Scattershooting while regretting the three (or more) chocolate peanut clusters I consumed on New Year’s Eve at my mother-in-law’s house…
It’s two degrees outside here in the mighty plains city of Hays, Kansas. The lovely Mrs. Newton and I arrived yesterday, this being the third and final stop on our annual Christmas visitation tour. It’s hard to not think of Christmastime as being a cruel survival game mixed with a lot of holiday fun. The stress coming from my poor health, travel logistics, bad food choices, awkward family gatherings and sub-Arctic weather makes this holiday season really hard. Often I find myself looking back to Christmases of my childhood, when I only had to worry about packing my clothes for our annual trip to Louisiana to see grandparents and unwrap presents and eat junk food and watch football and… be a simple naive child. Weren’t those wonderful days? Yet, still, it is enjoyable, even in the midst of the stress.
Adulting is hard!
We’ll be back in the XNA (Northwest Arkansas) Wednesday night, ready to tackle 2018 and all of its anticipated eventfulness.
How was your 2017? It’s hard to believe that another year has passed! It still feels like the old year, though… You know, the older I get, the more that time seems to be compressing in my memory. I still remember things from last Christmas as if they were recent. Trips we took 18 months ago feel like they were six months ago. Is this typical?
Our 2017 started out rough. One year ago today, I woke up at our new rental house in Fayetteville after rushing home the day before from Texas with a sick wife. We cut off our visit with my family because Shannon was battling a feverish stomach illness that had hit her mother a few days before. Her discomfort turned out to be something completely different. For the entire month of January we frequented outpatient clinics and doctor’s visits. She got worse and worse and we treated what seemed to be a complicated and stubborn bladder infection.
In the meantime, Shannon studied and passed the Arkansas board of examiners and earned her license to be a professional counselor in the state. She got her first few clients and then… life stopped for us.
An ultrasound revealed that my ailing wife had a torqued left ovary that was cystic and the size of a baseball. A large infection had consumed the area and her life was in danger. On our way home from the ultrasound we got the call from her doctor. It was urgent. Go to Washington Regional Medical Center ASAP. So we gathered a few clothes at home and I drove her to the hospital, completely shocked and more than a little bit scared. She had surgery, lost the infected organ, and slowly gained strength. Four days later, we went home. Six weeks of recovery followed and our “functional year” really didn’t start until after March. I guess April 1st was our second New Year’s Day.
Mrs. Newton and I usually pack a lot of life into our days. Being more of a “do-er” than a “stay put-er,” I prefer to travel to new places and have as many adventures as possible during my good health days. Shannon has caught the bug, I think, and as we look back on our 2017, neither of us can believe we did so many things last year. Here’s a look at 2017 for the Newtons…
January
— We officially moved into our rental house in SE Fayetteville. We made several trips back to Louisiana to pick up our belongings in early 2017, meaning we didn’t really finish moving until April. It was a five-month move!
— Shannon passed the board of examiners and got her approval to counsel professionally in Arkansas. She even picked up a few clients.
— We first attended a small Anglican Church plant in Fayetteville, Christ the King Anglican Church. We joined the church a few months later. I had attended an Anglican church in Flower Mound, TX since 2014. Shannon had no experience in a liturgical church outside of random visits to Catholic churches back in Kansas.
February
A medical emergency landed Shan in the hospital and she spent the entire month recovering. Family came to stay with us to help me care for my wife. New friends dropped off food and sent cards.
March
More recovery for Shannon. She resumed work and her client load slowly started to build.
April
— We sold Shannon’s house in Monroe, LA after four months on the market. It was a wonderful little house, Shannon’s first home purchase, and our first home together.
— My specialist doctor in Little Rock essentially threw up his hands and said, “I don’t know. I give up.” I had seen him for my inner ear issues since September 2016 and we tried drug after drug to bring stability to my varied symptoms. Instead of trying yet another drug, he recommended we see a neurologist. It was a very deflating moment in my search for medical help.
— We bought a 2017 Coleman RV trailer at Camping World. We want to travel more and I’ve found RV’ing to be both relaxing and renewing. Over only four months of last spring and summer we visited (not all in the RV):
- Devil’s Den State Park (AR)
- Withrow Springs State Park (AR)
- Prairie Grove State Park (AR)
- Pea Ridge National Military Park (AR)
- George Washington Carver National Monument (MO)
- Natural Falls State Park (OK)
- Lawrence (KS) & Joplin (MO)
- Eureka Springs (AR)
- Fort Smith National Historic Site (AR)
- Fort McHenry National Monument (MD)
- Silver Dollar City (MO)
- Valles Caldera National Park
- Pecos National Historical Park
- White Sands National Monument
- Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge
- The World War I National Memorial
- Drove the Butterfield Stage Trail in Arkansas
- Other places I now forget!
May
— Shannon’s business picked up during April and then slacked off for the summer. So we traveled to New Mexico on vacation, spending two weeks seeing the sites and visiting our mountain property in Alto. I bought 0.6 acres in 2015 and Shannon had never seen it before.
— I went through a series of neurological tests in order to find a cause for my inner ear issues. Maybe it was brain-related? An MRI showed mild migraine activity and the other tests showed normal brain function. I went on a migraine preventative drug. The doctor suggested I find help at a research hospital.
June
— After being turned away by the Mayo Clinic, Shan found out that Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore was on the cutting edge of vestibular research. We requested an appointment and got one for September, along with testing. It was a great blessing.
July
— We spent the July 4th holiday in Hays, Kansas, with Shannon’s dad and her family. During the trip, we visited the Cosmosphere space museum in Hutchison, KS, one of the highlights of my year. (They have the real Apollo 13 capsule, re-entry burn marks and all!) We went to several air and space museums last year.
— Shannon’s health was dealt another unexpected blow when she was diagnosed with severe food allergies by a clinic here in Fayetteville. She reacted to pretty much every staple of the American diet. We still decided to do a one-month diet and see if it helped her allergies. No gluten, corn, soy, chicken, beef, pork, milk, eggs… well, almost everything. The result? She felt a little better. But we wanted a second opinion.
August
— We met with Shannon’s family in Branson, MO for a weekend of fun and relaxation. Despite it being mid-summer, the lows at night were in the 50’s and we toasted s’mores by the campfire. It was surreal. Mrs. Newton and I went to Silver Dollar City, an amusement park that I once visited as a teen with my grandparents. It was a neat flashback.
— At the end of the month we were introduced to the McCollum family of West Fork, 10 miles south of Fayetteville. Our ministry connection led to the unexpected purchase of a house and three acres that they owned.
September
— Shannon got re-tested by a different allergist in Bentonville. The result? She’s not severely allergic to any foods! (Just the entire outdoors.) Blood testing showed a minor allergy to beef, pork and milk. Nothing was even moderate in severity. We were quite upset at the first clinic and found out that they had a bad rep around town for “loading” their results. They make money on allergy shots, so… yeah.
— Our trip to Johns Hopkins Hospital was both enlightening and deflating. On one hand they did the scientific testing that I needed in order to have a solid diagnosis. On the other hand, the diagnosed conditions still have no cure. I suffer from migraine associated disequilibrium with mal de debarquement symptoms. Testing showed that the balance function in my left ear is mostly dead. I came away from the appointment with no solution but a few more things to try.
October
— We closed on our new house and gradually moved in. It’s small but cozy. Our house came with a cat named Stormy, a 9-year-old Egyptian Mau that the previous tenant left with us. We like to say that Stormy owns the house and we’re just her tenants.
— I started vestibular (balance) rehabilitation in order to restore a little bit of balance. I completed the therapy two years ago in New Mexico but I want to see if it would help me now. I’ll resume my rehab later this month.
— We went to the Apple Festival in the small town of Lincoln. My northern Kansas wife got to eat an apple dumpling for the first time.
November
— We went to Lawrence, Kansas, to celebrate my nephew’s second birthday and to meet our new niece, born in September.
— Thanksgiving was spent in Texas with my family.
— I bought a new 120-square foot greenhouse. I’m still putting it together six weeks later…
— My medical attention turned to my crumbling spine, yet another of my daily afflictions. Maybe I can find relief for the pain? My neurologist ordered an MRI of my upper back.
December
— The MRI showed what I long suspected. I have osteoarthritis in my spine with bulging discs in my neck and thinning vertebrae. Add a dose of scoliosis and… yuck. He recommended that I see a neurosurgeon. I’ll meet with him in January to discuss my surgical options.
— We went with my parents, uncle and aunt to see my 95-year-old grandma. She lives in a nursing home now and has memory problems but her body is hanging on strong. It was important to introduce her to Shannon and vice versa. We each have one living grandparent.
— I turned 41. We went to the light festival at Silver Dollar City to celebrate. Forty-one started out rough. I banged up a toe on my left foot the next night and hurt both elbows the following days. Aging is tough!
— Finally… Christmas! Since Shannon is from Kansas and her parents live in different parts of the state, we usually travel 1700 miles every holiday season between my family and hers. As I write this, we’re only one more 500-mile drive away from home.
I wish that I had something profound to say about the passing seasons and maybe it will come to me in time. But for now, I’m exhausted just thinking about the year that was. For the New Year I’m just praying for better health and more exciting adventures in faith, love and hope.
Happy New Year, my friends!
— John
J.C. Newton 