In this vlog, the primary speaker (Speaker A) describes a worsening episode of reactive arthritis that has spread from the hips to both ankles and the left knee, making walking difficult after two months of illness. The conversation with Speaker B covers a range of treatment attempts, including an herbal remedy called Cryptolaptus, a short course of antibiotics, vitamin C drips, prednisone, and plans for Prolozone ozone injections, while expressing reluctance toward steroid injections as a mere band‑aid. They discuss self‑management strategies such as gentle joint‑movement exercises, a broth‑fast diet, and supplement regimens. The vlog also captures everyday family logistics: coordinating children’s chores, preparing multiple broths (lamb, beef, turkey, chicken, and duck) for the fast, cooking duck tacos, and dealing with a power outage using a generator. Emotional tones of sadness, frustration, and occasional humor surface throughout, illustrating how the illness impacts both physical health and mental well‑being while the household strives to maintain normalcy.
Chapters
It got worse, didn't it, Becky?
Yes.
I vowed to take this pill, this pain medicine. I vowed last night and I vowed this morning.
And you didn't.
I'm not gonna do it. The bad news is it's gone to my knee. It's gone to my left knee. So now it's in my— both my ankles and left knee at the same time, so I can barely walk. How's that make you feel, Becky? Sad.
Really sad. We're gonna beat this.
Mm-hmm. Come here. I already had my cry. It's scary because it keeps going, right?
It feels like it's not gonna end.
It's been 2 months. It's supposed to last 3 to 5 months. But it's still on a tour in my body. Reactive arthritis.
So I was wondering why his hip— got better so quickly. It was the first thing that hurt on him.
Yeah.
And he was taking this.
Cryptolaptus.
It's an herb and it was to treat the infection.
So when the infection went away you stopped.
Yeah, so we did 10-day, a 10-day course of it along with a pharmaceutical antibiotic. I have been racking my brain. Why is he not getting better? So I went and I looked up in my book. This is used in Thailand for arthritis, so we're going back on it. He's going back on it. We're trying— I'm working with, um, our local family doctor to get the vitamin C drip going again. I'm gonna see how many times a week she'll do it for us because I feel like that, that was also helpful to him. We have the prednisone on Thursday. I'm just like trying to go back to think of what we, what we were doing with him in the beginning to see why that— why his hip, it like went so fast. We have some other supplements coming as well to help, and we're still working with our doctors too, so it's just frustrating.
All conventional medicine can do for this is pain meds. When you say you're back up, maybe steroids, steroid injections, but we don't want to go there.
They could do steroid injections into your joints, which is just a Band-Aid.
That doesn't promote healing. Goodness.
The steroid would be an anti— it's an anti-inflammatory. Yeah, you could also take oral steroids for a systemic approach, which we talked about with our doctor. That, like, last scenario.
So we're gonna go for Prolozone, which is an injection of ozone into my joints, which does promote healing. We're fortunate that we have a clinic like that nearby. Yes, that'll be Thursday. So what's my body telling me? I feel like my body's saying slow down. Even like the business work. Like I started full-on business work again, and even though that's not physically stressful, it's maybe mentally stressful. Jacob had me start doing joint movement, but not without— but not pressure. So open— hold on, do you want to do these with me? Open and squeeze. Open and shut your hands. You do those as many times as you are old in a day. Moving my ankles. Jacob had me do that yesterday, and it took the sting out of getting up. It hurts getting up from sitting to going or laying down, and that kind of took the, the edge off of that. And then I kind of cheated on my diet last night. I ate the mac and cheese with y'all.
Well, you think this will throw me off. That's it. Those were your exact words, and I said I don't think it will, because like, what's life if you can't have mac and cheese once in a while? And so now I'm regretting that.
It's kind of dreary every once in a while. I got ulcers in my mouth. Is that from the— I don't know if that's teeth work, or is that from? I don't know, the reactive arthritis.
I can't tell you. I don't think it's from reactive arthritis.
Sorry, this is gonna be a lame— this is gonna be a, yeah, different vlog, but this is real. We're showing our real life. I don't— I was gonna go ride Willie and not even get off Willie and do the chores, but then it's raining.
Your left knee is swollen, your ankles are both swollen. Like, this is not I don't think I'm gonna go out. I don't want him to. I want him to stay in here. I'll go out if I have to.
Oh, I was getting— what I was getting at is we're gonna— I'm gonna drink broth. That's it. I'm not even gonna eat. Yeah, it's a good thing why yesterday and the day before we made lamb broth, beef broth, turkey broth, chicken broth. Yeah, I guess you're right. If we're ever ready for a broth fast, this is it.
Somebody actually messaged me on Instagram and said, are you doing this for healing, a healing rice or something. And I was like, no, I was— I'm actually planning on giving some of it away.
I was gonna do a whole— just a fast fast, but I got to take food with my supplements. Are you getting squeezed in there into the healing program? I'll definitely— Mom's having to do so much, I'll be able to— I'll sit here though and hold Henry, do what I can.
What did you do to your knee?
Yep, it's gone to my knee, buddy.
You think the same pain is going?
Yeah, so now it's in my knee, travels around the two ankles.
But it took so long, you know, like before was like you getting like sooner.
Yeah, it was faster and a little more intense. That slowed down. Can you check over the boys' chores? Yeah, she still get 2 gallons of milk. Jonah didn't even separate the calf till 6 last night. He forgot. Normally do it at 3. I really hope this doesn't last very long, this one, because it is really hard to walk. All right, Jenna, will you set this on the table? All right. Oh yeah, okay, I'm doing it. It's better as I get walking. This is still frozen. Thought it thawed. We thawed it out yesterday on the counter and then put it in the fridge, but I guess it wasn't all the way thawed out. Here's to hoping these aren't so frozen you can't cut them. First of all, let's get the fat off. Look at this glorious fat. That's the difference between a duck and a chicken— mucho fat. We're gonna put that face down in our pot. I got the duck going. We've done turkey broth, we did chicken broth, we did beef broth, lamb broth. Now we're gonna have duck broth. We're the crazy— we're crazy broth people. Take that for me, Jonah, and put it over there on low. Please don't spill it. Just put it on low. Broth is my diet for the next at least 3 days. You strong enough to put that pan in? Okay, ready? We're going at 250. Power went out. Thankful for the Cummins right about now because that'd be one problem we don't need right now, is power out. But we're baking on, we're cooking on. Can you get them both on that top?
Yep.
Oh wow, okay, good. 2 hours on that side and then 2 hours on the other side. After that, we'll bake it open on a flat pan for 400, and then it'll just shred, and it'll be a nice— well, it's Taco Tuesday, so we'll have duck tacos. That'll be nice.
