Dad update: he got home from the hospital yesterday afternoon! 😍💖 We were all so happy to see him, and I’m really glad that he’ll be getting more specialized help from doctors now on. Things are really looking up! ☀️

HELLO! This is Maggie on maggie’s doodles, the creative lifestyle sight (wait that’s not how it’s spelled) – site where you get to enjoy reading five (or more 😏😂) new posts every week! 😍💕 I hope you enjoy my photography, personal posts, and the life inspiration I share.

GUESS WHAT! The title’s already told you the awesome news, actually 😂: starting on Saturday, February 27th, my taste started coming back! After 18 full days of scent and flavor DARKNESS 🤣 the connections in my brain slowly started working properly again! What is it about COVID that makes 2/5 senses literally out-of-order?? You know what, I don’t wanna know lol

This is the fourth and final installment of adventures in texture: the journey of no taste or smell. It’s been an interesting, therapeutic series to write, although I had NO idea that by the time I was sharing this post, my senses would be returning! 🤩 it makes me really happy.

For this legendary finale, I’m going to share a week-long log (why does that sound weird 😂) of which foods I ate leading up to today, and how I was able to enjoy them more and more!

adventures in texture

February 27th

I couldn’t really taste my morning coffee. But when I had breakfast, I was halfway through my frosted mini wheats bowl when I realized I could taste some of the sugar! I excitedly told my mom, then proceeded to try a cutie (she said that would be the real taste test since the little oranges have such a strong scent/taste), which I could taste a bit more than previous days. Oh, and I had some multivitamins after my breakfast, which I could unfortunately taste better 🙄 hahah

For lunch we got Culver’s (Joshua and I wove through crazy Saturday traffic to bring the food home to our fam 😂), and I could taste the honey mustard with my fries! I’m going to consider that the first official food I could taste again, since it tasted the way it did before I got ‘rona. The chicken sandwich I got had a faint flavor, since it was a combo of lighter flavors combined, and my tongue was struggling to pick up on them.

Hot dogs, applesauce, and crackers made up my dinner (great combo, huh?? losing my taste has taught me how to eat stuff that doesn’t go together!). The main thing I could taste was the mustard on my hot dog, which I couldn’t pick up at all before!

I could only smell a teeny bit all day – just a whiff of the cutie I ate! My mom said the same thing happened for her, as well: she could gradually taste more and more, but her sniffer (my words, not hers 🤣) took longer to start working again.

February 28th

Kind of a similar experience to yesterday: I can taste stronger flavors, can’t smell much of anything (yet!), and light flavors are hard to pick up on. Cheez-Its taste a little saltier now 😍 haha and I made sure not to put mustard on the chicken sandwich I had for lunch. I didn’t want to eat a mustard sandwich 🤣

March 1st

There’s not much more to report: I still can’t smell, and bits and pieces of my ability to taste are there, but they’re not getting much stronger. 😂 I was hoping things would get tastier and tastier with each passing day, but they’re stabilized, it seems. A blogging friend of mine, Amber (please go check out her blog, it’s amazing!), said she’s had distorted taste/smell since having COVID in January. It looks like the same is going to be true for me! It’s kinda disappointing, but I’m REALLY glad to know there’s hope for my tongue and nose 😂💕 (corona has really changed the way I talk)

March 2nd

Well I had McDonald’s for lunch, and the ketchup was pretty great. I could… sense the beef in my quarter pounder? But not really. OH I just remembered – I could taste the bitterness of my coffee (even though it had sugar and cream in it lol) for the first time in WEEKS! That was great! 😂🙌🥳💜 Dinner was pizza bagels, and I could taste the cheese a little bit, but it was like there was no sauce lol. And I’ve had to switch to having a vinaigrette dressing with my side salads instead of Caesar dressing because it’s got this bad new aftertaste that I can’t handle 😳😂

March 3rd

I could taste my chicken sandwich!!! 🤩👏👏👏 and I could also taste the mayo I had on it! These are the first lighter flavors I’ve been able to taste again. This is awesome. 🙌💕

I had two hot dogs for dinner, and I felt like I’d had NOTHING. It was like, once I started eating I didn’t want to stop! Having 35-40% of my taste back is incredibly exciting, and I feel like my brain’s trying to catch up on all the stuff it missed tasting haha. My stomach’s gonna keep it in check tho! 😂👏

March 4th

My coffee had less flavor this morning in comparison to yesterday. 🤔 oh well haha

Because I added mustard to my chicken sandwich today, I couldn’t taste the lighter chicken and mayo flavors. 🤦 (why does my life revolve around chicken sandwiches)

Cheez-Its once again have that aftertaste I don’t like, so I won’t be eating them anymore 🙃 lol (I still love the Baby Swiss and White Cheddar kinds! Just not the OG)

I tried Milano cookies for the first time today (yeah, where have I been) and what I could taste was INCREDIBLE. We went to Publix, Joshua and I did, and I hopped on over to the cracker aisle to get me some more Irish Cremes MMM, but they don’t sell them there. So I took a mental rain check haha

I’d like for my smell to be back (like, my sense of smell 🤣) but it’s still at maybe 3%, like it has been for days. So for example, if I sniff REALLY hard (which can’t be too smart) right by a candle, my brain kinda goes “yeah, there’s something with scent particles floating in the air within a mile of here.” gee thanks nose, I wasn’t sure

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Thank you so much for reading! ❤️ There are two things I hope you take away from this series: laughter from reading my funny descriptions, and gratitude for your own senses of taste and smell! Before now, I was familiar with distorted senses while having a cold, but actual loss of both, however temporary, absolutely changed the way I look at food and nice scents. It’s crazy to me how the things we figure are obviously going to be part of our lives forever can disappear that quickly!

I encourage you to enjoy the little things about life: your favorite candle scent, your favorite tea or coffee flavor, the smell of a beautiful flower. 💕 Gratitude has a really powerful effect on the way we think!

Which scents and tastes are your absolute favorites? Did you enjoy this post series? Let’s chat in the comments!