Sommelier and chronic covid sufferer: she loses her sense of taste and smell

Getting sick with covid and losing taste and smell is painful for everyone. But it was a dream come true for Sommer, who had to put his life on hold for five months after developing a chronic form of the disease.

• Read more: Prolonged COVID-19 destroys young mother’s family life

• Read more: Long Covid: New study seeks participants

“After a month and a half [de COVID-19 de longue durée], one weekend I cried non-stop. There, I panicked. Wine is not only my profession, but also my greatest passion,” recalls sommelier and lecturer Michael Baffert.

It’s hard to imagine a worse scenario than losing your taste buds when your life revolves around alcohol. Michelle Bouffard lost her sense of taste and smell from April to August 2022. He had to put some of his professional activities on hold, including the prestigious Institute of Masters of Wine exam scheduled for last July.

“So many years of study for this exam. I studied more than thirty hours a week. It’s the biggest title in the world. It’s like an athlete breaking his ankle just before the Olympics,” he says.

Method of solution

Soon, the sommelier began looking for solutions to quickly restore his taste and smell. She underwent acupuncture treatments, consulted an otolaryngologist and used essential oils to stimulate her senses.

After several months, the sommelier is happy to have regained the taste, but only time will allow to establish whether she can discover all the nuances of the wine.

“I want to send a positive message. In most cases, it comes back. It is necessary to talk about it. We quickly realize that many people are going through the same thing,” commented Michael Baffert.

Report

According to Statistics Canada, almost a third of Canadians aged 18 or older developed COVID between the start of the pandemic and May 2022. A lot more people, about 1.4 million adults, experienced symptoms three months after receiving a positive result.