For the little knowledge humans have of COVID-19, there is even less known about long COVID. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines long COVID as a chronic condition that follows a COVID infection for at least three months. However, long COVID can persist for months, years or a lifetime.
Joshua Roman’s Journey
Joshua Roman, a renowned solo cellist and composer, is one of the estimated 7 million Americans who has learned about long COVID and how to cope with it as they live through it. “After performances, someone would help me carry the cello, I would lean on them while I walked back to the dressing room, and I would have a pretty intense crash where sometimes I would be shaking,” Roman said.
More than four years since contracting long COVID, Roman made it his mission to show other people with long COVID that there is a light at the end of the tunnel by telling his story through a mix of narrative and cello performances. That mission led to his Immunity Tour, where he travels to long COVID clinics across the nation, including the Family Health West program in Fruita (link).
Long COVID Care in Fruita
According to Family Health West post-COVID Recovery Program Medical Director Ellen Price, DO, Family Health West’s post-COVID program is the only rural clinic of its kind, one of three in the state, and the only program across the Western Slope. Because of the wide service area, Price said they serve residents from all over the state and even Moab, Utah, making up a cohort of about 400 people. She said about 60% of the patients they see are under 60 years old.
“The pandemic is, quote-unquote, over, but there’s still a lot of people who are suffering all the lingering effects of the pandemic,” Price said. “The (long) COVID patients are like the leftover, they haven’t been able to move on. They’d like to move on, but sometimes they can’t. They have brain fog, they can’t work or they can’t drive. They can’t do simple things.”
Composure Through Long COVID
Despite Roman’s reputation as a savant, his career nearly came to an end after long COVID left him almost entirely debilitated. At one point, Roman hadn’t touched his cello in three months, and he wasn’t sure if he ever would again. The chronic fatigue left him unable to practice, or even play long pieces, and the brain fog made it virtually impossible for him to read — even if it was something he wrote.
“It took a long time for me to be able to walk even a hundred yards without having that be the only thing that I did that day, or wash the dishes without that being the thing I’m saving energy for,” Roman said.
Roman’s cello collected dust for several months, until he reluctantly agreed to a small performance at his friend’s Summer Solstice party. He said he was filled with unprecedented doubt for his career and passion, but something changed when he decided to play Bach’s “Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: I. Prélude,” a piece he has known for most of his career.
‘Immunity’ Post-Infection
That lesson wound up inspiring and becoming the focus of Roman’s Immunity Tour, named “Immunity” after the composition he wrote since returning to the cello. The performance took place Tuesday in the Fruita Seventh-Day Adventist Church, across the street from Family Health West’s main campus. Clinic patients lined the pews and listened intently to Roman’s words and cello.
Roman opened with an overview of his story and a performance of the Bach piece that rekindled his passion, enabling him to continue battling through his long COVID. He told the audience that his struggle is far from over, as his cognitive capacity is still about 50% of what it was pre-COVID. But, he said the key is that he learned to utilize the 50% capacity in a more potent way than he ever could when operating at 100%.
“This long COVID clinic tour is the perfect example,” Roman said. “This brings together a lot of things that I’m passionate about, so I get to show up and do something that feels artistically, personally, culturally and humanly important.”
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