My First Trip to the Hospital

Hello to Everyone!

It is good to hear you still have nice weather in Arizona, LUCKY! It is so HOT & HUMID here!. I hope you all have a good time in Utah, have fun and be safe! Wow, Kade you have two puppies now, that’s cool. Hey, congrats Monson on going to the temple! Ah man, the mission is unbelievable; you are going to love it!!!

You are right Mom, we definitely need the members help in our ward! It was good Sunday, we went on splits with members, I was with Alex and a ward member, so it was really awesome to have the members involved. The teaching this week has gone pretty good, however, Elder Garcia never lets me teach lessons, so I have to interrupt and say my piece, I have been trying to get him to let me talk more so we are still working on it. We are teaching a new family, Martinez, they are a pretty sweet family. They have two kids and the dad plays baseball for a living. He plays on Sunday’s so he can’t go to church with us but we will work with him more. Other than that I have not done much this week because it has been one crazy week….

Last Monday, P-day, after I posted my letter to you on email, all the Elder’s went to the church to play basketball, football, and ping-pong. I was feeling hot and sweating like crazy, more than normal, so I went and changed out of gym clothes and into my street clothes and started to play the piano. While I was playing my back started to hurt, so I took off my back pack, then I started to get a pain down my whole left side up into my neck and I was having a hard time breathing. Elder Sugden came and started playing the piano next to me and I told him I wasn’t feeling well. We got up and walked out to the foyer to where the other Elder’s were sitting and I told them I was not feeling good and I was trying to explain to them in Spanish how I was feeling since nobody speaks English. The pain just hit me again, I couldn’t breathe and I collapsed on the couch, my left arm was numb now and all I could think was I was having a heart attack. The Elders were around me trying to figure out what was wrong and one called the Mission Doctor, I couldn’t even breathe to talk to him so he said to call the Mission President. Elder Sugden and another Elder gave me a blessing while the president sent two A.P.’s with the car to pick me up, carry me out to the car and take me to the hospital. Elder Sugden came with us too.

It was hard to breathe and my chest hurt like crazy, we were speeding down the roads, the roads are full of pot holes and every time we hit one, it made the pain worst. The kept telling me to keep breathing and to hold on! I think we made it to the hospital in 10 minutes and it usually takes 25 minutes by taxi. The hospital happened to be the best one in Nicaragua so I was well taken care of. They rushed me into a bed and the doctor kept asking me medical terms in Spanish so I was having a hard time communicating with him and telling him what I was feeling in Spanish. They took some x-rays and they said I had a bubble outside of my lung (infection). They call it “The Devils Grip” down here. I stayed in the hospital overnight, my hero Elder Sugden stayed with me the whole time. The hospital was awesome, the food was awesome, the bed was even awesome, and I loved the stay. Ha-ha. They kept me over night and released me the next day, I was to rest for four days and after resting the doctor said I was better and could go back to teaching later in the week. DO NOT CALL THE MISSION HOME, I AM OKAY NOW!

Love, Elder Buck

Note from Sandra: I looked up “The Devil’s Grip” online and found it is called Bornholm Disease or epidemic pleurodynia. It is a viral disease that is easily spread from person to person, the characteristics include sudden, violent pain in the chest, fever (his excessive sweating) and difficulty breathing. It is treated with pain medicine only. Without complications all symptoms leave within one week. It is common in hot tropical climates and usually affects children, but since McCoy does not have an immunity built up like the adult natives, he will be susceptible to the virus’ and diseases.