There is no doubt that the web is filled with information. The downside of this is that it might not be totally healthy for those that cannot discern true information from the bad ones, especially when it comes to human health. In other words, the web has as many fake information as true information.
There are also psychological aspects of information consumption when it comes to health. How many of us have noticed having one or two symptoms relating to covid19 infection since the breakout of the pandemic? I am sure we are many. When you consume information relating to ill healths, suddenly, some of the symptoms you have been noticing in your body start conforming with your newly consumed information.
A few days ago, I made a post about the challenges of having to distinguish between malarial and coronavirus symptoms using my personal experience as an example. One of the fallouts from that post is that I was left with tastelessness and inability to perceive any smell by what could be malaria/covid19 infection, even as at the time of writing it. I never really considered the condition to be serious until I decided to Google it.
Google search 1: What is the inability to perceive smells and tastes?
Lying down on my bed while facing the ceiling and holding my Samsung Tab A 2016 with my two hands, I typed-in the query into Google. It was through the response I got to know that there is a medical term for the inability to perceive smells; ANOSMIA. As expected, this condition mostly goes hand in hand with the inability to perceive tastes because of the interconnection of the tissues and organs responsible for both processes.
What actually constituted the genesis of my problem was when I discovered that this condition could be temporary or permanent, depending on the underlining condition. The conditions that could cause anosmia have been reported to include side effects of certain drugs, genetic/congenital, infections of the sinus, brain or nerve damage, and common cold. Out of all the possible underlining conditions, only the anosmia caused by side effects of drugs the common cold, and reversible infections of the sinus is touted to be temporary. This simply means that some people could be living their entire lives with the inability to taste or perceive smell. The thought seems scary!
I started permutating and combining on what could be the underlining cause of my own anosmia. Those with genetic/congenital anosmia are usually born with, this is completely ruled out in my case. Also, even though I had a common cold at the onset of my symptoms, it disappeared a few days after. In addition, the common cold has never rendered me tasteless and deprivation of smell. Common cold-associated anosmia has also been reported to last only for a few days while mine is now running into two weeks. In short, I ruled out common cold as the cause of my anosmia.
The next thing I thought of is that perhaps the anosmia is one of the side effects of the drug I used for the treatment of presumptive malaria. This led me to type-in my second query into Google:
Google search 2: Is anosmia one of the side effects of P-alaxin?
The returned search heightened my anxiousness. I combed all the results just for a pointer to anosmia but to my utmost disappointment, got nothing. P-alaxin contains Dihydroartemisinin and Piperaquine Phosphate and the side effects have been reported to include anorexia, dizziness, itching, abdominal pains, nausea, etc, but not anosmia.
Now that the side effect of the drug has also been eliminated as the possible cause of my anosmia, I am left with more severe options associated with brain or nerve damage. While working out at home a few months ago, I felt a sharp pain somewhere between my ribs and my spine. Since then, the pain has been going on/off.
Could it be that I damaged a nerve while working out? Could be that this nerve damage is the one behind my anosmia? Am I going to be paralyzed at such a young age? All forms of negative thoughts just kept running through my mind.
I also remembered that I had one nasty headache at the early onset of malaria/covid19. I have once learned that terrible headaches could be a sign of a brain tumour. Could be that I have a tumour growing somewhere in my brain? Will I be requiring surgery to remove it? How about the funding? Will my pictures be all over social media seeking for funds to perform the surgery? What will happen to my toddler?
Effects of anosmia
Out of all the negative thoughts that filled my mind, I also thought of the possibility of just remaining with the inability to taste nor perceive smells for the rest of my life without any other severe complication. I thought of how uninteresting foods have become in the past week since the onset of the condition and the thought of living the rest of my life this way seems scary.
I went out sometimes last week and decided to wear my best cologne but could not perceive even just a tiny scent of it. What if there is a gas leakage in the kitchen and I am the only one at home? What if the building I am in is on fire and I could not even perceive the smoke? A series of thoughts were just running through my mind and this almost slipped me into depression.
There is no doubt that anosmia will have a great impact on the quality of life of their victims. Perhaps if someone is born with it, this might not be a major problem. However, for someone that has lived all their life tasting different foods and perceiving different smells, it will take a significant effort to get used to the new life.
Final words
I am glad to inform my readers that partial activities as regards to tasting and smell perception have resumed in my body system and this actually gave me the strength to put together this write-up. I was too scared to visit a hospital throughout the anosmia period because of the fear of confirmation of one of the severe underlining conditions. It turns out that the condition is only temporary when in reality, I have almost led myself into depression by negative thoughts.
In whatever you decide to do while feeling unwell, Googling your symptoms might be a totally bad idea.
Thank you all for reading.