News

Near as Kaila Coon can tell, she’s not yet recognized as one of the 64 people in La Plata County who has contracted COVID-19. But given the roller coaster health ride she’s been on since the end of March, she believes it’s only a matter of time before the public health statistics catch up with her.

In fact, the number will likely grow to include her husband, Josh, and her two young children Quenton, 8, and Wesley, 5.

Kaila, an English teacher at Durango High School, started coughing March 27. By April 3, after a dry cough that wasn’t too bad, she thought she was getting better. She resumed her daily runs, taking it easy, going out only every other day.

Suddenly, on April 7, she deteriorated rapidly, and on April 8, she was in Mercy Urgent Care.

“In a 24-hour period, I went from feeling like I had beaten this thing to thinking I was going to die,” she said.

At Urgent Care, after a chest X-ray, she was diagnosed with viral pneumonia, which her doctor presumes was triggered by COVID-19. At the time, the only COVID-19 tests available, nasal swabs, were at Mercy Regional Medical Center, and they were being given only to people who were sick enough to be hospitalized.

She was sent home, where for a week she took over-the-counter flu medications and ran a persistent fever of 100.9 degrees.

The fact that Kaila is not completely sure COVID-19 is the culprit of her illness – which left her on oxygen full time for one week, another week on oxygen at night and with dislocated ribs from coughing so hard – is testament to how hard it is to get tested for the novel coronavirus.

With tests in short supply, her first test for COVID-19 didn’t come until April 20, a nasal swab, and she tested negative, but she suspects by then the virus had moved to her lungs.

“They told me the test had a 40% false negative rate, so, to me, that’s like flipping coins. I think the test was too late to be effective,” she said.

During the course of her illness, she wanted an antibody test, but back in April, those too were not available. Currently, in Durango, there’s a backlog for scheduling appointments for antibody tests. She is scheduled to have blood drawn for a test May 18 with Cedar Diagnostics.

She won’t be surprised if it comes back positive.

Josh Coon, who is Fort Lewis College’s men’s cross country and track coach, will also take an antibody test May 18, and Kaila suspects he will likely test positive, too.

Kaila thinks a two-day cough her husband had in early April likely resulted from contracting COVID-19 from her. Quenton and Wesley spent one day coughing at the end of March, and she suspects they also got the virus from her.

“We’re not going to get the kids tested (for antibodies) because they scream bloody murder when they get shots,” she said.

Kaila has not yet had contact tracing done to determine how she contracted the virus. Her best guess is that it came from work, where she’s heard the janitorial crew at DHS “was hit pretty hard by the virus.”

Durango School District 9-R Superintendent Dan Snowberger said he is unaware of any member of the janitorial staff testing positive for COVID-19.

He said no custodians have taken extended absence outside of normal use of sick days.

He said in an email, “Our custodial team has been working hard since the crisis to keep the building sanitized for those who are occupying it. We have no knowledge of any confirmed cases. We did have a few employees with pneumonia in February but none have tested positive for COVID-19 and all recovered in a week’s time.”

The Coons still aren’t seeing guests, although doctors have assured Kaila that COVID-19 carriers are not contagious five days after their fevers break.

Family friends brought meals for 10 days straight during the worst of Kaila’s illness to free Josh to care for her and the boys.

She couldn’t lay down for a week because phlegm would fill her lungs, so she spent a week “on my throne of pillows on the couch.” She slept sitting up.

But now, Kaila thinks she has only “a bit of the gunk” left in her lungs. She recently went for a hike and was fine. Her oxygen levels are now testing normal, and she’s no longer short of breath doing daily chores. She coughs only during periods of exertion or if she’s lying down.

Quenton turned 8 on April 24. “He had a drive-by party invented by one of his classmates. Everybody in his class drove past the front yard and waved and threw paper airplanes into the yard with cards,” Kaila said.

Wesley turns 6 on May 31, and Kaila said he’s already informed the family that he doesn’t want a drive-by party. He wants a real party with all his friends and his grandmother from Albuquerque to visit.

Kaila said her greatest worry during the ordeal was that Josh would get sick because he was the family caregiver. Luckily, he managed to kick the virus with only a two-day cough.

The Coons had read the virus doesn’t hit children as hard, and that helped ease their concerns about the boys.

Quenton had sleeping issues when he was younger, and those returned when Kaila was in the depth of her illness. Once she was taken off oxygen, Quenton’s normal sleep pattern returned.

“Quenton knows what COVID-19 is. He knows that’s why he’s not in school. He knows we were sick,” she said. “He’s pretty sharp. I think he’s put two and two together. I haven’t talked to him about how he might be immune. I’m not even sure he is immune or if any of us are immune. We’ll cross that bridge when it comes.”

[email protected]