A memorable Christmas?

Well yes, but not necessarily for pleasant reasons!  On Christmas afternoon, Sarah's dad Bob went for a walk after lunch and came back to the house some minutes later complaining of bad chest pain.  Fortunately Sarah and her mum were able to quickly get him to a nearby hospital, and after an initial examination, he was transferred by emergency ambulance to the main hospital in Nicosia. Within an hour he was in surgery, and had a first operation to install a stent in a main heart artery and then a second operation in later on Christmas night after some recurrent chest pain. Both operations went well, and Bob then spent a few days in intensive care recovering before being transferred to a private hospital closer to our house.

During his time in hospital, Bob learned some of the finer points of the Cypriot health system, and no doubt wished he spoke more Greek!  Fortunately though, the standard of medical care in Cyprus is generally good and Bob has an excellent cardiologist here.  However it's unsettling to be in hospital in a foreign country, and we were very thankful to be able to welcome Bob back home a few days ago to continue his recovery.

As often is the case in these situations, a little bit of humour can help.  We all had a bit of laugh when the kids first went to visit Bob in hospital, and Anna's first question was to ask Bob how he broke his neck?  And then there was the situation as Bob was being discharged from the main hospital, and Meaden said that the nursing staff kept asking her about 'the pain'.  She was unaware what they were talking about, until someone held up a 20 Euro note, and she realised they were referring to 'the paying', and how would the bill be settled?  (perhaps pain and paying could be considered as the same thing!).  Fortunately some good travel insurance will take care of that one.

Bob is welcomed home!

So overall it was an unexpected series of events over Christmas, but Bob was very lucky that the heart attack occurred when it did, and not at some other point on their travels in Paris or even in Northern Cyprus.   He's now recovering well with us at home and will travel back to Australia a few weeks later than originally planned, sometime in the second half of January.  We will cherish the opportunity for some additional time together. Sarah and Meaden have even managed to sneak in a brief mother and daughter visit to Istanbul this week, which is a rare opportunity for them to spend some time together away from the noise and chaos of kids and home.

With Sarah and Meaden away, last night Bob, Zoe, myself and the kids sat around after dinner and shared some hopes for 2014.  Bob's hope was for good health, and with this we all definitely concur!  Happy New Year.

Happy New Year! 1st Jan 2014 in the Troodos Mountains