Item

Happy Birthday to Me

Media

Title (Dublin Core)

Happy Birthday to Me

Description (Dublin Core)

For my 25th birthday I found myself sitting in the passenger seat of my girlfriend's car. As we entered hour two of waiting in line at the Orlando Convention Center for free COVID-19 testing, I kept myself busy playing Animal Crossing on my Nintendo Switch.

A week earlier I had thought I was getting a cold. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary since coronavirus had already passed through my house and I made it out safe. Then, on Christmas day, I took a bit of pizza and realized there was just nothingness. I could feel the sensation of what I knew the taste was supposed to be, but there was only texture. I didn’t immediately panic, thinking it was probably due to the congestion of my cold. It wasn’t until my girlfriend mentioned that loss of taste is definitely a COVID-19 symptom that the realization dawned on me.

The soonest I could get tested was on my birthday, which also happened to be the day I noticed my sense of smell had completely disappeared. Even though I still had two fully functioning eyes, I felt like I was operating completely blind. It never occurred to me how much the taste and the smell of food was so essential to my enjoyment of eating.

It was a humbling experience, and I’m incredibly grateful that the loss of senses was my only real symptom. I tried to use my tasteless time wisely and eat all the undesirable food that has long since been shoved to the back of the pantry. Though, I would be lying if I didn’t say the day I got my tasting back, I ordered all my favorite foods for contactless delivery. It was my little 2021 belated new years celebration.

Date (Dublin Core)

December 29, 2020

Creator (Dublin Core)

Ellie Pereira

Contributor (Dublin Core)

Ellie Pereira

Event Identifier (Dublin Core)

HST643

Partner (Dublin Core)

Arizona State University

Type (Dublin Core)

text story

Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)

English Events
English Food & Drink
English Health & Wellness
English Public Health & Hospitals

Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)

sensory history
birthday
COVID-19
test
taste
drive-thru

Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)

sensory history

Collection (Dublin Core)

Healthcare
COVID Birthdays

Linked Data (Dublin Core)

Sensory history submissions and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Date Submitted (Dublin Core)

01/12/2021

Date Modified (Dublin Core)

01/20/2021
07/08/2021
10/19/2021

Item sets

Covid 19
Arizona State University

This item was submitted on January 12, 2021 by Ellie Pereira using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive

Click here to view the collected data.

New Tags

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