[narrator] Previously on Sister Wives...
I've been waiting for you, honestly.
And I'm not coming.
I know that.
But you're not courting me to that relationship.
I didn't know I was supposed to court you.
I've had a lot of people say to me, "Why are you still there?
He clearly doesn't love you."
This is a very conscious choice that I'm making.
It's very, very important to me that we get out on that property.
And I just hope we can, you know, get this damn thing figured out.
[Kody] Are you good with five?
If everybody is okay with that.
-[Kody] Are you good with four? -[Janelle] Yeah.
- You good with two? - [Meri] Mm-hmm.
- You good with three? - [Christine] Yes.
[Christine] I don't want to move on the property.
I want to move back to Utah.
Kody and I are struggling more than ever before.
The best that I can give today is just a pretend.
Ysabel was diagnosed with scoliosis when she was like 13.
Scoliosis is an abnormal curvature of the spine.
And her curve is over 50 degrees now.
So, it's just time to get the surgery.
If we're going in September for the surgery, I...
I don't think I'm going to be going.
I don't want her to be bitter that I wasn't there to do that.
And so, it's hard that they're doing this without me.
[theme music playing]
[Truely] What am I thinking of?
That you want to eat food really badly.
[Truely] No, koala.
So, we flew to New Jersey for Ysabel's scoliosis surgery.
We found out she had scoliosis when she was in middle school, like 13.
And we've just been fighting it for years.
Ysabel's excited to get the surgery.
And Truely and Gwendlyn are excited to be in New Jersey for a while.
I'm doing my best to make it as positive as possible.
Okay. This is Ysabel's last meal.
[Christine] So, we're at my sister's house in New Jersey.
She's only like an hour away from the surgery center and hospital.
Wendy's my sister from the same mom,
but she's married in a monogamous relationship.
They're not going to live polygamy.
Nothing like that.
And she's completely accepting, though,
of my family and us living plural marriage.
She's fine with that.
We'll reach New Jersey hospital like 7:00.
- And then we got there at like 8:00. - [woman 1] Okay.
And then we talked to the doctor about the surgery.
And he explained everything to us.
[Christine] It was a fun day.
Even though it's Covid right now,
we're still gonna get the surgery.
Like, Kody can't come with us to the surgery because of Covid.
And he would love it if we waited so he could come too.
But waiting isn't an option.
Ysabel's in too much pain.
We need to get it done.
She is really, really sad about that.
She really wants her dad there so badly.
I mean, Kody and I are in a tough spot right now.
I don't mind getting away for a while.
But the thing is it'll still be there when I get back.
So, it's not...
You know, but I don't mind putting it on hold for a bit.
Ysabel, you got flowers. Look.
- [Ysabel] What? - [Christine] These are yours.
[Solomon] Oh, yeah.
Somebody dropped them off.
-[Christine] Who are they from? -Oh, they're so sweet.
There's a rift with Christine and I.
But it's sad that I'm not there.
It's just one of those things.
Circumstantially, I don't see how I could have been there
and been able to do that during this whole Covid experience.
Aw, it's from Grandpa and Grandma.
[Christine] How cute! From Grandpa Rex?
- Yeah. - Oh, that's sweet.
You know, I'm glad that Ysabel is finally getting this done.
You know, it would have been nice
if more people could surround her
and just kind of be there for her.
But you know?
I'm sure Christine's doing, you know,
the best that she can, you know, out there by herself.
[Avery] This is what I made for Ysabel.
[Christine] Oh, my gosh. Let me see, Avery.
Oh, that is so sweet.
That's for Ysabel?
Covid has made everybody... and not just our family,
but so many other people feel so distant from their loved ones.
It's depressing and isolating.
It's hard.
It's really, really hard.
I just wish we could kind of circle around Izzy and Christine, so.
- You excited? - I'm excited, yeah.
I'm sorry, I can't go.
It's okay.
I want to be there for her to be a strength for her.
-[Kody] You understand, right? -Yeah, I get it.
It's okay. Yeah, it's okay.
You're not gonna become a bitter old housewife...
No. I guess not.
'cause your daddy didn't do this for you?
No.
[Ysabel] He has a lot of kids to think about.
It sucks.
It sucks that he can't be there.
I think it's been extremely trying on Christine and Ysabel,
especially to not have all that support.
I feel it deeply.
I feel it very deeply on an emotional level
that we aren't there to help them.
[Christine] All right, Ysabel, how are you feeling?
I'm feeling pretty good right now.
[Christine] It's early.
Yeah, it is just 4 o'clock.
Today is the day that we have been waiting for for a long, long time.
[Christine] What are you wearing for surgery?
I'm wearing just sweatpants and then Dad's hoodie
-'cause he's not here. -[Christine] Got Dad's hoodie. What was that?
Yeah, 'cause he's not here.
[Christine] That's cute.
I mean, honestly, the biggest struggle
of all of this is that Kody's not here.
He was really sweet.
He did give her this hoodie, and he did say it was kind of like a hug.
Look, he's been to every scoliosis appointment.
He went with us to Michigan.
He went for the bootcamp.
All of the appointments in Vegas, I said,
"You know, if it wasn't for Covid, he would be here with you."
And she gets it on a logical level.
But on an emotional level, it's ripping her apart.
That's the hard part of all of it.
And I think more than anything, I don't want her to dwell
on the fact that he couldn't come.
All right, this is the day of surgery.
- Yay! - [laughing]
Last night was your last night.
I'm just... I don't know.
I keep thinking like last night, last night was like a...
not nostalgic, but kind of like,
"Man, today really is the first day of the rest of your life."
It still doesn't feel like it.
- Really? - Yeah.
It hasn't set in, I guess.
I really trust Dr. Antonacci and his team.
After talking with him just yesterday,
even if I was concerned, I wouldn't be concerned today.
[Dr. Antonacci] So, just like on her x-ray, the curves go in and rotate.
[Christine] Mmm-hmm.
[Dr. Antonacci] So, that's what we see.
We see it's shallow here and we see it coming off like this.
[Christine] Mmm-hmm.
[Dr. Antonacci] And when she shift to the side shoulders down a little bit.
Go ahead and bend forward.
That raises the rib cage.
But this is the part of the rib cage that's the sidewall.
We decided to not do the traditional rod surgery.
The usual surgery is opening up the back and screwing rods down the spine.
But we did find another surgery, so, they go in through...
they open up the side and they slice
between the ribs, they pry the ribs apart,
they collapse a lung and then just move the lung out of the way.
So, then they take these fibers
and then they attach the fiber with screws to the spine,
and then they tighten it up using the screws.
And the fibers themselves straighten the spine.
And so, that's the one that we feel more confident about.
And that's the one that she's expressed interest in having too.
[Dr. Antonacci] And one other thing you'll notice...
you'll notice that she's crunched over here
- because of the shift. - [Christine] Yes.
And then she's lengthened over here.
So, you're going to notice that, you know,
next few days when she stands up,
you're gonna see her really symmetric in here.
And then this should be a little fuller,
and these should be a little bit more leveled.
[Christine] Perfect.
After Dr. Antonacci left, the nurses came in and they were all kind of chuckling.
They're like, "You're almost too big for this bed."
She's just super tall and she's still chatting
with them and just being awesome.
Then they wheeled her away.
I mean, they wheeled her away.
I had to say goodbye.
She said goodbye.
We gave each other a hug.
It is so hard to watch your kid go and you can't help them.
It's completely out of your hands.
I trust them. I do.
I think they're are a wonderful staff and everything, but,
I wasn't ready for this.
So, Ysabel was just taken back to do the surgery.
And it was so hard to see her go.
She's the most incredible kid I know.
And she's been dealing with pain for so long.
Wearing the brace is hard because I look bigger.
And it's hard emotionally because...
[sobs]
it's horrible wearing the brace.
It hurts all over, like bruises.
It is awful.
We put her doing exercises and all this stuff to help...
possibly help reduce the curvature of a spine.
We've tried everything.
And Ysabel has been amazing through all of it.
It's been nine months since she told me she was in just pain every day.
And as soon as I found out she was in pain every day,
I started applying for insurance at that point.
And it took this long to get insurance.
And then with Covid and everything,
everything just took a lot longer.
But here we are.
And she is now back in the surgery room.
And we find out in about two hours how the surgery went.
So, prayers and prayers.
Tons and tons of prayers.
We have so many people praying for her.
And I'm so, so grateful for the support that we have.
And yeah, so, here we go.
Christine's just fine with you do what you do. You do you.
I'm gonna do me.
I am not the head of this family,
and that's not the deal we made when we got married.
You're either in complying with our standard or I'm not coming around.
I'm a polygamist.
I did crazy [bleep] to get into heaven.
I'm gonna do crazy stuff to prevent somebody going there early.
Janelle's been back from North Carolina for a couple of weeks,
but because Garrison and Gabriel still have lives outside of the home.
I'm basically still social distancing from them.
Oh, those are fun colors, aren't they? Look at all that.
Oh, my goodness!
So, I've just come over to talk with Janelle about
how we're gonna be able to make it so I can be home.
-Yeah, there we go. -[Janelle] I think they're fine.
Last year, I saved them all because Axel came in October.
But this year he won't be coming.
- They're not going to come at all? - Mmm-mmm.
You know, we had sort of entertained the idea that
Maddie and Caleb may come to visit.
But in the end, it just became logistically impossible for her to come.
Having Hunter on the East Coast has been good
'cause he sees them pretty often.
Hunter is going to school.
He's getting his Master's in Nursing at Johns Hopkins.
And then he goes and sees Maddie and Caleb
periodically 'cause it's about a five-hour drive.
I'm like literally jealous of people
who aren't maintaining any kind of standards of social distancing
and stuff like that.
Like, some of the family are really diligent about preventing exposure.
And some of the family are really... almost lackadaisical about it.
I got two portions of my family that I'm not even seeing.
You know, I mean, my family is basically divided up by thirds in a sense.
Christine's traveling all the time.
I don't see her almost at all.
Janelle's got the boys.
I don't see her very often.
But the place I'm staying most of the time is at Robyn's house.
Okay, so, Garrison was pre-approved for a mortgage.
He has been saving this whole year and has enough to cover closing costs.
But he doesn't have the down payment.
They don't have first time homebuyer type of incentives or anything like that?
No.
So, Garrison has been saving like crazy for a year, and he saved up a good chunk.
But with the price of real estate in Flagstaff,
he can't really buy a house right now.
So, he's stuck here, really.
So, about six weeks ago, Kody started to realize
that maybe Garrison had more of a social life than he thought he did.
So, he wanted me to have Garrison move out.
But I felt like that was the wrong move.
Garrison has been working very hard.
I'm just gonna let my kids try to get a leg up
'cause the world is a very different place.
So, I'm not gonna kick him out.
You're behaving, Janelle, as though this is our problem.
She's trying to get me to help solve Garrison's problem
because we need him to move out of the house so that we...
so that her and I can get back to a normal lifestyle.
He's an adult.
He has to deal with adult things.
Well, honey, look, we have always done
what we could do to launch our kids and stabilize them.
- Yes, I know. - And...
Maddie and Caleb moved in with us.
And we gave Garrison that launch years ago, okay?
Yeah, but he never...
we never had to help him through school or anything like...
We got Garrison a car.
That was it.
He went to the military and did the rest of it on his own.
So, look, from the very beginning,
we have done everything we could,
even sacrificing some of our financial retirement
and everything, just trying to make sure
these kids were all launched and stable.
So, I mean, the version of us doing that for Garrison is this,
like letting him stay here and save up his money for a down payment on a house.
He's not willing to maintain the standards that we need
for the social distancing, and that's affecting
my relationship with you and my relationship with Savanah.
So, I miss all my kids, okay?
But Savanah and Janelle aren't the reason that I have to be away.
Gabe and Garrison are the reason that I have to be away.
They're making choices that affect the entire family.
They're making choices that affect me.
But now she's having to choose between me and the boys,
she's choosing the boys.
[Janelle] 'Cause I just feel...
See, you've always had a problem with this.
I can see in it your eyes, your body language and everything is saying,
"No, no, no, my babies get to run my household."
Okay, look. Yes, of course.
- [Kody] Don't-- - I think my children are...
I mean, they really are the center of my world, right?
And we're... I mean, like, I don't know, honey.
It's just part of plural marriage like your children become...
Well, I don't...
I don't think this has to be part of plural marriage.
You know, I guess, I mean, at least for me, in plural marriage,
I learned early on not to make my world center around Kody.
And that was just the way it was.
Like, it just was part of the lifestyle, I felt like...
Like my focus has really always been my kids
'cause I didn't have a husband that was there every single night.
I had a lot more independence.
So, I had a lot more time to really just focus on the kids.
I don't know if there's like a, you know, your husband is, you know,
before your children or your children are before your husband.
I think that they are equal.
It's definitely a hard balance sometimes.
But I think that it's important to strike.
For me, like I still want to have
a good relationship with Kody, regardless of the fact that
it's kind of distant and estranged in a way.
So, that's still very important to me.
I don't think that you should have to choose, you know,
'cause they're both equally important.
Is it more important than my relationship with Kody?
Yes.
I would do anything for my kids.
My kids really have been my companions through my life, honestly.
Christine's given me an ultimatum like
either she's not going to conform to it at all or else we've got to be
able to do it in a way that gets the whole family together.
So, it's either the whole family or nothing with Christine.
That's the life that she wants.
Yeah, I feel like we're just in two totally different places.
No effort to have me around more.
Janelle, if you want to play Christine's game the same way, I get it.
[Janelle] No. Here's the thing.
- I don't think that's fair to you and me. - No, it's not.
And I have hated this six or eight weeks
'cause in the middle of the night, I'm like, "Is this personal?
Does he not want to be here?"
It makes me feel like it's personal, Janelle.
It makes me realize that in plural marriage,
I don't matter because Christine is just fine with, "You do what you do.
You do you.
I'm gonna do me."
She's really been complaining about the lack of either romance
or closeness in the relationship for years.
I can't start pouring my heart out
with poetry that I'm not necessarily feeling.
But, you know, that's gonna be short lived, and it feels like
sometimes that's what I'm doing because it's constant pressure.
It's really indicative of our crappy relationship, I guess.
But you and I don't have a crappy relationship,
and yet I'm still being marginalized.
She's taking risks with our relationship.
It's like we have a good relationship.
We should protect that.
I feel like you're not trying to protect it.
I'm not gonna negotiate with the kids on this.
You're either in and you're complying with our standard or I'm not coming around.
I'm a polygamist.
I did crazy [bleep] to get into heaven.
I'm gonna do crazy stuff to prevent somebody going there early, okay?
I know that I can't stay away from you too much longer.
I'm heartbroken about my boys.
I don't know what to do.
So, basically, she's stonewalling me here, I'm not making any progress.
She misses me, so, she wants me to compromise so that I can come home
rather than her making everybody in the household obey the protocols.
And I'm...
I'm just done.
We're not getting anywhere here.
Plural marriage is a struggle.
It's a hard thing.
I am not the head of this family.
You know?
I am the head of the household some places, I'm just not right here.
And that's not the deal we made when we got married.
So, the surgery took two hours longer than they thought.
And I still haven't seen her yet.
She's getting stitched up now.
But Dr. Antonacci said it still went well, but he looks tired.
So, she did really well.
[Christine] Yeah.
And she was very stiff, though, the curve got to the point
where it didn't bend on the x-ray,
but then it really wouldn't bend very much more.
So, I had to release it in several places.
[Christine] Oh, really?
I was expecting to release like three places, but I released it six.
It was a rougher surgery than they intended.
-[Dr. Antonacci] This is her curve. -[Christine] Okay.
Before the surgery.
And then she has two screws, pretty much at every level,
- all the way down. - [Christine] Okay.
[Dr. Antonacci] So, it looks really good. It's about 15 degrees or so.
[Christine] Oh, nice.
- That's what we were hoping for. - Yeah. Yeah. So.
[Christine] Oh, my gosh! That's wonderful news.
It's hard to see all of this hardware in her body.
There are a bunch of screws in her spine,
but yeah, 15 degrees is a huge success, and it's for life.
That's a lot better than 55.
This is the first time I get to see Ysabel.
So, I walked in the room and there she is, and she...
[chuckles] she's fine.
She's fine.
She's under anesthetic and everything is done.
The surgery is complete.
[Christine] Do you like the...
[Christine] Yeah.
- [Christine] I hope so. - [woman 2] You do.
[Christine gasps] She says you do have a killer scar.
- [Christine] No. - [woman 2] No.
[Christine laughs]
I'm surprised.
I thought the first thing she would ask is, "How tall am I now?"
So, I thought, height was the biggest thing.
But apparently, this killer scar is the one that she wants.
I'm gonna put some--
[Christine] I love you too, baby.
[woman 2] I don't even know where I'm gonna put it because
- she's going to be rolling all around. - I'm going to call Daddy.
Yeah. We'll call Daddy. Okay.
[Christine] I know. I'll tell him you miss him.
Okay.
It's on a level of importance for him to be here,
it's actually really high for her.
[Christine] Yeah, I'll call Daddy right away.
[Christine] I know, honey.
I'm sure it's difficult for him too, you know,
without a doubt, I know that he would love to be here if he could.
And so, it's bittersweet.
It's tough.
You know, Kody and I, we had a conversation
recently that it just kind of came down to that we're friends.
My relationship with Meri is not the kind of relationship
where I'm going to talk with her every day.
I'm not going anywhere, y'all.
You're stuck with me. [chuckling]
Whether you like it or not.
[Christine] How are you feeling, baby?
So, Ysabel's surgery was yesterday.
And last night was brutal.
Was brutal.
I didn't know...
I didn't know the pain would be like this.
The nurses were in all night long trying to help her.
She's never been in this much pain.
Never.
And she kept asking for her daddy,
and I'm like, "Honey, he's not here."
And then a few moments later, she'd ask for him again.
I'm like, "What?"
And the doctor explained to me that when they're coming out of anesthesia,
they don't really register anything.
So, she was gonna ask the same thing over and over and over.
It was so heartbreaking.
Late last night, when I knew that he would still be awake, we video chatted him.
Hi, sweetheart.
Oh, you're not feeling good right now, a little nauseous?
[Christine] It really helped.
He's great at being a cheerleader.
He really is.
How you feeling, baby?
[woman 2] You don't feel very good?
[Christine] Just a second. You don't need to do anything.
[woman 2] You are.
We need to get out of the hospital in five days.
So, in order to get out, she has all these things she has to do.
She needs to sit up.
She needs to get her legs on the ground.
She needs to walk to this chair.
At the end of all of this is you walk to a map that's like down the hall,
through these doors, down the southern hall.
So, that's like, that's the big goal.
Do you want me to lean against--
[Christine] Not yet. Not yet.
She's fixing your back right now.
[Ysabel speaking]
The flight is next Sunday to go home.
It's only like ten days away.
I have no idea how she's gonna be ready to fly home.
I'm sending this to Dad.
He's gonna be so proud of you.
I don't know when we're going home.
I have no idea.
[Meri sighs] All right.
I really just kind of needed to get out today
and just kind of like check out from everybody and everything.
So, there's a trial in Flagstaff that I really enjoy hiking on.
And so this is one of the things I like doing is just kind of
getting away from it all.
We've got Covid going on.
I'm running two businesses.
We're quarantining from each other.
As a family, we really haven't spent much time together.
And...
it's...
weird.
It's lonely.
Like, I live alone, you know?
I just miss my family.
If I didn't have my girls with me during this whole Covid thing,
I'm sure I would have been going insane.
It's funny 'cause I actually do feel lonely through Covid.
I'm isolated from the rest of the family and from my...
you know, my brothers and sisters and my parents and then my friends, too.
I will say,
and not as often as I should, I do try to at least text Meri or call her.
It's not on the regular.
It's not every week.
Christine and I actually interact a lot more
via text and phone, and we do some...
like we've socially met up during Covid.
I always saw one of the main benefits
about plural marriage is that anybody in the family would never actually
suffer real true loneliness.
But the way things have played out for our family, that's not necessarily true.
My relationship with Meri is not the kind of relationship
where I'm going to talk with her every day,
and my best guess is that her sister wives
don't feel like having an interaction with her daily either.
You know, Kody and I...
Kody and I...
Oh, Kody and I. [chuckles]
We had a conversation recently that it just kind of came down
to that we're friends, which I guess is a good thing. [chuckles]
It's a good thing.
But, you know, I just...
I don't know, I guess I just kind of...
I have hope for more than that, so.
Kody has said some things to me
more recently that leads me to believe that,
you know, there's... there's no repairing our relationship.
There are days when...
I get very, very discouraged.
But then there's days that I have so much hope.
If I quit, if I walk away, then it's not... it's not going to get better.
I'm not going anywhere, y'all.
You're stuck with me. [chuckles]
Whether y'all like it or not.
Because my family all saw me go through a really dark spot,
I think that they question if I'm gonna stay.
Through that time, I was considering every single option that I had.
Leave.
Go do my own thing.
I've considered everything.
And this is where I am, you know, this is my decision.
Honestly, I would rather that we have a lot more interaction with each other.
And I will tell you, I mean, these are the two that
I just keep coming back to because I just...
I know I have love 100% unconditional from them.
And that is Solomon and Ariella.
I miss those two so bad.
[Robyn] Meri shows a lot of interest in being in Sol and Ari's life.
And they love her.
When they see her, they just get really excited.
You know, I feel like I've got some really good relationships
within the family, and I've got some that are kind of rocky,
and I've got some that are basically nonexistent.
I want to have a relationship with Kody
where we don't go for a week without even acknowledging each other.
He and I are better than this.
I feel like that, you know, our family is better than what we're doing right now.
The fact is is I've got four wives who,
during Covid, have chosen not to interact with each other.
They're mad about it, but they're not even calling each other on the phone.
They're not even using video media to talk to each other.
Covid has revealed us.
And we are sad, sorry, lonely little people.
[Christine] So, Mitch and Aspyn are in town
to support Izzy and to hang out.
And Hunter 'cause he lives three hours from Wendy.
Aspyn, Mitch, and Hunter both wanted to come and support Ysabel.
It's a gray area.
Is it the smartest, safest thing to do on paper?
No.
You guys ready to see Izzy's scar?
I didn't even know how much I needed them.
It's like, we're gonna remember this for the rest of our lives.
So, today is the day she has to take the walk.
It's like this epic walk where it's out the door,
down the hallway, you turn a corner,
then at the end of that hallway, there's a map.
And the map, when you put your sticker on the map,
that's when you're actually saying, "I'm going back home."
- Okay, ready? - [Ysabel] Yeah, I'm ready.
[Christine] You have the sticker?
[Ysabel] Hmm? Uh-huh.
And it just creates an awesome mindset of I've completed this amazing thing
and reached my goal.
But that means I get to go home.
She's never gone this far before, and without much of my support,
I mean her hand's on me, but that's more like, "Are you here, Mom?
You know, are you here." That's it.
It's the most incredible thing to see, her being so brave.
Her recovery is all on her.
And this final walk that she does just shows it's up to her, that's she's got this.
She's got this.
All right. Nice.
Oh, look at that.
[woman 2] Very good.
She did it. She did.
She's the only one in Flagstaff, Arizona,
and she put the sticker on the map, and she's done it.
So, good news.
We are going home today. Ah!
Well, to my sister's house, so, it's hard because she's still in a lot of pain,
but we have a plan now.
It took us five days to come up
with a pain management plan for her.
I'm glad we're leaving, but I'm not glad we're leaving
'cause now I'm fully like responsible for it.
And I know that I won't be able to help her as much as she needs.
The pain is still way too intense.
All right. Ysabel and I are leaving the hospital now.
She's still in the "Mother Lode of pain".
We have this whole bag of medication.
I'm now in charge of Ysabel's medication.
And there's a lot.
They gave me, like,
a whole like booklet of what medication can't go with other medication,
what medication is for this and things like that.
And some of the stuff is crazy.
- Sorry. - It's all right.
I'm going to drive as, like, non-aggressive as possible.
Okay, fine.
Every bump, every jostle of the wheel,
everything that isn't just completely smooth, she was crying out in pain.
And it was terrible.
It was terrible.
So, Mitch and Aspyn are in town to support Izzy and to hang out.
And Hunter 'cause he lives three hours from Wendy.
Aspyn is my oldest.
She married Mitchell about three years ago.
And they live in Utah now.
And my girls love them.
They love them.
So, it's been really nice being here for Ysabel.
I'm really happy I was able to make it.
I hate seeing her in all this pain.
And I think after this big surgery with all her pain,
that's kind of like what's important is just getting some family time in.
And yeah, so, I'm just really glad I could be here for her.
Aspyn and Mitch, and Hunter
both wanted to come and support Ysabel after her surgery.
So, I talked with them for a long time about
you need to be super careful before you come.
You really have to follow the strict guidelines that we've been following.
And it's a gray area.
Is it the smartest, safest thing to do on paper?
No.
But the look in Ysabel's eyes and the happiness that she felt
when she saw them is exactly what she needed.
It's exactly what we all needed.
You guys ready to see Izzy's scar?
Here we go.
[Hunter] Ooh, nice.
[Christine] What do you think?
- [Hunter] That's so legit. - [girl 1] Whoa!
What the heck?
[Christine] What do you think?
[Hunter] You're like one of the Amazonian women, you're tall,
- beautiful-- - [Aspyn] That's so true.
It's incredible.
They put their lives on hold to just come be here.
They took the risk, the Covid risk.
They made it a priority.
This means the world to me and to Ysabel, too.
It's like, we're going to remember this for the rest of our lives.
Are these bandages also?
[Christine] This is gonna be a scar right here.
It's where they did the chest tube came out.
I didn't even know how necessary
it was for them to be here and how much I needed them
and how much Ysabel needs them.
So, what do you think, Isabel, about the scar?
I like it.
[Hunter] Beautiful girl.
I like it that it is bigger than I thought it would be.
[Christine] Yeah, that's an awesome scar.
We all like it. We're proud of you.
And Ysabel is going to remember always that Aspyn
and Mitch and Hunter were really, really there for her.
[Kody] How are you doing?
- [Christine]I'm exhausted. - Oh, man.
You know, when you're nursing somebody back to health,
you need breaks too.
[Christine] Everything's got to get better.
It's been really, really hard.
It can only get better.
That's it.
So, it can only get better, honestly.
The girls and I just got back from getting Ysabel's surgery
a few days ago, and I'm just gonna have the adults
come over so I can tell them how it went and stuff.
[Kody] They've been gone for six weeks.
I was very disappointed that I wasn't able to go.
But now that it's done, we'll see how she's feeling about it all now.
Hi.
- [Christine] Oh, hi. - How are you doing?
- [Christine] I'm exhausted. - Oh, man.
I need a nap without any interruptions.
But like every two hours, Ysabel has a new medication
she's got to take for pain, like even through the night.
- Are you just jet lagged then? - No.
I get up at 9:00 and then 11:00 and then 3:00 and then 6:00.
- [Janelle] Is there any way... - Every night.
[Janelle] Is there any way I could come help with that?
[Christine] Oh, you're awesome.
No, 'cause we all really are quarantined for two weeks.
When Maddie was a little girl, she had her appendix out.
I had to get up in the middle of the night
two or three times to give medicine.
And I remember how grueling that was.
So, I'm serious when I'm offering here.
What if I came and slept in a tent in your yard
and just sort of came in the house to give medicine or something?
[Christine] So cute.
We're trying to wean her a little different.
I'm going to touch base with her doctor today
and see if we can get her off of that stuff in the middle of the night.
But in order for her to not be on pain, it has to be regular through the night.
I think it's just what we deal with and just what we do.
Ysabel would feel guilty if she knew how exhausted I am.
And this is the most important job that
I have to take care of my kids and to take care of her.
That's why it's just stupid to complain.
It's just stupid to complain.
I hate it when I even do it.
You guys can sit here if you want.
I'm gonna go grab Izzy's chair and I'll be right back down.
Where are you going to put her chair?
[Christine] In the corner.
Yeah, we're still doing the social distancing thing.
Yeah, still the way that it is right now,
just with everything that's going on
with Covid and with the fact that our family decided not to,
you know, be united on this.
But yeah, anyway.
Hi!
- [Kody] Hi! - [Robyn] Hi!
- [Kody] How's it going? - Good.
You look...
- Taller. - straight.
[Janelle] You look taller.
- She's so tall. - [Kody] Really?
So, how much was the height different from prior to surgery to after surgery?
It was only one inch.
So, you've really actually got a full inch out of moving from 55 degrees to 15?
Yeah.
Which is officially what?
What's your height now?
[Christine] 5'10"?
- 5'11". - [Christine] 5'11" now.
- [Kody] Is it really 5'11". - [Christine] Yeah.
But we thought it was 5'11" before.
No, 'cause you weren't taller than me before.
But now you would be.
There's this weird thing that happens.
I feel like a lot of the kids are very competitive and moms are competitive.
I don't know if it's a polygamy thing
or if it's just the sense of competition in the family that's been fostered.
I'm not really into it.
And so height is one of them.
Height is one of the competitive points.
But there's a million in this crazy family.
How are you feeling right now?
Izzy is one of those kids who's always smiling
and she's so happy to see everybody,
but you can tell she's definitely in pain.
[Christine] Everyone loved her scar.
They were all like, "This is a nice scar.
It's really clean."
We think it's pretty gnarly, but apparently
- it's a nice scar. - [Ysabel] Yeah.
[Ysabel speaking]
[laughter]
I can't wait to see it.
Do... do you guys want to see it now?
- Yes. Yes. - Sure.
Oh, my gosh.
[laughter]
[Janelle] Oh, my!
[Meri] Oh, look at that.
That seems like a pretty good size scar.
I think it's bigger than I thought it would be, for sure.
It's a big scar.
You can tell that it's still healing.
It's definitely in the healing process.
She's this beautiful girl with a scar.
You know, she's got a story. You know?
[Janelle] Do you know what touched me the most?
Your mom texted, she said, you woke up from surgery
and you're asking for your daddy and Gwenny.
And I'm like, "Aw."
[Ysabel] Yeah.
- So, she woke up... - [Kody] You don't remember it?
- [Ysabel] I don't remember it. - [Christine] No.
[Ysabel] I don't remember the first day.
Very disappointed that I wasn't able to go to the surgery.
Would have really preferred to have had them wait
so I could be there with her, so I could help support her.
But we just agreed that... well...
finally agreed that, you know what?
They decided, and I agreed that it was time to get it done.
But we got there and it was Dr. Cuddihy
and she's like, "Your daddy's gonna be here?"
I'm like, "No, he's not." She's like, "What?"
And I said, "No, he can't come. It's Covid."
And she's like, "Oh.
Oh, I'm so, so sorry.
But she won't remember."
I'm like, "Okay."
So, every like few minutes she would come to again asking for Daddy and Gwendlyn.
And I'd be like, "Look, you get me.
You get me." Does she ever ask for me?
No. No!
[Meri] Like it or not? It's me.
I was just trying to make light of everything.
And there's no point, she doesn't remember any of it.
She doesn't remember asking for anybody.
And I'm sure at one point I was like, "No!
You got me. That's it. You're fine."
- Yeah. I'm gonna go inside. - [Kody] I love you.
Bye. Love you guys.
- [Kody] See ya. - Thank you for coming over.
Sorry, sorry.
- Does she need help a little ways, Christine? - [Ysabel] I'm okay.
-Bye. I love you guys so much. -[Kody] Are you sure you're okay?
- No. Yeah. - [Meri] Love you, Ysabel.
- I'm okay. - [Kody] No, you're not.
- I love you guys. - [Kody] Love you. Bye-bye.
It was really good to have them just want to see her scar.
That was huge.
Joking around with her a little bit.
And it was good.
It was good to see that side of her.
Oh, my goodness.
[Meri] I'm pretty sure Christine probably stays
right by her side all the time, Kody.
[Kody] Hmm.
Christine was there perpetually.
You know, when you're nursing somebody back to health,
you need breaks too.
Somebody else needs to come in and bear the burden.
And so, Christine hasn't really had any relief
'cause I haven't been there to help her.
So, she's... she's in a good mood now because she's--
[Christine] She's with you guys.
She's miserable.
She puts on a lovely brave face for people but...
[Robyn] Yeah.
- [Christine] No, it's awful. - That's really hard.
I know she'll get to the point where she's grateful she got the surgery,
but that's not happening yet.
It hurts too much still.
It hurts worse than it ever did before.
I'm so glad we found this alternative surgery.
If all the effort and all the struggle,
and all the years of what we paid
for therapy and the travel and all the exercise
for nothing else other than doing this surgery
in lieu of the rods was so important...
Yeah, I'm saying we, but it really was Christine that did all of this.
I was saying we more in reference to,
you know, sort of a family supporting her doing it,
but she really did everything here.
So, as sad as it is that she's in pain...
Yeah, it's awesome.
- [Kody] Yeah. - We're so grateful.
[Kody] I...
I just want the best for my little girl,
and I want her to be happy and pain free
and hope that those are the results we get here shortly.
[Christine] Everything's got to get better.
It's been really, really hard.
It can only get better.
That's it.
So, it can only get better, honestly.
[narrator] Next time on Sister Wives...
You have a nanny over.
She's over all the time.
I don't understand why Ysabel can't come over and hang out.
She's devastated.
What does the nanny do?
Let's bring the family to a consensus on what we're gonna do.
[Janelle] Well, are these the rules you guys follow at your house?
[Robyn] I'm just gonna going to say it out loud.
[Kody] These are what she follows.
I know everybody's like suspicious of me.
Will you just please stop?
My kids are blaming Robyn for making the rules.
I'm at my wit's end with this whole [bleep] stuff.
Are you the head of the family?
- No. - [Janelle] Kody, I was just...
Sorry. Just stop.
Why in the world would anybody think that I'm somehow behind this?