JollyPlayer
Dr. Jim Fox
Southern Indiana, United States 
Member Since:
Jul 17, 2009
Last Login:
Feb 9, 2012
Profile Views:
5531
Points:
640
Homepage: www.allbrassradio.com
Birthday: May 3, 1957
Occupation: Disabled: Formed Clergy and College Professor
About Me:
Recent Update:
June 7 ... Left the hospital after having my gallbladder removed via Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy and part of my liver. I am very sore and still feel a lot of pain. I had over 20 gallstones and a lot of fatty acid tissue on my liver. Even though they opened the smallest part of me they could, they had me in surgery for well over an hour.
The mass on my liver was benign (yea!) I am very sore even on my normal pain meds. Quite the painful weekend in several ways - and several weeks to go until I am "good",
I was told, that although they chopped my gallbladder into small pieces and pulled it out through my belly button, my gallbladder probably looked something like this before they cut it out.
Profile:
January 2011 absence: I was under a lot of stress. Some major headaches, fluctuating blood sugar, and my back was extraordinarily painful. Under such stress, I thought I might have to give up chess altogether. I resigned from all non-team games and made preparations to leave Chess.com.
After doubling my pain meds in October, my physician doubled them again in late December, 2010. I did not realize how much pain I was in. But my physician is an amazing man. He saved my life several years ago when I had a 11 day stay in the hospital after falling unconscious.
Ailments:
I have several ailments that stemmed from a car accident that happened in September of 2001. Some are directly related, some have been deteriorating over the years.
The worst is my back. I have three bulging discs which cause tremendous pain. They stem from the car accident and a botched surgery. The car accident was quite the thing. I was stopped in the bus lane behind a bus that was stopped picking up passengers. A lady in a new BMW ran the red light (they had a red light camera) at about 40 mph and then slammed on the breaks. She hit me twice. First impact and then the rebound. She had a fancy car so the 25 mph bumpers and air bag kept her from getting hurt. No real damage to her car except she need a new air bag.
It totaled my pre-airbag car. Of course she could afford a fancy lawyer -- I had to take what the insurance company provided. I got less than 1/2 year’s wages in a settlement for an accident that ruined my life.
It looked very close to this picture:
I had one surgery (out-patient) and felt a bit better. Then my back started to slowly but surely deteriorate. Then one day with a very tight back I fell down the stairs while packing my wife and son to travel to Colorado.
I broke a bone in my foot. We live in the boondocks so I was taking them to the St. Louis airport. My foot hurt, but not horribly. On the way back I could not bare the pain so I stopped at a Convenience Care clinic figuring they would put a cast on foot, and I could drive home.
Oops. I had a rare fracture called a Jones Fracture and almost lost my little toe (see below). It took a 4 1/2 inch stainless screw in an emergency orthopedic surgery to keep from losing my toe. The Convenience Care clinic gave me an orthopedic boot, and not drowsy shot for the pain and I drove home with instructions to see an Orthopedic Surgeon ASAP. I did the next day and had the surgery the day after.
Between the back and my foot, standing and walking provides me with unbearable pain. After the surgery, I got a clot in my foot which worked its way to my lungs. My lungs were filled with clots to the tune of 80% full! I could barely breathe. They gave me only a 5% chance of living through the first night in the hospital. I passed out twice and hit the floor twice before I got admitted.
That leads to the next problem - chronic severe headaches. I have been knocked unconscious at least a dozen times in my life. I was out for 3 days when I was 11 years old (accident while playing). Twice in high school, once in midget football, once in Little League baseball, once in a mountain bike accident, once in a skiing accident, once hitting the diving board as part of the diving team -- which names most of them.
The back injury really drives the headaches. I rarely have a headache free day even on pain killers.
I had a second back surgery which made things MUCH worse.
Lastly, I am an insulin dependent diabetic. That also drives the headaches something awful.
After leaving the hospital, I tried to go back to work (I am a licensed mental health therapist). With the headaches and diabetes I could not concentrate. I would fall asleep (or nearly so) in sessions. I had two blood sugar problems. So finally I quit. I have not worked since. I have re-filed for disability, but that takes about 2 years before you get a hearing.
Why do I tell every player this? Sometimes I get so sick I stay in bed for days and may lose on time. I have been known to sleep 35 hours straight! at my worst. If I lose on time, you know I am really sick.
Education:
That is a wild story about my health. My education is almost as wild. I have an undergraduate degree in Music Ministries from Central Christian College (McPherson, KS). A Bachelor’s degree in General Earth Sciences from the University of Northern Colorado (a combination of Meteorology and Oceanography). From there I went straight to my doctorate in Educational Psychology, Research and Evaluation (EPRE) again from the University of Northern Colorado. That is a degree that combined Applied Statistics to Psychological Measurement. I was going to be the person who made the new psych tests.
But I got married to a pastor. I needed a degree and a career that was portable so I could stay with her as we traveled following her career. So I went to being a shrink.
I wanted to practice therapy and my “theoretical degree” was not enough according to the State of Colorado. Therefore, 10 years after I got my doctorate, I got a Master’s Degree from Denver Seminary in Theology and Counseling. Always looks funny on my resume -- most think it is a typo. But now, I went straight from the Bachelor’s Degree to the Doctorate, and then got my Master’s Degree 10 years later.
With all my head injuries, etc., I play a lot of chess and some “go” to keep my mind as sharp as possible.
I wrote a book in 2008.
About Worship and its Deep Meaning. Available in many places including Amazon.com. I did this too to help keep my mind working (available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble).
My Son is a Sophomore at the University of Southern Indiana. He is still an undecided major but leaning towards physics as a major and is doing well.
