This story originally appeared in the Sierra Nevada Ally and is being republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement. Read the original version here.When Crystal, a Sparks resident, contracted COVID-19 in 2021, she lost her taste and smell for nine months. Just as her senses began to return, new complications emerged — fatigue, memory fog and a dramatic 85-pound weight loss.
Over the next several years, she cycled through doctors and nutritionists, tried smell training and searched for answers, only to be told by some physicians that her symptoms were “all in her head.”
“I was put through many medication trials and also diagnosed with mental illnesses because of this, with some saying that it was just OCD or making it up for attention. That was the most painful thing to hear,” Crystal recalls…