Three months later and I’m back to work full time again, FINALLY!

For those of you who have just started reading this blog, a little cliff notes version of what’s been going on at Jim Karr Photography.

August 12th on my way home from a wedding I was rear-ended (some details below in older posts.)   I was taken to the hospital via an ambulance due to the horrible neck pain I started experiencing about 5 minutes post-accident.

Released from the hospital that night (although my 2 week old car wasn’t so lucky, $4000 of damage. ) all seemed well.   Over the next week I started to experience headaches.  BAD headaches.   I was also taking daily 6-8 hour naps, which anyone who knows me will tell you is very atypical of me (the one that sleeps 6 hours a night and no naps!)    So off to the doctor I went.

My doctor did a full workup including a CT scan to see if there was anything wrong internally.  One one hand it was good nothing was broken, but on the other, it didn’t show anything was broken so the headaches and long naps were still a mystery.   My doctor referred me to a neurologist, which was the next step in my journey.

Enter Dr. Christea, a great Neurologist in Dyer.  I met with him, explained my symptoms and he started a physical exam.   During this exam he was feeling the muscles/bones in my neck and pressing on various points.  One point he hit, felt like ice picks being plunged into my skull.  That couldn’t be good!   We talked for a few minutes and then it happened, instant headache.   It was a good thing he was doing the physical exam and we were still talking afterwards.  The pressure point he hit and the subsequent headache told him that I had compressed nerves from the whiplash action of the accident.   Sorry I can’t tell you the technical term, but it was some kind of compression syndrome.   We finally knew what it was that was causing my problems.  Now, to fix it!  But, just to be safe I took a trip to the local MRI center.

For those of you that know me, you know I am NOT a small boy.  At just over 6′9″ I’ve never had problems in my life with claustrophobia.   That was until I was strapped down on that MRI table and pushed into the belly of the beast.   Wow.  I had to have the technician pull me out and wait a few minutes.. then I followed his advice and closed my eyes before going back in and didn’t open them again until I was on my way out!

Thankfully, my MRI didn’t show anything, so nothing broke in the accident, which is always good to know.  To help with the headaches, my neurologist sent me to physical therapy twice a week, where they performed wonderful treatments like electro stimulation and ultrasound.  Electro stimulation, I can only think that feels like a mild version of sticking a fork in an outlet!

Between the physical therapy, exercise and stretching, I’m now happy to report that I’m back to 100% and ready to take on the holidays.

I would also like to apologize to those customers that have made attempts to reach me over the phone during the last 3 months and had less than stellar results.  I am in the process of returning all phone calls and making sure we are up to date with all orders, albums, etc.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Jim Karr
Jim Karr Photography