Derek Draper 's sister Di tearfully admitted she wakes up every morning hoping it will be a 'good day' for him.
Viewers tuned in to Kate Garraway 's Caring For Derek on ITV on Tuesday evening and got a glimpse on how he's adjusting to home life after over a year in the hospital.
He needs round-the-clock care after contracting Covid in March 2020 but his family remain optimistic as he slowly improves.
The moving programme had Di discussing how the family thought Derek would adjust when he got to be 'in his own environment' again.
"What we expected, naively, is this kind of nice trajectory of improvement and what we've learned since him coming home is there is no upward trajectory of improvement," she said.
"You've just got to celebrate the good days. I sleep in [Kate and Derek's son] Billy's room at the moment, and I wake up every day and I tell myself this is going to be a good day."
She added: "And you have to do that because if you don't do that, you don't see the very small differences that make it a good day."
Housebound Derek – who left hospital last year after 13 months and after being in an induced coma – is getting around the clock care which Kate says he needs to stay alive.
He still struggles to speak and needs help to move around. The family have transformed the house to make it easier for Derek to use.
At the beginning of the programme, Derek and Kate's son William discussed his excitement about having dad back home.
The 12-year-old even admitted he had been waiting for his father's return to complete a lego set they had been building.
Viewers even got to see the family celebrate his 54th birthday, which had them decorating the house with balloons.
They even had a red velvet cake and presents for him to open.
Before the programme aired, Kate opened up about the challenges of caring for him.
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She said: "The biggest challenge is the emotional challenge of adjusting... it's the constant measuring of what is the future."
The Good Morning Britain star also explained that she found "navigating the social care system" incredibly challenging.
"It's really hard and I did think long and hard about doing another documentary," she said.
"I did think long and hard about whether we had another story to tell because I didn't want it to be another pity party... it is the challenge for anyone who is trying to work their way through the social system."
Kate also hopes that the documentary might help show the effects of Long Covid and explore the unknown, vowing: "We just have to keep doggedly fighting on."
