Lacking in Taste

I am finally recovering from a week-long bout with the flu - fever, chills, dripping nose, sluggishness, the works. But for me the worst was the loss of both appetite and taste buds for the duration. Even my usual solution - Cholula (or any of my homemade hot sauces) - was of no help.

I can handle the slow deterioration of my hands, and thus what knife skills I have attained, over time. I can accept the other various aches and pains that come with age. But the loss of my sense of taste would really freak me!

ETA - it wasn't, after all, the flu, but the beginning of a bout of Pneumonia!