Patient Perspectives: long-haulers on finding hope

Despite being raised in New Jersey, which is a risk factor for just being pessimistic, I'd like to end on a word of hope.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

You know, this is a marathon. It's long haul, and how you've sort of been dealing with that from a hopeful perspective in your life.

You know, you've got to change your perception of time, define self-love for yourself, and keep showing up

for yourself every day and just keep surviving. And if you keep showing up for yourself, it does get better.

Having a mental health professional, like a therapist, help you define for yourself how to keep showing up for yourself, how to define self-love,

I think that's the only way to find a silver lining. I don't know when this nightmare will end, but I have to believe that it will end someday.

That made me really emotional. It's hard. It's a hard reality to accept.

It's not the end, that's for sure. If we've made it this far, and we've created such a strong community together,

I really think we've all got pretty strong support line. Dan, any last words of wisdom from a musician? For me, when I need hope I just

remember that when I was in the hospital, the doctors told me to say goodbye to my friends and family before they put me on a ventilator.

So for me, the hope that I have is just that I could have died, then and every day that I have now is a gift,

even if these days are not that great. And that's kind of what gets me through when things are really hard. And Margot, last but not least, for sure, close us out.

Sure. I loved what every single one of you guys just said. I'm totally in line with that.

After almost having died from COVID and still struggling with living with long COVID,

every day that I wake up I see it as a gift. I am happy about that, and I try to accomplish something of happiness that gives me joy every single day.

And I just hope for-- hope that one day I can run and play again with my two little girls. That would be great.