Wesley K. Cox, MD, might have followed in his father's footsteps and become an attorney. During high school, he worked for his dad, Walter Cox, a medical malpractice defense attorney in Fayetteville.

 

“But instead of being attracted to the law side, like one of my brothers who now works with him, I was drawn to the other side,” Cox said.

 

And as he got more deeply into his medical studies, it became clear that orthopedics was the direction he wanted to pursue. The opportunity to work with athletes is part of what attracted this lifelong sports fan to the specialty.
“My satisfaction is in making something better, rather than figuring something out,” he said. “It's not the thrill of the mystery diagnosis. We get to make (patients) better.”

 

After graduating from Fayetteville High School in 1994, Cox attended Auburn University, graduating magna cum laude with a degree in microbiology. He earned his medical degree at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and stayed on for a residency in orthopedic surgery.

 

“I think the residency program at UAMS was very sound in general orthopedics,” he said, “and gave us good exposure and really fostered an opportunity to feel out what I wanted to do the most.”

 

He followed that desire further in 2008, when he moved to San Francisco for a one-year fellowship in shoulder arthroscopy, reconstruction and sports medicine.
Cox, 34, is now back in his hometown, practicing orthopedic surgery and sports medicine at Arnold & Cox Knee and Shoulder Center. He also works with the University of Arkansas' athletic department, as head team physician for some Razorback sports and as associate team physician for others. In his practice, he focuses on arthroscopic and reconstructive surgery of the shoulder and elbow.
Returning to Fayetteville has allowed Cox, his wife, Alexis, and their children Campbell, 4, and Marin, 2, to remain close with Cox's extended family.

 

Cox is the youngest of three brothers, all six years apart. His parents, Walter and Nita, a homemaker, divorced when he was 8.  The divorce was upsetting, he said, “but provided a choice to find the good. I found the positives in it. I think there's a lot of good that can come from a bad situation.”

 

When his father remarried, Cox gained a stepbrother and stepsister, and his father and stepmother had a daughter together.

 

“Dad finally got his little girl on the fourth try,” Cox said with a laugh. He said the entire family gets along well and enjoys spending time together.

 

His oldest brother has two kids, the middle brother just had his fifth, and his sister has two and one on the way.

 

“We have a huge family,” he said. “Everyone lives here within an hour radius, so we're all real close.”

 

His family and its Arkansas roots provided a grounding influence for Cox, who has especially fond memories of his grandfather, a man with no formal education but who farmed and worked extremely hard.

 

“I used to just ride around with him in his old, broken-down truck, selling lawnmowers on the side,” Cox recalled. “He was my mom's dad, an Eastern Arkansas farmer, whose work ethic I always looked up to.

 

“There were always stories. Every day there were lessons about life, from a guy who couldn't read.”

 

For an intellectual influence, he cites his dad, “a total bookworm sort of guy, who guided me through this education process.”

 

Cox and Alexis, a dental hygienist, got married in December 2001, during his third year of medical school. He was a third-year resident when their son was born, and chief resident when their daughter came along.

 

Like many surgeons, his greatest challenge is balancing work and family time, which he defines as including not just quality time with his wife and children but quantity time as well.

 

“Medicine, especially surgery, is just an extremely hard field on a family,” he said. “Our family does great. My wife is the captain of the ship, so to speak. It's a challenge to pull that off. I think I do a good job, but you always think there are better ways to do it.”

 

Any spare time is spent with his family, mostly outdoors. For exercise, he runs on most days, sometimes pushing both kids in a jogging stroller. He likes to hunt, and in summer the family goes to nearby Beaver Lake. The outings now include their Labradoodle puppy, Harper.

 

Cox's favorite outdoor activity by far is playing golf.
“I'd play every day if I could,” he admitted. “If it weren't for lack of talent, I'd have become a golfer.”

 

But this former college athlete also has an artistic side. While living in the San Francisco Bay area, he discovered he enjoyed photography, especially capturing nature scenes. He also loves music, and would like to learn to play an instrument.
“I have no musical instincts on instruments, so maybe it would be a frustrating task,” he said modestly, “but I love music, every single type of music there is. I certainly don't sing, so in order for me to participate in music, I'd have to play an instrument.”

 

Discussing art reminds him that at one time he was drawn to architecture and thought it might be a field he would like.

 

“I think architecture is very similar in a strange way to orthopedics, because it deals with construction and putting things together. It's two similar expressions of the same line of thinking.”

 

Despite an extraordinarily busy schedule, Cox stays involved in orthopedic research, “trying to bring more information to the shoulder literature and sports literature,” he said. He had one article published in April and another in May, in different journals.

 

While happy in his work and raising his family, Cox admits that someday he hopes to fulfill a secret desire – owning a tree farm. Not Christmas trees, just timber, he explains.