Hello. I am a long time lurker here but have decided to now create an account. I would really appreciate it if someone could provide some advice on my situation. It’s a bit of a long read so please bear with me!
In October last year, I had a sudden bout of vomiting. I couldn’t keep any food down and eventually went to A&E after 2 days. The doctor there said I have caught a vomiting bug and managed to flush it out with IV fluids while I was there. When I woke up the next morning and had breakfast, I instantly realised that I could not taste any food at all. I put it down to after effects of the bug and expected my sense of taste to return within a few days. When this didn’t happen, I went to see my GP who was very dismissive about it and that said the sense of taste should return soon. I eventually convinced them to send me for an MRI when I had no improvement by December.
The MRI scan showed that I have 7 demyelinating lesions in the brain. The GP thought this is suggestive of MS and referred me to a neurologist. The neurologist said that the lesions look pre-existing and given that I haven’t experienced any symptoms apart from the taste loss, he is not convinced that the taste loss is MS related. He also said that if the taste loss was due to MS, there is no treatment he could offer to treat it. I was told to come back for a repeat MRI in 6 months time to see if there are any new lesions to help with deciding whether I do have MS (the neurologist was 60% sure I do).
I have now had my repeat MRI and have read the report. The report says that I have ‘high T2 and FLAIR signal’ in the parietal areas of the brain. I know from my research that the parietal lobe does control taste so this suggests that this is the cause of the taste loss which has not yet returned at all.
My question is: 1) Has anyone had a complete loss of taste and did it ever return? How long did it take? 2) Have you had any medication/treatment to get the sense of taste to return?
Thank you so much to anyone who has taken the time to read my long post. This situation is constantly on my mind as not only can I not taste at all, I have this possible MS diagnosis looming over me when I have never had any other symptoms. The hospital has also managed to cancel my follow up with the neurologist so i am unlikely to be able to see him until next year.