In this candid vlog episode of the series "Rooted," Justin Rhodes documents a day in his life living with reactive arthritis, a chronic condition that began after a Campylobacter infection and was complicated by prior Lyme disease. The focus is on his wife Rebecca’s extensive caregiving role: she manages medication, assists with dressing, bathing, mobility, meals, household chores, and coordinates medical appointments while also caring for their young children and farm responsibilities. The vlog interweaves behind‑the‑scenes production details—shot lists, crew interactions, and set‑up—with personal reflections on the emotional toll of chronic pain, fear of disease progression, and the family’s ongoing negotiations about future plans such as schooling, downsizing, and maintaining their farm lifestyle. Rebecca discusses the couple’s decision‑making process, the impact on their children, and the balance between self‑care and caregiving. Nutritional strategies like nutrient‑dense foods and daily lassi are mentioned as part of their healing approach. Overall, the episode portrays the practical, emotional, and relational dimensions of living with a chronic illness, highlighting both the challenges and the love that sustains the family.
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Got my shirt changed, got mic'd up. You know, this episode of Rooted— we're filming for Rooted today, our TV show— and it's about my illness. This one's gonna kind of sort of be a downer, but for this vlog, I want to talk about Rebecca's amazingness and what she means to me and what she's done and how folks can even use her as an example in caring for somebody when you're in a relationship when the other one's hurting. That can be a tricky pain point in a relationship. Is she perfect? No. Can we learn from her? Absolutely. She's a busy bee. She's picking up in here. TV show— TV crew is here. Our house has never looked so good.
You're funny.
I'm just saying, this is, this is one of the beautiful things she does, you know. So this is the difficulty. Rebecca has to keep up what she's been doing in the house, on the farm, with the babies, and she has to pick up a lot of my jobs and a new job taking care of me. It's crazy. How do you do it?
You just do it.
You just do it, she said. Look, she's focused.
You don't get to have an option.
There's no option. You just do it. You don't I don't even stop for the interview. I'm gonna get in my pajamas. We're gonna get some shots of the things she does as I do for healing and her and her helping me. How long you been working to clean up this morning?
This whole day. Jonah says it's really early, Mom.
It's 8:30.
Like, it's still— I've been working.
No, it's the truth. You've been working the whole day. I'm thinking of everything that this woman has been doing for me to try to get Some shots for Ben. Everything, I'm telling you guys, like, she's labeled my water jar. Okay? She opens, she had to open my pain medicine. 'Cause like, you have to push down and it's childproof. It's also in, uh, reactive arthritis proof. She's had to open jars. She's helped me get dressed. She's buttoned my shirt. She's buttoned my pants.
Helped you in and out of the bathtub.
You've put my pants on and off. You've hugged me when I've cried. She's put away this big butt— oh, we should put some oil on that first. I hate to tell you, she put this huge gigantic 20-pound skillet away. She even vlogged for me early on, got the footage to Dan. You've even cooked the meat. I'm the meat cooker.
Oh, I've had to do everything, like all the meals for— you haven't? You've helped some lately.
You still maintain your beautiful beauty. Still taking care of herself.
I do.
You sacrificed a lot of self-care.
Well, I said today, I was like, I'm just gonna have to— well, now Henry's a little bit older. Hey, Lily, be gentle. Um, Henry's a little bit older, so he's doing better. Yeah, he's not as needy. So like this morning I took a shower and I was able to blow dry my hair before he woke up, but I needed to clean the room and he was able to entertain himself. Yeah, so That was good.
Artificial sunlight. The artificial sunlight master. Benjamin James Roberts. There are two things Rebecca hasn't had to stoop to, and that's feed me. Now that's the proper way. That's how I like to hold a fork. There was one point where I was having to do it like this. There was a point where I had to do it, do that with my left hand. Wasn't there? And then, uh, there was a point I couldn't type. I was gonna say that you haven't had to wipe my butt.
There was a moment where you were afraid.
I was very afraid. I had— my right arm was sore, and then my left arm started going down, and I woke up in the morning panicked.
I know, he's like, you're gonna have to wipe my butt.
She's gonna have to wipe my butt. We're going there.
But we did it.
She would.
And we didn't have—
she would. That's what's crazy.
I mean, I would not like it. It would not be enjoyable.
No. Nope.
But I would do it for love.
So let's do a shot list of all the things my lovely does. She helps me get dressed. She helps me walk. Take medicine. Get stuff. Apply Neds. Look at this lighting. This is how movies are made.
Opened up a freezer and it could have thawed. Yeah, I was like, that's not okay.
This looks like we worked too hard for that epic morning. Look at those cinematic jars. This is going to be the most epic milk pouring scene ever. All right, they're getting this set up and the sun coming in a different window.
They were so mad.
Look at her. No, no, tell us about that. She's ready to go. Support me pouring this milk. All right, gin's ready.
Wait, I need to put in the filter.
Rebecca, you make my, you make my lassi every night, which is like a yogurt banana smoothie. It's a smoothie. Yogurt.
It's an Indian smoothie.
So that's my—
Daddy!
These are things we won't even capture.
We do doctor's appointments.
Yes, you manage all my doctor's appointments. You go with me to them. You drive me to these places. You've moved that chair for me right there so I could watch television because I couldn't move it. Yes. We are going to uncover everything she does for me, and then tomorrow we're going to remember more, like double it. They're going to set up in the living bedroom. Okay. And you can just continue. You just continue your mama job. Just saw I got stung by a bee. It's on the air. Your work never ends. What are you making, everybody?
We're having baked potatoes. Baked potato bar.
Well, I was thinking this would be the main dish since it's bacon. The potatoes are only a side.
The potatoes are in here.
This is my meal. I can have this. You guys can have those potatoes. There she is. Little things like that. Walks across the room for me, prints out the script, the monologue. Doing something a little different for this episode. Got a little monologue to carry us through. They got it all set up. Hey Rebecca, will you go get me another clipboard? Yes, I will. I'm sorry.
I brought you water.
Thank you so much. She approves the vlog. How's the vlog going?
It's going good.
It's good? She nurses the baby. It's about to be time for her interview.
So when he got the Campylobacter infection and then got over that and then got the reactive arthritis and we weren't really sure that it was reactive arthritis at first. We didn't know what the heck was going on. We were kind of like, is this like the rest of our lives? Like, is this what he's going to be dealing with for— are we going to be dealing with this for forever? And we did, we wrestled with that. Like, should we put the kids in school and like downsize everything and like just focus on whatever we, you know, focus on what we can do. And I think that, yeah, I mean, in reality, if this was like a life sentence, which it's not, things would change drastically for us. We would— you would have to— I mean, I don't know. I mean, our boys are getting older. They want to do it. They want to, to do these things. So it's hard because we probably would downsize some. I don't know what, because at the same time, you know, nutrient-dense food is healing to his body. So it's kind of— it's like such a catch-22, you know. Henry's getting nothing but older, you know. He's growing up. He's 5 months old. But I know, like, I know the progression, like, because, you know, now having a 13-year-old, I'm like, okay, like, they do eventually become independent from me, you know. They no longer need me to get them water. They no need— and that's the other thing, you know, our older kids are really helpful with Henry. If it was something that we really wanted to continue producing, like, say, raw milk, it would be something where I could leave Henry with an older child, and then I could go do the things that Justin used to do but could no longer do. But no, we've wrestled with it. Like, we've wrestled with it all. Like, what? I think to— I mean, we're like 8 weeks in-ish. Probably about 3 weeks in, I was like, what the heck? How are we gonna do this? How can we do this? We might have to, you know, change course. Direction that we never saw coming. You know, we are definitely sideswiped by this. What does that look like? Does that look like you guys being put into school? Does that look like downsizing animals? I don't know. It was really— it was— it's hard. And I think though, we've— we, you know, we sat down and had a real hard talk with the kids about it, and they were obviously not wanting to go that route. You know, we spend a lot of time together, and you know, Jess and I went to school, so we know what it's like. So we, you know, like, you're in different grade, because like, they're like, well, I'll go if I can be with my siblings. That's not how it works. And, um, explained it kind of to them, and they're just like, no, like, what can we do to keep not to not have to do that, you know. And not that I want— not that we like shamed them into doing this, but it was kind of like, it's nothing you've done wrong or that we've done wrong. It's just sometimes you can't keep living the life that you thought you were going to live because things change. And if, you know, that being Justin's health changed so drastically that we needed to change courses, then we would. But I don't think we need to. He's getting better every day. He's a little bit better. Some days he goes back a little bit, but for the most part he's on the upward swing. I think we're going to be able to make it and not have to downsize any animals and downsize what we're doing. And there's some definite PTSD from the Lyme because that's how it started. You know, he had pain in his groin and he just stopped running for a couple of days to like let that calm down. And he— I'll never forget, like I was sitting on the couch right here and he came back. He went and tried to go running again. He came back and he was like, no, it's— I need a little bit longer. And it just never went away. So I think that that lingering thought of like it's never going to go away. It's like always in the back of my mind and it's always feeling like it's never gonna go away. It's just, this is our new normal. Like, we're always, he's always gonna be in pain and the kids and I are gonna have to witness that. And it's really hard. It's hard watching somebody be in pain. It's hard. It's like emotionally taxing for us watching it. Like, it's, it's like physically and emotionally hard for the person going through it, but then the people that are witnessing it, it's like It's unbearable. I mean, his pain was unbearable and us watching it was unbearable. Just knowing that any movement he made, I mean, turning over in bed, like how he laid in bed and he was just like— it was terrible.
What do you think, Ben? You think you got the interview? I think I'm gonna call it. I think that was excellent. That's a wrap. Day 1. Work/lifestyle balance here going down from 12 hours to 10-hour days. How do you think we got it done? Were we more efficient? Way more efficient. Yep. Your interview, for example, it was just like good stuff, good stuff, good stuff. Good. Maybe we're getting better after 10. What are we on? 9? 9. This is the 9th. That's the other thing. It's 9 episodes in and we kind of are— We're all grooved together better. Yep, I think we should cut. Let's cut.
