Dr. Says Total HIP Replacement for my Son

I'm very nervous.

Are you? What are you looking for?

Uh, dongle.

Here they are. Is it for your headphones? What are you nervous about?

I don't know, just that they can't do the procedure or the doctor won't do it or I have to wait a long time.

I kind of don't think they would have scheduled this with him if they didn't think he could do it. I think this is more just ask him questions and hopefully get us scheduled a surgery. You draw on our map? We're giving ourselves like an hour extra, aren't we? Lily! Making a cake for a celebration tonight? Is that what we're doing? What kind of cake are you gonna make?

Chocolate and strawberry.

We got something to look forward to on the way home no matter what happens.

Yeah.

What shoes you wearing, bro?

My tennis shoes.

Alright, no socks? Off to get socks. You want to get him some socks, babe? Hopefully you won't have to be limping around like this. How many inches is your foot off now? 3. She's off 3 inches. Our main surgeon referred us out to another surgeon who couldn't do it, couldn't help us. She's referred us out to this guy, so hopefully that's the ticket. They do hip replacements all day long, so 60, 70 years old. Could be the last time you put on these shoes, babe.

No, it will not be the last time.

Cherish it.

When he has the surgery.

You have a wife pretty soon. She'll be putting on your shoes.

A wife? How long is this gonna take?

Ben Holler had twins at 20.

How long is this gonna take for my hip to get a hip replacement? Hopefully not 5 years.

No.

Well, you're gonna have another injury.

This foot is loose in its shoe because the foot muscles are so weak.

Wow.

And this one is tight.

You can tell your, your, your leg is Uh, what do you call it? Muscle atrophy. Atrophy, yeah.

But it's not really bad atrophy.

So it's happening to your foot too? Oh wow. You know it'll bounce right back.

I have heartburn. I think I'm having a panic attack. I have pain in my chest, Jonah. I was like, it's normal. It's all normal to feel these things.

He's not in the car. How do you really feel?

I am nervous. I'm nervous about the drive. I'm nervous about being away from the kids. I'm nervous about the fact that there's a trip tomorrow. And so like, we're not getting ready for that. We're doing this, which is totally fine.

We do have a trip tomorrow. What if they say we can do surgery tomorrow?

Well, we might not be going on a trip tomorrow.

Jonah, you're number one, buddy.

That's good.

And she has a speaking engagement.

No, you do.

Well, you do too.

I'm not speaking.

Oh, how? Because they might schedule it then too. Then what's gonna happen?

Yeah, we're gonna have to really have a conversation with those people about that.

Look who it is. She's half a mile down the road.

She's nuts.

Got a head start on you.

She did get a real big head start on me.

We feel bad for her, but I think she must like it. I think she does. Nobody's making her do this.

No, she enjoys the running. She loves the chase, I guess.

Pretty soon you'll be running. What do you think, my man?

Yeah, that'll be fun.

And the bet's on how soon he can help you.

I'm like, if he says Friday, I'm like, we're there.

I'm guessing in this month.

I'm hoping that it's going to be in June.

Both of you say June.

I really hope it's gonna be in June.

I say by mid-June. Y'all say after mid-June.

Well, why do you tell me what I say? Don't appreciate the like putting words in my mouth.

You can't have a month. Span?

Next week. Okay, I say next week. All right, you're trying to Price Is Right me. You're trying to say— you're trying to do the 0.001.

That'd leave me with July. I don't want to be that guy. Pit stop. Oh, you got to stretch the boy. Come on, Mom, we ought to all stretch. Let's see a stretch. Oh, is that the stretch? Just a little mild stretch. Where you going? That's all you needed to do? That's it? That was easy. The knee, what's wrong?

It just really hurt.

Is that the bum knee? Yeah. Is that the bum leg? Look at you pumping the fuel and driving, my chauffeur. Ready to get back in the car? Brought our lunch, but we will top it off with clean juice. Juice. Jonah's favorite. Mom's compromise. That's love. I try to dig it out. Try to dig out the juice.

Stop it.

Can't get no juice.

Okay, if a company is going to—

Here it goes. I got it.

Wait, no.

Go on.

Just sets up Jonah. Yeah, get him.

Get him back.

Don't hold me back, doc!

Don't hold me back! Oh, okay. Then don't force it.

No, I'm just gonna say it. Like, if the owner of a company is going to not— It would be creepy. Be the customer, like, customer is always right. Like, that is— That is like business. The customer is always right. It doesn't matter if they're not right. If you're gonna be ugly—

Were you right though?

Okay, so the problem was is that they closed early for— they had to do something. But the problem was is that there was people in line inside and they could have easily served us and they chose not to.

Don't you?

And that's fine. And then the— I left a review, an honest review, and then—

We're gonna be looking for that now.

And then, and then the owner made an ugly reply back. Oh!

Oh, that sealed it.

Never again. I will take my money. And so this— oh, so okay, so this is a whole nother town. Whole nother town, whole nother owner.

And they're much faster.

They are much faster.

The one in downtown Charlotte is fast. The one in Asheville is slow.

So okay, so anyways, I don't mean to— I don't want to bring up negativity. That's not what I want. But I'm just saying like You know, when the— when a company does not treat the customer—

people are saying amen right now. People are on your side.

I just say, I just take my money elsewhere. I don't— I'm not boycotting them, I'm just taking my money elsewhere.

She's getting her start.

Count chemicals, not calories.

We'll get this one and we'll put it on, uh, Aunt Flossie. How's your snack?

It's good.

How's your body holding up back there? Good. Oh, it's this whole building.

I know, I don't know where to park.

I'd go park in the parking garage. You don't think we're 7'8"? Well— Oh, oh, can we fit? We can fit. Can we fit?

Stop it.

I packed Mom a pork and root vegetable stew. I got the classic cheeseburger. We put it in these handy thermoses, lunch pots. Did it keep yours warm? You guys ready? Uh-oh, best—

no, I gotta drink my water. I gotta drink my thing so I can brush my teeth.

And we gotta get in. We got— we're a little early.

Okay. Everybody wave! He's like, damn, damn. Just got checked in with the nurse. Might see 2 doctors before you see the main doctor. Did I hear that right?

Yes, there's other other doctors that may come in.

You're getting a lot of love today.

It's not what I want.

What do you want?

To be healed.

Just a new hip. Just get to the point. Just get straight to it. If you don't know, Jonah was in a dirt bike accident, what, 6 months ago?

September 2020.

Dislocated hip. It got complicated. He's had 3 surgeries up till now.

Total 3 surgeries.

And the doctors of late are saying total hip replacement. And the last 2 doctors couldn't help us. And we just want his life back. Well— 'Cause he can't help on chores, he can't go out and run, play, can't walk.

Yeah, so that's a problem.

So we're gonna do whatever it takes to get you doing that again. At 15, that's critical. The first doctor's about to come in.

If we look at this side, because of all the surgery and the collapse, he doesn't have any more proximal femur right away. And this is effectively closed. Yeah, like there's, there's no gap there. No. And like for this part, it's— I mean, it's fused right here. So maybe you can have a little bit of growth here, and we wouldn't like— the implant we would cut and then put down here. So if he had any more growth right here, like it wouldn't mess it up.

No.

Okay.

That was Jonah's x-ray. Uh, now she's gonna show us Digitally what a hip replacement looks like.

Is that gonna be bigger? That part that connects to my leg?

Yeah, so look over here. Yeah, it'll kind of be like that.

It's like if it's that little, that's—

He's like, I'm gonna bend that.

No, no, no, it has a real dick.

Yeah, yeah, it has a real dick.

What do you guys think?

Um, getting cut makes me nervous because—

Well, so she talks about— that he needs to make sure that if he gets cut anywhere, he needs to keep it clean and not allow bacteria to like—

That's the big risk.

Yeah, it can go to the hip and then create an issue. So that's something I think we're just gonna—

And he'll probably wear it out, not outgrow it, by the time he's 40-ish.

Yeah, but she was talking about they have good materials, and so I'm like, all right, I feel really confident about it.

You cannot distance run, she said. How do you feel about that? Were you ever gonna run a marathon? That's a good excuse to not ever have to do that.

No, she said I could do it, it would just wear it out, which I want to run a, uh, I want to try a half Ironman or whatever it is.

She said you could have fun sports. She said you could have fun like soccer, but not competitive. So what's your reaction to that, guys?

Well, I mean, I just, I think my biggest concern is like infection.

Oh yeah, she said the danger is you getting an infection, any kind.

Cut my leg with a chainsaw.

Well, no.

Yeah, I'm gonna not.

So is it the end of the world to wear chaps?

No, I like chaps.

Okay, I think you're just gonna need to be more careful. And also do, um, like, we're just gonna keep you— like, I think if you do have like some— like she was saying, like, if you're in the ocean and you cut your leg, you don't like wait and see.

You can't be like a normal person and wait to see. You've got to take precautions.

You call your doctor.

Yeah, because this is more This is more prone to infection.

Well, because I think it's like with the implants and like the metal that can get infected. No, I think it's more just that the bacteria can colonize here.

Yeah.

And, and, and so I think it's, I think that's with all, because like Mom was saying that about her knees when she had her knees replaced. That's why they didn't want us to bring Teddy to visit them.

Are you okay with that? I mean, it beats fusion where you still have no better range of motion. Yeah, fusion would limit his mobility. He wouldn't be in pain anymore, but he'd still be like this.

It would hurt my knee and back still.

Yeah, that's what she's saying, is that a fusion—

Yeah, and then it hurts the rest of your body.

Other things with the spine or knees, ankles, things like that.

You're having pain everywhere else because of of the crookedness. What's the time?

It'll be okay.

You're worth it.

Oh no, I feel a lot better after seeing the doctor.

Yeah, good.

He's going to be able to help you. What were your fears?

Well, I guess muscle atrophy. I wasn't even worried about an infection, which is what I guess I should be worried about.

Yeah, well, I said to her it won't be the end of the world, but you should be more careful.

No, and I— yeah, yeah, I think it'll make me feel better if I get cut. I have to call somebody.

You are a pretty careful guy. Now we're just waiting on the main doctor, but I don't see what else he's going to tell us.

I think we just have to meet him.

Did we learn anything new from the doctor himself?

Yes, all of my problems are not very—

the fears I had are not very valid, I guess.

See, I like that smile. We got his smile back. I like that smile. He's going to help us as soon as he can. 10 weeks, but he's going to try to get him sooner. I wanted to—

I almost said—

I was saying maybe 3 months, Jonah. You come here, you're going to be like all these— there's quite a bit of normal. Like, Mom and I are walking normal, you'll be walking normal. They won't know what our deal is.

No, they won't ever know that Jonah is the bionic boy.

That's right, robot boy.

Robot boy.

On our way home now. We're all got smiles. Everybody smile. Reflect the inner feelings. Never thought I'd be excited about a surgery. But we're gonna get our boy back. I like how Jonah at the end was pushing for it to get done soon.

I know, he's like, when can we do this?

He's like, when can you do it? Like, June? And he said, you know, because the last 3 summers been out. I had reactive arthritis one summer. We couldn't go hiking. Josiah broke his foot last summer, and then towards the end of summer it was Jonah, and now again our summer's getting threatened. We gotta fix the pond up, we gotta be swimming a lot, we gotta be hiking, enjoying our North Carolina mountains. I know, that's what we do. Playing soccer as a family, working together as a family out on the farm. So Lily's got dinner going, she's working hard, she's making a cake. Feels celebratory. We're home. How's dinner coming?

Good.

Oh, you even made sweet tea. It must be special.

We gave them some ice cream.

Look at that cake.

Yeah.

Oh my goodness. How is it everyone?

It was so good.

There's something really special about it today. It's really tasty.

Maybe you're hungry.

Did you put pork in it?

Are you hungry? No.

You just got the seasoning right. Oh man, I need to take a picture.

I love it.

I love it.

Okay, thank you. So pretty. You put decorations on it. Let me—

yeah, the babysitter is going to Spain for a month, so this is a goodbye party and a celebrate surgery party. And what does it say?

Have fun at Spain.

Have fun at Spain.

That's cute.

That's how it sounds. It's exactly how it sounds. Henry, let me see your haircut.

Oh, Henry, so good.

Let's see your haircut.

Wow, you even got the little— who would like the next piece? I need a little— hey, I want a bigger piece of that. Grandma will take a small.

You like that?

Grandma will take a small piece.

How is it, Henry? Did you pass the Henry test? Homemade ice cream. He's not saying much.

I'll get Grandpa one next. Bro, she said Dr. Lasana gave us a sed rate and then a CRP.

Hey, hey, hey, what are we going— what are we doing? Don't tear this up, you're crazy. This is Mom's window order. Why is your heart—

it's just racing.

Why? Because of this?

Okay.

Jonah has busted his hip in a dirt bike accident. If you're new to this. And long story short, he's gonna have to have a total hip replacement, and we've been waiting on the call to schedule, and it looks like that's happening right now. It said— it might have been a couple of weeks ago— that this was gonna be 8 weeks. So I guess we're— I guess they're right on because we're like 5 weeks out.

Okay, and I will also send—

he will be excited to be able to walk normally again. They say he won't be able— he won't have to have another surgery because he's young, he's growing, he's gonna wear it out 20 to 30 years. So it's not too bad.

I mean, it was just gonna be— if it was like 5 AM, that might be kind of hard to get in. 5 or 6, you know. Okay.

Oh, she knows, she knows.

I would rather go a day early. She knows. It's like, I'm able to relax.

She knows.

Thank you so much. All right.

Was that what I thought it was?

July 7th.

July 7th. What are you doing?

And she said if we couldn't do July 7th, it was gonna be—

oh, we're making it happen late August.

No, no, no, we can make it.

We can still have summer. We could still have summer. I know, you'll get August, August, September. September's warm too.

We'll be able to go camping.

And then October camping.

How you feeling? Very nervous now because now it's a Yeah, now she did say that we were gonna have to go to the children's hospital, and I was like, oh, he said outpatient. She said, I'll talk to him and make sure that that's— she's like, if he said it's outpatient, then she's like, we do outpatient a lot of times. If he doesn't have— I think they do inpatient more for if like the kids who have like the infection in their hip and that's why they have to get a hip replacement. Um, they're more out to watch those kids. But since we know that he's okay in that area, okay, she thought that we wouldn't need— I said the only reason we would only come, but we will only find out the surgery day like the day before. Okay, we don't even know what time of surgery.

Time.