‘We can’t go back to our normal life’
(Part 2 of 3) “We’re glad to have him home again. But life here is still not the same.
“Justin had to relearn how to walk. His left arm got some nerve damage, and it’s barely coming back. He still can’t make a fist. He still can’t lift that arm. And he has a cough. He still has some pneumonia at the bottom of his lungs. It’s healing, but it just takes time.
“We’re pretty much a blended family. The 5- and 6-year-old are my kids from a previous marriage. The 11-year-old is his daughter from a previous marriage. The two younger boys, we had together.
“When he was in the hospital, I tried to keep it pretty simple with the kids. I let them know that he had the coronavirus, and that he was really, really sick. And I didn’t know when he would be coming home.
“Me and the kids would pray every night. We would talk about it. Him being gone, it really got to us. He plays such a big role in all our lives. Plus, because I’m a stay-at-home mom, Justin has been our only source of income. We’re waiting on disability. He can’t go back to work right now. We can’t go back to our normal life.
“He’s on oxygen. He’s still weak. He’s doing physical therapy and occupational therapy. The doctors say that within a year, hopefully, he should be back to his normal self. That’s only because, somehow, he was able to recover so well. It’s crazy to think about, considering he had ARDS [acute respiratory distress syndrome], pulmonary failure, respiratory failure, and two collapsed lungs.
“While it’s great and amazing that he survived, life does not automatically go back to normal. Far from it. It’s still a struggle for him. He wants everything to come back fast. He wants to be able to do what he did before. But that’s just not going to happen.
“I feel like some people still don’t believe in COVID. But I’m like, we’re living it right now.”
— Lauryn Cook
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