Which of your 5 senses would you be happy to live without?

just got thinking about how COVID-19 can cause you to temporarily lose your taste and/or smell and I'm thinking of the 5 senses of, taste, smell, sight, hearing & touch, which you could live without if you had to?

it's a hard one for me, but I think if I just HAD to I'd rather not smell.

being blind, deaf or tasteless would suck. and it's a toss up between touch and smell then.

Gregor Samsa

Gaydar.

But of your 5:

“Hear the birds? Sometimes I like to pretend that I'm deaf and I try to imagine what it's like not to be able to hear them. It's not that bad.”

Larry David

Jim2007

Old age will do it for you too: I had a cataract removed 18 months ago and I was told last week that one is starting to develop in the other one eye, so another operation on the way. This year I also started to hear some jingling noise in my ears: tests show I have a 20% loss of hearing in one ear and 12% in the other..... white noise blocks out the tendinitis, but I will never enjoy a silent moment again.

Yes I'd agree with you, smell with be the best bad option.

Black Swan

Nonsense sense the most important to keep.

GoogleBot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118129065#Comment_118129065

My grandad had that problem, after eliminating all sugar/fructose/omega6 out of his diet, 3 month after he start feeling much better.

FintanMcluskey

Id happily loose taste

Let eating become purely functional again

I wonder is it only a recent thing that we eat because something tastes nice/sweet? Leads to a plethora of weight related issue's and the cause of most illnesses

If we lost taste we would eat only when we need to, not because we want to.

SimonTemplar

I lost my sense of taste for about a week due to a sinus infections and it sucked. Really weird feeling eating a spaghetti bolognese or a pizza and tasting absolutely nothing.

Sight and hearing would be the most debilitating, so my choice would be smell too. Actually, the ability to switch on and off your sense of smell would come in handy given some of the odors around the city or on public transport.

JoChervil

OP, unfortunately, if you lose smell, you lose taste as well. Try to close your nose while eating. You won't feel taste.

I wouldn't be happy to lose any sense.

JoChervil

It's how my mum made us take any awfully tasting medicines...

the_pen_turner

of the 5 you list it would be hearing. anoying but you can cope with out that. smell would be top if you didnt loose taste with it. sight is the most important. not being able to touch would be horrible. you would be constantly knocking stuff over and dropping stuff.

but if you include all the 20-30 senses then its a trickier one.

magicbastarder

'happy'? none.

looksee

I am halfway through cataract operations so my eyes don't 'match', with or without glasses its odd, not that I can't see, but its disconcerting. I also have dodgy hearing and tinnitus so I can be in a little world of my own till I have sorted all the bionic bits. The hearing loss is not too bad say at night when someone will say did you hear the storm, or next door's dog barking all night, and no, I had blissful sleep. I would not want to lose either of them completely though.

As for the others, well I suppose smell would be the best of a bad lot, but really I am grateful for having all of the senses, I'd rather not lose any of them.

JoChervil

Wear a pirate eye patch?

looksee

I'm not sure that would be good for the healing process. Its not a big deal but makes you very aware of your sight.

JoChervil

I was thinking about covering the eye, which is waiting for surgery

FintanMcluskey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118129602#Comment_118129602

I lost my sense of taste for about a week due to a sinus infections and it sucked. Really weird feeling eating a spaghetti bolognese or a pizza and tasting absolutely nothing.

Exactly my point. Remove pleasure from food and make food purely functional to ease hunger

Capt'n Midnight

We have a lot more than five senses.

I could loose my sense of shame since it doesn't get used much. I'd like to think I'd keep a sense of decorum.

Strumms

I think I’d adjust to not smelling..it would sûck but hey...

the others would be a ballache..

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118129766#Comment_118129766

When you loose hearing it’s not replaced by nothingness. You will have some kind version of wind chimes or a whistling noise replace it as your brain tries to compensate for the loss. As a child I was almost totally deaf until the age of about 7 or 8 went an experimental operation gave me the gift of hearing. I can still remember the first time I heard my mother’s voice and it’s over 50 years ago. As I write this it is as if I’m sitting between two wind chimes. I don’t want to regress all the way back to then.

the_pen_turner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118130101#Comment_118130101

that you. i didnt realise thats what would happen. is it like tinitus .

that doesnt sound bearable at all. could drive you nuts

great story. that must be a great feeling

Wibbs

I lost taste and smell with the woo flu early this year. Only symptom really, other than feeling hungover for a day minus any drink. It still hasn't come back. Well I got some sense of smell back but only the smell of fragrant flowers of all things, roses and the like and that came back very strongly for some reason. Quite pleasant actually. On the other hand I could wade through a Calcutta sewer and smell nada. So bonus. Taste is still pretty much nonexistent. Not a big deal as I was never a foodie. I always saw food as fuel for the most part. So as far as sense loss goes it seems I can live without those two.

My sense of fashion * snap *

Smell/taste, touch, hearing... sight. In that order. Even hearing loss (apparently more socially excluding than sight loss) would be bearable. Full sight loss even keeping the others would be a half life.

If you lost all - insanity would not be far off.

Muff_Daddy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118129609#Comment_118129609

I can tell you now that that's not true.

If you lose your sence of smell yes, your sence of taste is affected, but you can most definitely still taste food and drink.

bassy

I can't smell never could,but I have ear trouble for years had ops on my left ear.but ye I've taste if that makes any sense.

JoChervil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118134581#Comment_118134581

Allegedly 80% of the taste is sensed by smell receptors. There are few thousands taste receptors in your mouth, while few millions smell receptors in your nose, so go compare.

Muff_Daddy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118135410#Comment_118135410

I mean, I've literally zero sence of smell (lost a few years ago) but I can still taste fairly well, so I feel I'm in a pretty good position to comment on it.

granturismo

My sense of entitlement.