It’s a new beginning for a woman suffering from a post-COVID-19 side effect.”I think I’ve cried for about a week straight every time I had a meal that I haven’t eaten in a year, and it just feels like I’ve come back. I got my soul back. I got my social life back. I feel healthier again,” Jennifer D’Emilio said. For almost a year, she has struggled with a loss of taste, and almost everything she could smell seemed rotten. But treatment is helping her smell clearly for the first time in months.”It really affects your physical health, your mental health and your social life,” she said.The distortion in the sense of smell is called parosmia.”Everything started to smell or taste very distorted if it had garlic or onion, as well as some other things, like chemicals in toothpaste or whatnot,” D’Emilio said.She’s starting to get some of her senses back thanks to a treatment most commonly used for patients with PTSD. It’s called a stellate ganglion block, and it targets nerves deep in the neck with an injection.”It somehow resets the nervous system, and it takes away that inappropriate smell that the brain has just sort of crisscrossed everything. So, with the ganglion block, it seems to relieve some of that parosmia,” said Dr. David Rosen, Associate Professor at Thomas Jefferson University Department of Otolaryngology.For months, D’Emilio has been part of a separate clinical trial at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia to help restore her smell. But the distortion was still there.Through some research, she learned about stellate ganglion block. The doctors in her trial found another doctor who could help. “I asked him to do it, and he did her first injection. And she got amazing improvement with her parosmia,” Rosen said.”A 10-minute procedure cured me, and I’ve suffered for 11 months with distortion. It’s just absolutely amazing,” D’Emilio said.Rosen said the next step will be to study the stellate ganglion block as a treatment for side effects from COVID-19, but it looks promising. D’Emilio couldn’t be happier.”We don’t know if this is a true cure for your lifetime, but maybe it’ll be enough for a month or a year or whatever that may be and we’re going to follow you through. So far, it’s been really great,” D’Emilio said.
It’s a new beginning for a woman suffering from a post-COVID-19 side effect.
“I think I’ve cried for about a week straight every time I had a meal that I haven’t eaten in a year, and it just feels like I’ve come back. I got my soul back. I got my social life back. I feel healthier again,” Jennifer D’Emilio said.
For almost a year, she has struggled with a loss of taste, and almost everything she could smell seemed rotten. But treatment is helping her smell clearly for the first time in months.
“It really affects your physical health, your mental health and your social life,” she said.
The distortion in the sense of smell is called parosmia.
“Everything started to smell or taste very distorted if it had garlic or onion, as well as some other things, like chemicals in toothpaste or whatnot,” D’Emilio said.
She’s starting to get some of her senses back thanks to a treatment most commonly used for patients with PTSD. It’s called a stellate ganglion block, and it targets nerves deep in the neck with an injection.
“It somehow resets the nervous system, and it takes away that inappropriate smell that the brain has just sort of crisscrossed everything. So, with the ganglion block, it seems to relieve some of that parosmia,” said Dr. David Rosen, Associate Professor at Thomas Jefferson University Department of Otolaryngology.
For months, D’Emilio has been part of a separate clinical trial at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia to help restore her smell. But the distortion was still there.
Through some research, she learned about stellate ganglion block. The doctors in her trial found another doctor who could help.
“I asked him to do it, and he did her first injection. And she got amazing improvement with her parosmia,” Rosen said.
“A 10-minute procedure cured me, and I’ve suffered for 11 months with distortion. It’s just absolutely amazing,” D’Emilio said.
Rosen said the next step will be to study the stellate ganglion block as a treatment for side effects from COVID-19, but it looks promising.
D’Emilio couldn’t be happier.
“We don’t know if this is a true cure for your lifetime, but maybe it’ll be enough for a month or a year or whatever that may be and we’re going to follow you through. So far, it’s been really great,” D’Emilio said.
