Joyful January continues!

So husband will be medivac-ed home tomorrow, a mere three weeks and 2 days after I came home in the middle of the night to go to hospital. He has staggered through two weeks of back agony and painkilling jabs in his bum, overseen the Burns Supper event that we organised last Saturday, and today, finally, more or less collapsed after our doctor in Kazakhstan gave him such a heavy dose of drugs that he can barely string a sentence together.

It has been quite distressing to speak to him on skype and see him suffering so much, but being 3,400 miles away there is very little comfort I can give him. I will be so relieved when he comes home and we can look after him.

A week of doctors appointments stretches ahead, and hopefully soon we will know what they think about his back pain, and be able to make a workable strategy for treatment that fits snugly around the arrival of the our new baby sometime near the beginning of March.

This is the fourth January in a row that we have had to deal with serious health scares or death in the family. Four Januarys ago, both our fathers were diagnosed with cancer, so we rushed home to see them and support our families. Three Januarys ago, my-father-in law sadly passed away. Last year, our one-year-old picked up a nasty gastroenteritis bug in the Philippines and ended up on a drip in hospital. And this year, both of us have been crocked in one way or another. I really hope that next year we get a clear run!

On the bright side, the pregnancy continues to go very well, our camper van has decided that it will now start again (it was in a huff after being in a damp, cold garage and unused all winter) and most of our Christmas parcels have worked their way through the vodka-soaked Kazakh postal service and arrived at our home in Almaty, a mere 8 weeks after being posted! Hurrah! Only four are missing and we now have high hopes that they may also eventually arrive.