COVID’s long-distance legacy leads to months of suffering for some Valley patients

For many residents of Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley, the anniversary of the year of the pandemic COVID-19 brought a light to the end of the tunnel, thanks to vaccines and a decrease in the number of cases.

However, for other people with persistent symptoms of coronavirus, this light is more difficult to see.

“Well, it looks like I’m having a nightmare,” said Clay Shiflet, a professor at Aspen Middle School and a valley resident who has suffered the effects of COVID-19 a year ago. “Literally, it is difficult to understand the feeling that you have something that has become chronic, essentially.”

Shiflet and others are known as “long-haulers”, and studies across the country show that more and more people affected by the virus report symptoms that just don’t go away. The number of long-haulers appears to vary, with a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association and a study by British scientists estimating that 10% of patients with COVID-19 belong to this group, although others have suggested that the number is too higher.

The number of long-haulers in Pitkin County is, so far, high.

According to a survey conducted by Pitkin County Public Health, between 50% and 60% of people who tested positive for COVID-19 between March and August reported having at least one persistent symptom six months later, said Josh Vance, a county epidemiologist.

Of those cases, between 20% and 25% reported five or more persistent symptoms, between 10% and 15% reported 10 or more and one person had 33 virus-related symptoms, he said.

“Some people are extremely affected by the long-term effects,” said Vance. “I would probably say that this was unexpected.”

It is not yet clear why the numbers in Pitkin County are much higher than other studies, which showed that between 10% and 30% of those who tested positive for the virus reported persistent symptoms, he said.

“We are trying to understand why this is the case,” said Vance. “Is there anything about where we live (which contributes to that number)? Ours is showing a much higher proportion. “

To be clear, the Pitkin County study – which tracks patients six months after their positive test – identified only 102 people with persistent symptoms. That’s because the county had a relatively low number of positive cases between March and August, which was before the winter peak, said Vance.

On Friday, Pitkin County reported 2,115 positive cases of COVID-19 last year, according to local epidemiological data. But as the study progresses, Vance said he expects the total number of long-distance trucks to increase.

And it is not just people who have experienced particularly severe cases of COVID-19 who report long-distance symptoms. Researchers in California recently found that a third of the 1,407 people they tested positive for the virus reported persistent symptoms 60 days later, despite no initial symptoms of the virus.

“When you look at the seriousness of the cases, there is not much difference,” said Vance. “The severity of the disease is not an indicator of long-term effects.”

“I was going to bed terrified”

Shiflet’s case was and is particularly virulent.

Before hiring COVID-19 in March 2020, the 46-year-old physical education and wellness teacher considered himself a resistance athlete. He skied mountains in the winter, was a telemark skier and enjoyed running and mountain biking in the summer.

Initially, the father of 12-year-old twin boys had low-grade fever, dizziness, general fatigue, chest pressure and loss of smell. A month later, his fatigue increased and he began to experience a mysterious and pulsating pain in the lower right quadrant of his body, which he initially thought was a hernia.

The exact source of the pain was never clear. What was clear, however, was a CT scan that found glass in his lungs, which may have caused him to feel short of breath at night, a month later, which caused nightmares, he said.

“I was basically going to bed terrified, hoping I wouldn’t die in my sleep or something,” Shiflet told The Aspen Times in September. “I mean, the panic that is starting to set in is quite significant.”

As April turned into May, the headache, insomnia and fatigue continued to plague him. Then came chest pains and heart palpitations that made him think he was having a heart attack, which led to a visit to the ER in July. Again, doctors were never able to identify a cause, he said.

“It feels like I’m having a pain radiating down my arm like … a throbbing numb pain in your arm,” said Shiflet. “And this is, like, just like the chest pain that arises like a sharp and explosive pain.”

In September, the symptoms showed no signs of abating.

“I still (I feel) fatigue, headache and insomnia,” he told The Times at that time. “Now I have ringing in my ears. My arms are all inflated to the point of … just swelling on my forearms. (I have) shortness of breath when I go to exercise (e) shortness of breath at night when I sleep. “

Six months after that – in early March 2021, on the anniversary of the year of his initial COVID-19 infection – Shiflet began to skin Tiehack again, which he said felt good until he tried too hard.

“Last week was a glimpse into life, I am doing what I did, it is sweet and I am feeling good,” he said. “But then the heart thing beat and it was like, ‘Wow, this is scary and I don’t think I’m back and I’m not quite there.'”

A year after his initial infection, he said he still feels chest pain, heart pain, shortness of breath, insomnia, cramps and fatigue, which sometimes leads to depression.

“Yes, I don’t feel like the same person most of the time,” he said earlier this month. “So I don’t know … it all weighs on me mentally, physically. I know that with my family, it’s definitely not me. I don’t fight with my kids like I used to. This is all difficult. “

“And they just don’t know …”

Kate McMahon, a resident of Glenwood Springs, also picked up COVID-19 in March. Its symptoms included sore throat, body aches, joint pain, sinus congestion, fever, loss of taste and smell and fatigue. She said that just getting up and going to the bathroom was all she managed to do before crawling back into bed.

“I was very sick for about four weeks,” she told The Times in September. “You kind of felt like you ran a marathon if you got up and did a lot of anything. It was a total of six weeks until I thought, ‘OK, I kind of feel like a human again.’ “

McMahon, however, was a sophomore graduate student in chemistry and needed to start studying for exams in which he would have to present research to a committee of four. During that time, she felt fatigue, shortness of breath, sporadic muscle and joint pain, brain fog and chest tightness. Still, she somehow managed to get through and get through, she said.

“I mean, part of it was like, I just wanted to go through this, so I was muscular,” said McMahon. “I mean, I didn’t feel well. I was tired all the time. “

Six months after the diagnosis of COVID, however, she said she had good days and bad days.

“It’s frustrating because some days I can do a lot of things and some days I just can’t do anything,” said McMahon in September. “I am in the midst of many tests to find out why my shortness of breath and some of my other breathing problems are not improving. And they just don’t know, so we’re trying to find out. “

Long-term health networks

As more and more people report symptoms of long distance, local health officials are responding.

Aspen Valley Hospital and Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs are starting multidisciplinary clinics to assist area residents, according to Aspen Valley CEO Dave Ressler and Dr. David Brooks, Valley View medical director.

“We are creating a network of experts to support patients in our community who are still suffering from symptoms of COVID,” said Ressler. “It is very clear that the community will need some support.”

Both clinics will require the referral of primary care physicians and will include specialists in cardiology, pulmonology, neurology and other disciplines, due to the number of varied symptoms caused by the virus.

In addition, AVH is starting a support group next month led by a social worker for long-distance travelers who suffer from depression and anxiety as a result of continued symptoms, said Ressler.

“This is affecting people’s lives,” he said.

The significant number of long-haulers represents a strong warning to members of the community who have not yet been affected by COVID-19, said Ressler, Vance and Brooks.

“You just don’t know (how it will affect you),” said Vance. “We are not finding any strong indicators that will lead to long-term effects.”

The message for those who have not yet been infected is that they continue to protect themselves and their families from the virus, practicing social detachment, wearing masks and being vaccinated when the opportunity arises, they said.

“It’s really about protecting the community and protecting the community’s health from these long-term symptoms,” said Ressler. “It is not like overcoming a cold or the flu.”