Site search
sponsored by
News
|
|
Lorile Loesch
|
ENLARGE
RIFLE — It was the late August of 2006 when Lorile Loesch of Rifle went golfing in Battlement Mesa.
A couple of weeks later, she wasn't feeling very well at all and went to a doctor.
It was not a pleasant time for Loesch.
“I thought I just had a bad cold or the flu,” Loesch said. “I had a real high fever for a couple of days and I spent a lot of time near the toilet.”
And then one day, she had severe itching on her arm, a tingly feeling and a rash. She was worried.
“Something was just not right. So I went to the doctor at the clinic and was told I had all the symptoms of West Nile,” Loesch said. “I didn't know anything about it, but if it was a virus, I knew there was nothing I could do. The doctor told me if I got a fever again, to let them know.”
Loesch continued to feel ill and decided to take a blood test to test for the West Nile virus. A few days later, she found out why she'd been so sick —she tested positive for the virus.
At that time, she was starting to feel really bad. Loesch, who is the former volleyball coach at Grand Valley High School, has always been very active and outgoing. But when West Nile hit, her life changed very dramatically.
“There were a couple of days when I could hardly move,” Loesch said. “My feet hurt, my glands swelled up, the back of my neck felt like someone hit me with a baseball bat and all I felt like doing was sleeping all day.”
Loesch, a teacher at the L.W. St. Johns Middle School in Parachute, missed five weeks of work. She's the type of person who hardly ever missed work before.
“I tried to go back one day, but I didn't even last an hour,” she admitted.
It doesn't take that much to contract West Nile.
All it takes is one mosquito bite, according to Sara Harter, a Garfield County Public Health nurse in Rifle.
“The incubation period is usually a period of two to six days and could be up to 14 days,” Harter said. “The symptoms are usually accompanied by a high fever — 101 degrees Fahrenheit or above — a super bad headache and an achy tired body, abdominal pain, nausea and diarrhea, similar to flu-like symptoms.”
The length of time the symptoms remain varies in each individual. Loesch said she was impacted for about a year. A very long and frustrating time.
“For about one year, I just didn't feel like myself,” Loesch said. “It was kind of weird — I couldn't talk right and I couldn't function right.”
West Nile in Garfield County
To date, there have not been any reported cases of the West Nile virus in Garfield County this year, nor were there any reported human cases in 2008. There were five cases of West Nile Fever reported in the county in 2007.
“On an average, there are about three to six cases reported per year in Garfield County, but we haven't had any cases in the state so far this year,” said Steve Anthony, vegetation manager for Garfield County.
Cases typically start showing up at the end of July and beginning of August.
The source of the West Nile virus stems from the culex tarsalis mosquito, which carries the virus.
“They tend to shop up more in Rifle and Parachute and they're most prevalent at dawn and dusk,” Anthony said.
A couple of weeks later, she wasn't feeling very well at all and went to a doctor.
It was not a pleasant time for Loesch.
“I thought I just had a bad cold or the flu,” Loesch said. “I had a real high fever for a couple of days and I spent a lot of time near the toilet.”
And then one day, she had severe itching on her arm, a tingly feeling and a rash. She was worried.
“Something was just not right. So I went to the doctor at the clinic and was told I had all the symptoms of West Nile,” Loesch said. “I didn't know anything about it, but if it was a virus, I knew there was nothing I could do. The doctor told me if I got a fever again, to let them know.”
Loesch continued to feel ill and decided to take a blood test to test for the West Nile virus. A few days later, she found out why she'd been so sick —she tested positive for the virus.
At that time, she was starting to feel really bad. Loesch, who is the former volleyball coach at Grand Valley High School, has always been very active and outgoing. But when West Nile hit, her life changed very dramatically.
“There were a couple of days when I could hardly move,” Loesch said. “My feet hurt, my glands swelled up, the back of my neck felt like someone hit me with a baseball bat and all I felt like doing was sleeping all day.”
Loesch, a teacher at the L.W. St. Johns Middle School in Parachute, missed five weeks of work. She's the type of person who hardly ever missed work before.
“I tried to go back one day, but I didn't even last an hour,” she admitted.
It doesn't take that much to contract West Nile.
All it takes is one mosquito bite, according to Sara Harter, a Garfield County Public Health nurse in Rifle.
“The incubation period is usually a period of two to six days and could be up to 14 days,” Harter said. “The symptoms are usually accompanied by a high fever — 101 degrees Fahrenheit or above — a super bad headache and an achy tired body, abdominal pain, nausea and diarrhea, similar to flu-like symptoms.”
The length of time the symptoms remain varies in each individual. Loesch said she was impacted for about a year. A very long and frustrating time.
“For about one year, I just didn't feel like myself,” Loesch said. “It was kind of weird — I couldn't talk right and I couldn't function right.”
West Nile in Garfield County
To date, there have not been any reported cases of the West Nile virus in Garfield County this year, nor were there any reported human cases in 2008. There were five cases of West Nile Fever reported in the county in 2007.
“On an average, there are about three to six cases reported per year in Garfield County, but we haven't had any cases in the state so far this year,” said Steve Anthony, vegetation manager for Garfield County.
Cases typically start showing up at the end of July and beginning of August.
The source of the West Nile virus stems from the culex tarsalis mosquito, which carries the virus.
“They tend to shop up more in Rifle and Parachute and they're most prevalent at dawn and dusk,” Anthony said.
