What is parosmia and dysgeusia?
𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐚: a distorted sense of smell. It happens when smell receptor cells in your nose don't detect odors or transmit them to your brain.
𝐃𝐲𝐬𝐠𝐞𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐚: a distorted sense of taste.
These conditions can be caused by an illness, such as a cold, sinus infection, or Covid, as well as certain medications, and even chemo. Rusty’s was a result of Covid.
Rusty suffered from these conditions for a year— from May 2021- May 2022. He was 11 and 12 years old. Rusty had Covid 3 months prior to his first symptoms, and it caused almost everything he smelled and tasted to smell and taste like: garbage, gasoline, super garlicky or oniony, poop, mold, throw up, and overly metallic. He was miserable, and for a growing boy to have these conditions, it was extremely detrimental. It affected his weight, his mental status, his emotions, and his social life. He became depressed and, undertably, chronically frustrated. He couldn’t eat some of his favorite foods, such as: red meat (at all), most white meats (the only one he could tolerate was rotisserie chicken, but he had to fry it to eat it), chocolate, peanut butter, chips, pizza, or any seasoning other than plain salt. He was miserable.
These conditions weren’t well-known at the time, especially in relation to Covid, so finding solutions and any sort of cure was next to impossible. I was made aware of two Facebook groups for people who suffered from these and joined in hopes of finding some answers. There were close to 60,000 people in each group. Rusty definitely wasn’t alone, but it seemed that people were just as confused and frustrated as we were when it came to finding cures. There were so many homeopathic suggestions for relief, and we tried them all to no avail. Most people reported to regaining their smell and taste after certain periods of time, but that ranged anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 years— there was no rhyme or reason and, honestly, as a mom, I couldn’t just wait for this to pass for him. I had to be more proactive in searching for a solution. I needed a miracle.
After a few months of being in the group, someone posted about a procedure called a Stellate Ganglion Block. It’s a procedure that blocks the Ganglia nerves in your neck and, essentially, offers a reset of your nerves. It was an in-office procedure, so in and out in a matter of hours, and primarily used for people suffering from chronic pain. There was a doctor in TX that noticed the huge increase of parosmia and dysgeusia patients and thought, let’s see if this procedure can reset their nervous system for them, as well. He tested it on a patient and found that it, indeed, had amazing results! Every patient saw a differing degree of results— some gained 20-40% smell and taste back, others 50-80%, and some none, but FINALLY!!! There was a chance to gain SOMETHING back, and this little boy was willing to try it.
I called every pain management clinic within a 100 mile radius and kept getting told the same answers. It was either a no because they wouldn’t do that procedure for parosmia patients (it wasn’t wide-spread knowledge yet that this was a viable solution), or they wouldn’t do that procedure on a pediatric patient. Well, I thought, I guess we’re going to TX.
And then someone posted about finding a doctor in St. George, UT that was willing to do it. That was only 3.5 hours away. YAY!! I called, made the appointment, and the morning of, as we were able to load into the car, the doctor called me and said he hadn’t been informed that it was a pediatric patient and his office staff wasn’t comfortable working with a child. We were devastated. And desperate. I told him that he was tough and could withstand whatever it entailed, and that he couldn’t suffer with this any longer. As a parent, himself, I’m sure he took pity and told me he was going to reach out to his surgical team at his surgery center to ask if they’d do it. He called a few minutes later to say they had agreed. 🙌🏻 We had to postpone the procedure date for another 6 days, but were solidly in the books now.
The plan was to do the block on both sides of the neck to ensure he gained as much back as possible, but after the first side was blocked, Rusty had about 95% of his smell and taste back!!! It was truly a miracle and we are forever grateful to the people who posted in the FB groups about this procedure and their success rates, the doctor and staff at Desert Pain in St. George, for all of the people that prayed for him, and for God. I know He led us to all of these steps and people along the way, and we hope Rusty’s story can help others with these conditions to find help and hope in healing. ❤️
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