Jennifer Henderson lifted a cup of coffee to her nose and sniffed. After struggling to smell and taste for two years, she burst into tears.
“I can smell it,” she said, her voice cracking and tears welling up in her eyes.
The moment was captured on video after doctors injected medicine into nerves in her neck.
Henderson was diagnosed with COVID in January 2021 after having symptoms for about a week.
A year later, she was suffering from long COVID, which meant she could no longer enjoy food at the Mexican restaurants and steakhouses she frequented pre-pandemic.
According to the World Health Organization, long COVID is the continuation or development of new symptoms three months after an initial COVID infection.
Other symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath and brain fog, and they can last for at least two months with no other explanation, said Dr. Christina Shin.
Shin is an anesthesiologist and pain management physician at the Cleveland Clinic. She worked with other specialists at the clinic to perform a stellate ganglion block procedure on Henderson, injecting medication into nerves at the bottom front side of her neck.
“I was scared,” Henderson said, referring to the emotional video. “I was afraid to smell the coffee. I just couldn’t contain it because I was so happy. The fact that I could smell it immediately, I just broke down.”
Shin said seeing her patient’s emotional reaction was humbling.
“I don’t think any of us were not crying,” she told USA TODAY. “Just seeing how much of a journey this has been for her, how much it has changed her life.”
She cautioned that Henderson’s ability to smell and taste still aren’t 100% back to normal and the clinic isn’t claiming the injections are a cure; Henderson did have “drastic improvement” after receiving the injections though.
Stellate ganglion blocks have been used for decades to treat chronic pain of the right or left upper extremities, pain conditions in the face, abnormal heart rhythms, menopause and post-traumatic stress disorder, Shin said.
Over the past few years, doctors have started using the procedure to treat long COVID.
Long COVID:Long COVID has multiple symptoms. Face blindness may be one them.
Long COVID in children: What does long COVID do to kids? What we’ve learned after a year of research.
After COVID, food tested like ‘garbage’ Henderson said
Prior to her diagnosis, Henderson loved trying new recipes and restaurants with her husband, Steve. After contracting the virus, she couldn’t eat garlic, most meats or peanut butter.
“It’s horrible,” she recalled. “It’s rotten flesh. It’s garbage. You have to spit it out. Peanut butter tastes like chemicals. Popcorn tastes like chemicals.”
Suddenly, Henderson could only eat yogurt, sushi and seafood, oranges and berries. She even spent Thanksgiving eating mashed potatoes because she couldn’t eat turkey, dressing or other staple holiday foods.
Losing her senses also posed a safety threat. One day, Henderson left the gas stove on and couldn’t smell it. Luckily, her husband came home and realized what happened.
Henderson eventually found out about a Facebook group where others shared their experiences; that’s how she came across information about the stellate ganglion block and how doctors use them experimentally to treat people who had lost their ability to taste or smell.
She contacted a few universities and eventually the Cleveland Clinic. Months later, the clinic got her scheduled and she had her first round of injections in November 2022.
Henderson said she was afraid because the injections were her last hope, but almost immediately, things began to change.
“I could taste a little bit of coffee but as I did the injections, it just kept getting better with each procedure,” she said.
She was mostly excited to try peanut butter cups.
“I missed peanut butter so much,” she laughed. “It tasted terrible and you don’t realize how much certain things are in food items when it’s taken away from you.”
How is Henderson doing now?
Shin cautioned that using the injections to treat long COVID is very new and there’s a lot more research needed to determine whether or not it is truly effective and why it works.
For now, they just make sure they’re transparent with patients about the risks and benefits.
As of early April, Henderson has received three rounds of injections. She is taking a break and plans to vacation next month.
“I’m just seeing how my body does and I smell my perfumes,” she said. “There were four perfumes that I had. My husband’s colognes smelled like chemicals. Every day I check those perfumes to make sure I’ve had no regression and I have not.”
She started food journaling to remember what tastes good and what’s not so yummy, she said.
On Friday morning, she was able to taste her toothpaste for the first time, she said.
“I never could taste toothpaste during this whole two years,” she said, nor could she taste Listerine, Altoids and other strong products.
The process was stressful and anxiety-inducing, said Henderson, who also lost her mother to COVID and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
She hopes researchers can get the information they need to help more people with the injections.
“I just hope this really spearheads getting so many others treatment,” she said.
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Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY’s NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757 – and loves all things horror, witches, Christmas, and food. Follow her on Twitter at @Saleen_Martin or email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.
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