days of losing smell and taste, cut and dry, matter of fact.

When I lost the taste and smell, it's like everything was peppery for a few hours, and when it came back, same thing... pepper for a few hours.

A couple weeks ago I had some sort of head congestion thing that kept filling up areas of my ear canals that wanted to 'pop', ya know? That thing like being in a plane, where you yawn or chew gum to pop them and equalize the pressure. But those sure-fire strategies weren't working ;P
For over a week I was not able to 'pop' them.

And then I lost the taste and smell... but not with the pepper effect, and.. worst of all, the taste and smell didn't come back all at once on the 3rd day.

Some 2 weeks into it and they are finally coming back... ever so gradually... it's really quite annoying... it's so gradual... unlike before. Little hints of flavors and scents, but mostly it was nothing for about a week. It's SO un-interesting to eat when you can't taste or smell anything. All you have is texture.

As of today, I'd say it's about 70% back.. maybe...
I feel a huge sigh of relief when I can detect some flavors... but they still aren't completely back. I hope it won't take too much longer.