But it wasn’t all about food. Until you lose it, you don’t realise how essential eating is to everyday joys, especially social pleasures:

“I am grieving for my lost senses. No more wine and cheese tasting nights or gin cocktails with my ‘girls'”

Even more heartbreaking was the effect of sensory changes on intimate relationships. There were a lot of posts where people described the loneliness of no longer being able to smell their partner or their children. Again, until it is gone, you don’t realise how important smell is to intimacy and connection. Even worse was the effect of parosmia:

“His natural odour used to make me want him; now it makes me vomit”