Only A Sample Of One, But....

This is a covid story, so bear with me. I'd love to hear if anybody else is having a similar experience. I also would love to hear if it stirs anybody on the fence to getting out there and getting the most recent shot. So far I'm only a sample of one, but it's given me hope and a much more enjoyable world. I'd love to think it could have positive effects for others. And it's such a simple thing to do.

I inherited my sensitive nose from my mother. We were always the first to know something in the kitchen was burning. Or something somewhere was rotting. We loved smelling the flowers in the garden, or the neighbor's lilacs. Especially the lilacs!

For me it was worst when I was pregnant, when everything I smelled made me throw up, mostly after I ate it of course. Up till them I'd always had a morning glass of milk because I liked it, it was good for me, and now for baby. Plus with half Scandinavian heritage, I have the digestive system to handle it. But I'd arrive at work and run-waddle for the bathroom, heaving up such big curds of sour milk that I struggled to find space to breathe between them, sure I was going to aspirate them. Occasionally I did, choking.

I don't drink milk any more. Turn  it into ice cream,  cheese, yogurt, I'm fine. Add to eggs for french toast or a scramble? Great. Milk in a glass? Never!

I kept my back-to-my-normal post-pregnancy sensitive nose until a couple years ago, when my second round of covid (despite shots and masking) killed my sense of smell and most of my sense of taste. I'd eat from habit, not because the food was delicious, although suddenly I loved fresh tomatoes. What really drove home for Steve just what I was missing was the day we passed where a skunk had recently sprayed along the road I was driving on. I had just enough functioning olfactory receptors to know there was something there. I couldn't identify something I've known nearly all of my life, even after Steve reacted strongly to it and identified it for me after I asked. I couldn't trust when opening the refrigerator if food inside had spoiled, which bothered me much more.

Just over a week ago, Steve and I got our newest covid boosters, the ones that are supposed to function in a new way and deal with new variants. For the first time since a Shingrix shot years ago, I had a bit of a sore arm, supposedly a sign that my immune system is working. Nothing really bothersome, I had to poke it or lie on it to notice.

However, in the week since, I've been steadily getting my nose and sense of taste back! I can taste my morning coffee again, just when I'd about decided not to bother adding cocoa powder any more to my instant mix, but drink it black. All I wanted if I couldn't have yummy was caffeine. I'd absent-mindedly picked up a 4-pack of my favorite yogurt Flips the week before, forgetting I didn't enjoy them any more, and suddenly could actually taste them again! I went to the local apple orchard last night and picked up a frozen apple pie to bake for today's company, and it smelled like baking apple pie with a cinnamon crust! Yummmm! I picked up some tootsie rolls at the store, thinking to hold them for Halloween, but tried one and could taste it! (Screw Halloween!) Just days earlier while in the store for our shots, I'd picked up a new flavor of M&Ms, as usual forgetting that I couldn't taste them, and my inability again slapped me in the face, so it's that recent.

So here's my hypothesis: I think the newest covid shot is attacking whatever was left over in my body from the last illness, and wiping it out. I know I'm only a sample of one, but have you heard of anybody else, possibly with some version of long covid, getting beneficial effects now, not just in the future, from the new shot? I knew that this shot is supposed to work forwards in time, fighting new variants. Is it also working retroactively?