OWASSO, Okla. — An Owasso woman says her quality of life is so much better, more than a year after she had COVID-19 for a second time. A chiropractic technique was able to restore ninety percent of her senses of taste and smell.
Sarah Carpenter suffered from parosmia that she developed after her second bout of COVID-19. She shared her struggles with FOX23 in November, in which most foods suddenly smelled and tasted disgusting.
“I could never go in any restaurants. I just got to that point where I could not go in because they just made me sick,” said Sarah.
Sarah lost 25 pounds, and was desperate to get back to normal. She traveled to Houston earlier this year for a stellate ganglion nerve block, in which medication is injected into the neck to treat circulation problems or nerve injuries. But this didn’t fix Sarah’s condition.
“It was uncomfortable, but after I got the block I actually could eat some things that I hadn’t been able to eat,” she said. “That lasted probably about a week or two and then it started going downhill, and I just felt like there’s nothing that’s ever going to help this.”
Then, thanks to her brother, Sarah met Dr. Kim Hester, the owner of Legacy Chiropractic in Oklahoma City. He used a technique called “zone therapy” on Sarah.
“I told her I was going to fix this as soon as she sat down,” said Dr. Hester. “There’s six points in the back of the head that tell me what’s going on with every single cell in the body, every tissue, every organ.”
Dr. Hester said once he adjusted the zone that was out of balance, Sarah’s body immediately started healing itself.
“Her sinuses started to drain just like that,” said Dr. Hester.
Dr. Hester said he sees quite a few patients that are out of balance because of COVID-19. He said zone therapy has been a chiropractic technique since 1931.
“After he did that, when I got off of the table my nose started running, my eyes started running,” said Sarah.
>>Coronavirus: Targeted ‘smell therapy’ helps some COVID-19 patients regain sense of smell, taste
Sarah said her sense of taste and smell is ninety percent back to normal, and she plans to see Dr. Hester again to see if she can get to one hundred percent.
“Immediately I could eat. I ate peanut butter, which peanut butter is a huge one,” said Sarah. “I don’t love it, but it’s tolerable. I can smell it and it actually tastes like peanut butter.”
She said coffee is one of the things she missed most.
“I’m so happy to be able to drink coffee ... Just like cream and sugar. I’m just happy to be able to drink that.”
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