What I did for the last 2 hours of 2016 and first hour of 2017

Merry 2017 everybody!
I got to spend my New Years just about as crazy as
you can as a missionary and not wearing pants...
...because I was in a hospital gown :) 

Long story short: P-day basketball injury (No regrets) got kneed real hard in the thigh and got a hematoma under my muscle that pushed against with my nerves and next thing I know I was in the ER a few days later. Almost made it my whole mission without having to put one of those silly hospital wristbands on, so close. 


Happy new year! So I need a few more details! what is going on with your leg? Did they do labs when you were in the ER? What were your platelets levels?  If not, we need to do them soon. How are you feeling? Did you tell them you have Aplastic Anemia? Why are you having the numbness? Do you have any petechiae anywhere else? Is it directly related to the injury to your leg? 
Personally,!I really could've gone the full two years without an ER visit!

We are at Kate's mission farewell, but I will keep checking my phone, to hopefully have a conversation with you about all of this. Please know you need to pay attention to this until we know where all your labs stand. You need to be very detailed about the numbness and any other bleeding?

I love you very much

Happy 2017 my sweet boy!

Hi mom :) Sorry you've probably been worried all day. I'm fine don't worry. No they didn't do labs. Yes I told them I have aplastic anemia. No petechiae or even surface bruising. 

So I don't know how much Sister Badger told you but here it is. So we were playing basketball on P-day and I got kneed really hard in the thigh. It just felt like a really hard dead leg at first but to the point that it knocked the wind out of me. Then over the next couple days it just kept getting worse and worse and more painful and stiff every step I took. Friday night I had a hard time sleeping because I couldn't sleep on either side without it hurting and if I slept straight my leg would tingle. Then all day Saturday my leg kept going numb and having weird shooting nerve sensations down to my ankle and toes. And every time I would stand up I would get light headed. Which kind of made me scared because I'm no doctor but it just seemed like symptoms of a blood clot in my leg and I know that's bad. So then we were playing games with the Badgers New Years eve night and my leg was just going numb and it felt like somebody was blowing a balloon up inside my knee joint. So that's when President said alright we're going to the ER. 

Took forever but they did a couple tests and an ultrasound and I don't have any blood clots but on the ultrasound they did see a hematoma under my thigh muscle that the doctor thinks is pushing against my nerve and causing all the weird symptoms. Said it should go away in a week or few weeks. But did offer to prescribe me pain meds which I said I didn't need I'd just do normal pain stuff but now I'm about to call and get the prescription probably because the pain has gotten quite a bit worse last night and today. I'll be getting labs done tomorrow around 1:00.

Am I ok to get the pain med prescription?

But other than that it was an awesome week! Got to talk to all the family on Christmas which was amazing! Best thing ever as a missionary. Then got to go to the Nauvoo temple on Tuesday which is always a super spiritual experience. I'm not trunky but one thing I'm really excited for coming home is being able to go to the temple a lot more than once every other month!

We also had a fantastic first new member lesson with Wes this week. We talked about Priesthood and temples, and he brought up that he is thinking about going on a mission one day. He's 18 now so he would just have to wait to be a member for 1 year. He said he didn't think it was an option since he's in the military but the Katzenbach's told him he could put his contract on hold or something like that. Once he said that Elder Jakubczak and I of course just started bombarding him with how awesome missions are, how it's the best decision we've ever made, how much we've learned, the amazing people you get to meet. The whole time we were talking about it Wes's face was just lighting up and he was just smiling. I definitely see the Spirit come into peoples faces a lot when we teach, but this was STRONG he was lit with the Spirit. I love that guy so much.

Today in Priesthood we had a lesson on goal setting and spent some time making goals in different areas of our lives for this upcoming year, as well as making plans to accomplish those goals. I especially loved it because Bro. Taylor taught about goals straight out of PMG. Which reminds me of another miracle I lost my PMG 2 weeks ago (with all of my recent convert info and notes and highlights from the past 22 months) and was super sad and have been praying everyday to find it and I found it today!

But even though new years resolutions are super cliche, it's such a good time (it's always a good time) to make a goal and figure out what we can do today, right now, to take the first step to reach that goal.  

Love Elder Cox