{"id":208042,"date":"2023-12-21T08:54:42","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T13:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=208042"},"modified":"2023-12-21T12:34:52","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T17:34:52","slug":"long-covid-story-now-back-in-the-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2023\/12\/long-covid-story-now-back-in-the-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Long COVID Story: Now, Back in the Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

For someone who turned 50 and then ran 13 half-marathons in a 12-month period, simply finishing a 5-mile race may not seem like much of an accomplishment.<\/p>\n

But Sherri Beck has a different outlook. A 2021 bout with COVID-19 that started off seemingly innocuous touched off more than two years of health problems that made crossing the finish line a major accomplishment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a very mild case to start,\u201d Beck says of her COVID diagnosis that March. \u201cI was following all the restrictions. Back then, it was, don\u2019t even leave your house. It was really, really strict, and I followed it to a T because I didn\u2019t want to get anybody else sick. I did exactly what I was supposed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beck was 51 at the time, recently had completed a full marathon, and was planning to run in the Hartford Marathon that fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do love running,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m not fast, but it\u2019s my love. I love being outside, with my running friends. It\u2019s just something I enjoy doing. I felt like I was pretty darn healthy. Especially just before I got COVID, I felt strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Two
Sherri Beck (right) says her sister, critical care nurse practitioner Tammy Davino (left) is a major reason she continued to seek care at UConn Health as she dealt with a series of health problems following a COVID-19 diagnosis in 2021. (Photo by Chris DeFrancesco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She recalls having energy to burn and spending much of her two weeks of isolation with her hula hoop and her elliptical machine to tire herself out so she could sleep at night.<\/p>\n

Her sister, Tammy Davino<\/a>, a nurse practitioner in the UConn John Dempsey Hospital intensive care unit, would check in with her daily.<\/p>\n

“Early COVID, we were concerned that there was going to be a procoagulopathic thing \u2014 people would develop clots associated with it,” Davino says. “So we never really knew. In the early phases, when she would have some symptoms and I would say, let’s get some care for this.”<\/p>\n

Davino recalls the need to stay grounded upon learning about her sister’s diagnosis, against the backdrop of the previous year seeing some of the worst cases of COVID-19 on her own hospital floor.<\/p>\n

“You saw variability in how COVID affected people, so you have to keep it all in perspective and you can’t jump to conclusions,” Davino says. “You have to check in and say, ‘How are you feeling and what are your symptoms and are you OK at home?’ And that type of thing. And Sherri’s like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m fine. I don’t have any trouble breathing. I’m just a little tired,’ whatever it was. So with respect to the acute COVID, like when we saw patients in the ICU, it wasn’t as concerning”<\/p>\n

Then, about a month after she thought she had gotten over COVID-19, Beck started having different types of symptoms.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day I would send Tammy a text and I would say, \u2018bad headache,\u2019 or \u2018fever,\u2019 or \u2018exhausted by 9 o\u2019clock in the morning,\u2019 whatever the symptoms were,\u201d Beck says. \u201cI had neuropathy in my legs, I had all different types of things that were going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was becoming clear her short-term memory was failing and she was developing neurological problems. The texts to Davino would serve as a log of her health problems.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

The care at UConn Health was phenomenal, and so I kept coming here with all the different scenarios that happened. — Sherri Beck<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A certain amount of time would have to pass before Beck would become eligible to be seen by Dr. Ameer Rasheed<\/a> in the long COVID clinic<\/a>. During that wait she found herself in the emergency department with chest pain, but her heart was determined to be fine and she went home.<\/p>\n

Rasheed describes Beck as having unexplained respiratory symptoms when he first met her, August 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cI performed a comprehensive evaluation and pulmonary testing for her on respiratory symptoms for several months,\u201d Rasheed says. \u201cShe was having hard time going back to exercise. I taught her respiratory exercises and made sure her lungs were strong enough to handle personalized exercise program to alleviate her breathing difficulties.\u201d<\/p>\n

More and New Problems<\/h3>\n

The chest pains would come and go, along with stabbing abdominal pain, and problems with her left eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these little things just kept popping up that I never had before, and I just kept going to all different doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n

She went to Dr. Jaime Imitola<\/a>, director of UConn Health\u2019s Division of Multiple Sclerosis and Translational Neuroimmunology<\/a>, for her neurological problems.<\/p>\n

“She had Initial symptoms that are typical for neurological manifestation of long COVID like brain fog, cognitive decline, severe and persistent fatigue, headaches, all of which has improved significantly after our investigation and management,” Imitola says.<\/p>\n

\"Group
Sherri Beck (second from right), visits with her sister, nurse practitioner Tammy Davino, Dr. Ameer Rasheed (left), and Dr. Jaime Imitola (right) to deliver holiday gifts. (Photo by Chris DeFrancesco)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI was very, very dizzy, and some of my walks were like crawls, to the point where sometimes I would just go around the block, and I didn\u2019t know if I would make it home,\u201d Beck says. \u201cI had to go to physical therapy, cognitive therapy, and balancing therapy, as I had a few falls.\u201d<\/p>\n

She wrote notes to herself as reminders to complete routine tasks around the house, such as doing laundry, having breakfast, grocery shopping, and even taking a shower.<\/p>\n

Davino recalls, “It got to points where we talked about, if things got worse, was she safe to live alone?”<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I had dementia,\u201d Beck says. And there were more reminders for when she drove.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had Post-it notes that I would put in the car to tell me where I needed to go,\u201d Beck says. \u201cI\u2019d put the directions for the post office, which literally is less than a half mile from my house. I would have to put the directions for all these places I went to daily.\u201d<\/p>\n

At another ED visit for of chest pain, she was sent to the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"UConn
Dr. Christopher Pickett (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cShe developed an abnormal heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation. This was causing her to have symptoms of tiredness and fatigue despite having an otherwise normal heart. She was treated with an ablation which has been highly effective in restoring and maintaining a normal rhythm, which has completely eliminated her symptoms,\u201d says Dr. Christopher Pickett<\/a>, interim director of the Calhoun Cardiology Center, who performed the ablation procedure.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything I experienced at UConn was amazing,\u201d Beck says. \u201cI don\u2019t normally go to the hospital. I\u2019m a healthy person, so for me to go to doctor after doctor after doctor, that\u2019s not normal. They were so kind.\u201d<\/p>\n

She would continue to experience that kindness when she returned as a patient for another matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I feel better, I start running,\u201d Beck says. \u201cIn November of \u201922, I felt better. I felt like my brain was coming back, so I started running again, instead of walking, just at a very slow pace. And then I had some stabbing pains in my stomach again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The abdominal pain was an example of a symptom that she would either ignore or forget about due to her memory difficulties. She would have to check her notes to realize it was a bigger problem than it seemed.<\/p>\n

This time, the pain was followed by a fever the next morning, and it stayed with her long enough to compel her to seek care at a walk-in clinic near her home in Naugatuck. The staff there sent her to the hospital, and back to UConn Health she drove.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found out that I had diverticulitis, a small perforation [in the colon],\u201d Beck says. \u201cThey hospitalized me for that, then I came home. And it happened again. I went, basically, back and forth in and out of the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Eric Girard is a colorectal surgeon at UConn Health. (Photo by Tina Encarnacion)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She became a patient of Dr. Eric Girard<\/a>, who specializes in colorectal surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Girard, who\u2019s another amazing person, who absolutely cares 100% about his patients, he took very good care of me,\u201d Beck says. \u201cHe and his team were phenomenal. They answered my calls, they really worked with me to try to keep me out of the hospital and did everything they could.\u201d<\/p>\n

She would end up needing 18 inches of her large intestine removed.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had fevers, nausea, and severe abdominal pain, which are typical diverticulitis symptoms,\u201d Girard says. \u201cShe was able to get better with antibiotics but then it came back again in April and we ended up doing surgery in mid-May [2023].\u201d<\/p>\n

Tears of Relief<\/h3>\n

By July, Beck had the green light to start running again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never had tears from fear, and I think it\u2019s because I had so much confidence in the staff, the team here at UConn, I just had so much confidence that they were just going to take care of me,\u201d Beck says. \u201cI had tears in my eyes two times during all of this. One was when I was told I didn\u2019t have to come back [for a follow-up appointment] for another five years. I left and I thought, I\u2019m going to be normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other time was Oct. 1, at the 5-mile race at this year\u2019s Southington Apple Harvest Festival, one of her favorites.<\/p>\n

\u201cTowards the end, I was talking with my sister, because she ran it with me, I was talking about how I went through a lot,\u201d Beck says. \u201cI just kept trying and trying and trying and trying, and now, I did it! I did the five-miler. I was a turtle. I don\u2019t even care. I finished it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beck says she still struggles with neurological symptoms and continues to see Imitola.<\/p>\n

“She experienced these symptoms for almost two years but now she is back with improved cognition and ready to run marathons,” Imitola says. “Long COVID is still under investigation, and we know a lot about how the brain is targeted, however there are a variety of ways that COVID infection can attack the brain and a variety of disturbing symptoms that are coming to be recognized. Recently long COVID symptoms were added as a disability protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act. She is doing better, but we have many who are still suffering without significant improvements.”<\/p>\n

Resilience and Gratitude<\/h3>\n

The story doesn\u2019t end with the 5-mile race in Southington.<\/p>\n

Two weeks later, something happened that would have been unthinkable in the previous two years: Beck laced up her running shoes for the Hartford Half Marathon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was harder than the full marathon I had run,\u201d she says. \u201cI was even more of a turtle, but I finished it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four days after she turned 54, and more than 2 \u00bd years since her last half-marathon, Beck went the full 13 miles.<\/p>\n

\u201cSherri was determined to beat Long COVID from the beginning, and I am very pleased to see her back on running track,\u201d Rasheed says.<\/p>\n

\"Thank
The thank you card Sherri Beck created to acknowledge her care at UConn Health (provided by Sherri Beck)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beck says now she\u2019s working on strengthening.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe care at UConn Health was phenomenal, and so I kept coming here with all the different scenarios that happened,\u201d Beck says. \u201cOn my journey, when I was out there running, I just kept thinking, \u2018You need to say thank you to this whole team you had.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She was insistent not only on saying thank you to her care team and all those whose work supported her care, but also on backing her words of appreciation with actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want my doctors, my nurses, the nurse\u2019s aides, the housekeepers, anyone who was coming in to help me, thinking that I was just saying thank you. I made goodie bags,\u201d Beck says. \u201cIt\u2019s important to say thank you and show your sincere appreciation. I feel that it\u2019s important for people to be aware of the quality care that the team is giving at UConn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her gratitude may have been the one thing to outdo her resiliency. Or perhaps they worked together. Among Beck\u2019s gestures of thankfulness were custom running shirts she had made. On the front was a reminder to \u201cBe kind to yourself,\u201d and on the back was a list of UConn Health providers whose care made her return to running possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cTammy was my rock; she helped me out a lot and continues to help me, Dr. Imitola had a lot of patience with me, Dr. Rasheed was my knowledge, Dr Pickett educated me on my options and made my heart ready for my next race, and Dr. Girard was determined to get me to my surgery and guided me through it all,\u201d Beck says. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m on my way to doing well, and you just have to thank those who were there for you. I am grateful for my team.”<\/p>\n

Her focus now is to build her strength and speed, first with a 5K training plan, then 10K, and if her body continues to cooperate, a half marathon training plan, with an eye toward a faster time in the 2024 Hartford Half Marathon.<\/p>\n

“She looks at herself every day, every half day, and it’s like, ‘How am I feeling right now? Can I keep going? Or do I need to stop?’ So I think that’s what she’ll do,” Davino says. “Start with a training plan, and if that goes well, build on it. And if it doesn’t go well, slow down, backtrack, maybe repeat that distance, that amount of mileage, and just go from there, and just wait until her body’s ready to move on.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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