100 Pounds Down and Healed by Prayer

“I sometimes would use food as a crutch.” Says Cozann, “Like, or when I was sad, I would eat. When I was bored, I would eat, yeah, I was an emotional eater and, it affected me in the long run” Just a few years ago Cozann was 100 pounds overweight. At 260 pounds she suffered with a-fib, a condition that causes irregular heart rhythms and serious health risks - including strokes and blood clots. In 2017 Cozann health reached a point of crisis. “I just had an upset stomach. Like, I wasn't feeling all that great. And, uh, so I was going home, I was praying, I'm like, ‘Lord, help me get home. Okay.’ Because my daughter would say, ‘Mom, you're off the road’ I thought I could just get home and everything will be okay. Well, I did get home, but everything wasn't okay.”

Cozann was having a stroke caused by a brain bleed. Her daughter quickly called 911. 

Cozann says, “When they put me in the ambulance, I can't recall anything for three days, I, well, even when I woke up, I was in and outta consciousness.”
The stroke occurred on the left side of her brain, paralyzing the right side of her body and leaving her unable to speak. Doctors offered little hope of recovery. Cozann  recalls, “I wouldn't be able to walk or talk. I mean, that's what they explained to my kids, and I'm like, I, I wanted to say, ‘oh my gosh’, but nothing come out. I mean, I wanted to say what I was feeling or what I was thinking, but the words couldn't, I couldn't process it. I had to have my faith to kick in, say, you're gonna be okay. God's got you.”

After a week in the hospital she was transferred to a rehab facility. Her cousin Vivian, along with family and friends prayed for a miracle. “We just sat with her and we prayed and we asked the Lord to heal her for complete healing, she has a lot of faith and we do too. So we knew He would hear us and she's always believed that He was always there for her and would help her through.” Says Vivian. 

“It gave me joy in my heart to know that there's people out there that their faith walk and they were praying for me. It just gave me joy in my spirit.” Cozann recalls. 
As her Christian community hoped and prayed, Cozann spent her days in rehab working hard to regain all she had lost. She says, “I would go a little bit every day. I would go a little bit and a little bit, and they would do the weights, strengthen physically, you know. But I had to learn how to read, memorization. They, I had a speech therapist there helping me. It was, it was a really bad experience that I was went through. But I know each step, the Lord was with me. My faith is the one that got me through it. And family, friends and the prayers, lots of prayers went out.”
Miraculously, after two months of rehabilitation, she had exceeded the recovery goals and was sent home to her family. Cozann says, “anything's possible with Christ. Your faith is what gets you through the tough times. every day is a miracle.”

“’Coznne, your light shines bright.’” Says Vivian, “I'd always tell her. and it did. And she was just so strong through it all. And it was 'cause of God was with her helping her get through it and she knew it. And that's, you know, what helped her.”
She is now determined to live healthy with the extended time she had been given. “I knew that I had to do a life change.” Says Cozann. “I never blamed God for this stroke. I knew it was my own doing because I wasn't, this is supposed to be the temple, this is supposed to be God inside me living and breathing and I wasn't treating it like that. I was putting stuff in that shouldn't have been put in. When I came home, I, you know, said that we gotta change the way we eat and way we look at food. We can't just eat anything and expect us to go on and not suffer the consequences of behavior. So I changed the way we, looked at food. I looked at ingredients in food. I quit drinking pop, I changed, you know, I, I didn't have sugar. I, I started eating healthy. Um, I eat more meat now.”

Since the stroke and recovery, she has lost over 100 pounds and is thankful to god for a second chance at a healthy life – and the joy of living it fully. “My gratitude just shines.” Says Cozann. “It's just like, my cup runneth over you know? He is just so, I'm full of life.”

“Cozann had always loved to dance.” Says Vivian, “and she was a good dancer and she's dancing so you couldn't ask for any  more. Now she's a walking, talking miracle and, you know, that's what we wanted. And so we said, ‘thank you Jesus’, and you know, ‘all the glory to God’.”

“I'm an overcomer because of him, 'cause of Jesus Christ.” Cozann says, “I wouldn't be here if I didn't cling to Christ. And, you know, without him I'm nothing. But with him, I could do all things through Christ Jesus.”