Road to Recovery: Experts Treat my Son's Dying Hip

I know exactly what's wrong with him. Is that okay? Why did I do that?

See how I'm going like that?

Yeah, why do you think that is?

Because my hip is being pulled up from all the tightness in here, and that's making— when I go down, I'm not able to stop myself from going to the side.

Does it hurt?

Yeah, it causes a little bit of pain in my back.

And as far as you know, what do you think's wrong?

That I just need to get— I just need to fix the tightness and put my pelvis back to normal. It's kind of crooked.

Are you hopeful? You think you'll walk normal again? Let's see what you got at the top of the week for your 4 appointments. You got chiropractic, acupuncture, physical therapy, and the surgeon all this week.

We're here waiting to go in. How are you feeling?

A little nervous. Can you do this?

Okay, with your palms on. Yeah, and breathe in. Take your hands and put them through your legs like this and bring that leg up to you. Yeah, I'm gonna light this on fire. I'm gonna go like this and pop it on your skin. Flame pulls out the oxygen, so it's gonna suck your skin in there, but what it's doing, it's moving your lymph system.

There you go.

It's gonna free your, um, your muscles are stuck. You're trying to open your muscles.

Does it hurt?

No, it just feels different.

This side seems like it's much higher. Seems like it's pulling.

Yeah, and look how purple it's turning so far.

The ones you put in first are stinging a little bit.

Yeah, do you want me to lighten them a little bit?

No, it should be okay.

Okay, so I'm gonna do a little guy right there. This is the one I'll slide.

How'd that feel, Jonah?

It felt fine.

Is that a big one?

No, it's a tiny one. How's that feel?

Super tender.

Yeah, and it's really thin, so like over here, if it's different, right? Does it feel different than over here? Yeah, yeah, because over here you don't have as much stagnation, but here you're pretty tight. So I'm just going to leave it stationary right there. But then here, I'll slide this, slide it right there. You okay?

Yeah.

And they might itch.

That one's really purple.

There you go.

Okay, well, that one's really full on the one you just put on.

Yeah, do you want me to lighten it?

Yeah, okay.

Excuse you, Josiah. I'm not sliding them, I'm just gonna do it because I— you have like such tight muscles, you need these moved. But if anything is uncomfortable at any time, you let me know.

You feeling it?

Yes.

Do you feel anything different?

Yeah. I've never been cupped. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. I saw Papa had it done once.

Deep breath in.

And out.

Yeah, it feels really stiff.

Where? This is to calm you. Hopefully it didn't poke you. Gonna take the needles out.

How's it feeling? Good. You feeling relaxed?

Yeah.

That's what it does for me. How you feeling? Better. I think it's gonna help you overall in the long run too.

Okay.

Where's my baby?

Asleep on that couch. How's your big baby?

The biggest baby is good. Gave him some things to do. You gonna do it?

Yeah.

You sure?

Show her the groin, how tight it is.

Oh yeah, she said it's just that— it's just compensating.

Nobody else is alarmed but us. Oh my, as Austin would say, you got in a fight with an octopus. Did you get cut too?

He did.

What'd you guys think of that octopus attack?

She asked him, she said, do you want to?

Are you more hopeful after visiting her?

I was hopeful before.

I know exactly what's wrong with him.

What's exactly wrong?

His body is compensating. So he's had an injury, a very traumatic injury, and then he had 3 surgeries.

So how do we fix that problem? He needs to stretch.

Once he gets to a point of range of motion, he'll need to start working out to strengthen that area, continuing doing the, the treatments with acupuncture and stuff like that. Acupuncture, chiropractor, and then a PT person. But see, the thing is, is when he gets adjusted by the chiropractor, his muscles are so tight, it does make it go back where it's supposed to, but then the muscles end up making it go back into the wrong position. So that's why he has to stretch it to get those muscles to be not so tight and tense. So stretching is going to be his friend.

It was good that Josiah went too. Yeah, he gets some attention too.

Well, tomorrow we go to the surgeon and I'm hoping that she'll clear him for PT. His left hip is just like so high. We started doing acupuncture and then of course I think we're going to start coming weekly to you and then also PT. That's his cranial sacral. Nice. Lots of stretching. We're starting to do stretching because we just think that his muscles are so tight. Yeah. It's still not even, but it's much better. Is the stretching the best thing to do to help with muscle tension, or what is the best? I would probably— but he's been foam rolling as well. Yeah, I think that's going to be the best thing because with a stretch you're going to also pull on the hip joint a little bit, and I think for now I would focus more on foam rolling. Okay. You started out like an inch and it's now about a quarter of an inch.

How was chiropractic?

It helped me a lot. I'm walking so much better.

He's been joining me in the HBOT hyperbaric chamber. How do you think that's been helping you?

I can't tell a difference, but it probably has helped me in some way.

He's been pretty dedicated about it. Makes me dedicated about it.

I'm helping my bone grow, so I won't feel a difference.

Oh yeah, true. You ever get nervous in this thing?

Not anymore.

What do you do while you're in here?

I just watch some stuff on YouTube.

Was that what you're doing? What are you watching on YouTube?

Guys grind hard plumbing, they build go-karts and stuff.

How do you feel? It is—

looks like it's getting better.

Better than yesterday or the same?

I think it's better than yesterday.

You eating you an apple for a snack?

The one piece of fruit a day.

Just trying low inflammation eating. What's your job now that we've taken you off the farm to rest a little bit more?

To do the dishes and clean the house and watch the baby.

Yeah, you like those duties?

They're okay.

You like the farm duties better?

I like the farm duties better.

When do you think you'll be back to farm duties?

I don't know.

We're finding the super active farm duties are too much for him, but he's able to handle the domestics, to his chagrin. You're visiting the surgeon today. You ready?

Yeah.

What are you hoping to hear?

That my bone is growing back.

Will she tell us that?

Yeah.

Ah, are those Canadian socks?

I have no clue if they fit me. They're very loose.

The hill isn't even out to the hill.

You're nervous?

A little bit.

A little bit. Hopefully it's gonna be good news. I think we're both a little nervous because the last time we came, you know, he ended up having to have the hardware taken out and it wasn't like everything's great, you know, like the times before it was everything's great. I'll just see you in a couple months, and then it was like this last time, oh no, now we have to surgery. So I think we're like a little bit apprehensive knowing that we could come here and get bad news. As far as I understand it, I don't think there's any more surgeries in our future. X-ray happened. It was a little harder than before. That was the hardest it had ever been, right? Because his muscles are so tight. Brings up more anxiety, I think. Please let there be nothing wrong other than muscles being tight. Hello, hello! How are you guys? Good, how are you? Doing good. Look at the shorts you got there. We just left with the doctor. We're still moving, but she just left, and, um, she wants to schedule an MRI for Jonah just to see if there's more information that we can gather. Like, we can see that his hip is, you know, tilted. It's hard. I don't think we realized when this happened, the accident, you know, that it was going to be such a series of medical intervention. He's used to being super active and outside all the time. It's been hard.

Jonah's last appointment this week. Do we have more answers than we had at the beginning of the week?

Chiropractor. We're gonna start doing that weekly. We saw a big difference with the chiropractor. Once she adjusted him, the immediate result was a better— a better pelvic—

Okay, so that's a win. Maybe a loss is with the doctor of that. We're gonna have to go in for more looks.

Yeah.

Since it's maybe not progressing like she would like it to. She just wanted to make sure.

She said she'd be doing a disservice if she didn't get it scheduled, an MRI, because what happens if there was something structural that was needing to be repaired and we weren't repairing it? It will give her clarity. It was gonna show her more about the bone and the flattening of it and what's happening with that and blood flow. We will get clarity on more than just if there's a structural issue with his pelvis.

What's gonna make it a home run today?

Hearing what she has to say and how she feels like she can help him. She's more of a holistic PT, so I don't know what to expect.

What about you, Jonah?

Same, I don't know what to expect.

She also does craniosacral therapy and she's very advanced in that. I'm really interested to see what she thinks that needs to be done. I mean, obviously she's gonna be doing an educated guess on all of this, so. I actually know somebody who has seen her, was helped by her.

45 minutes for this, so I hope that we get something out of this. I don't know what, but something.

We're not quite the inch and an inch and a half that you were before. It's a lot closer right now.

I'm not restraining your leg anyway, so if you need to move it, you can.

You're determined, dude. Where do you get this determination?

I just want to be back to my normal self. Oh wow.

For reference, it's probably what, 45 degrees out here. Are you going too?

Yeah.

Do you just jump in or do you wade in?

But you gotta time us. This is so cold.

Oh, you want me to put the timer on?

Yeah.

8 minutes?

We're gonna do 5 minutes.

No, you only need 3 minutes.

Okay, we'll do 3.

You could do 5 if you want. It's probably 55-degree water. Just go for it, man. Did he say, why did I do that? It's gonna ease up in 5 seconds. Gets easier at the 30-second mark. I can't believe your mom and I are gonna put one of these in our house.

Wouldn't it have a pond in our house?

No, a cold plunge.

Colder than it was yesterday.

Guys, get your shoulders under.

No, I got my legs in.

Come on, you got to get the core. Hecklin from the bank. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Whee!

Proud of you guys.