Today is the second of advent and, as it happens, the 33rd anniversary of John Lennon’s death. I know, I won’t ask the ‘where-were-you-when-you-heard-the-news?’ question… most of Pádraig’s friends weren’t even born then. Pat and I were in Spain, studying in Salamanca, laying the foundations of something long lasting without realizing it, having the year of our lives.

When I first heard about the Schön-Klinik , I thought: what a name for a hospital (‘schön’ meaning: nice, beautiful, pretty)! Then, a few days ago, I talk to somebody around the reception area of the hospital who told me a bit about the history and the background of the Schön-Klinik. It’s an incredible story. To cut it short: The Schön-Klinik was founded in 1985, is headquartered in the south of Germany, on the very ‘schön’ Chiemsee, and comprises 16 hospitals across Germany. It employs 8,500 people, treated 88,000 patients in 2012 (in the whole of Ireland: 603,911), and had revenues of 591 million euro in the same year. I kept the most amazing fact to last: It’s named after its owner: Dieter Schön and his family!

Today, when we went to see Pádraig, he seemed to be very tired. We watched the Lat Late Toy Show with him – which didn’t seem to make much of an impression. The doctors were saying that they didn’t quite understand why his breathing and oxygen saturation is not better than it is. He is still on a respirator and should get more than enough oxygen, yet his oxygen saturation is just about ok. The pneumothorax seems to be fixed and his left lung is back were it used to be. They have left the drainage and ‘under-pressure’ going over the weekend and will probably try to reduce the under-pressure over the coming days before taking the drainage out, if all goes according to plan. One of the doctors showed and explained to us a recent CT which, he said, did not show too much damage in the regions where it provided a good image. They are still planning to do an MRT to get a better idea of areas that the CT doesn’t show very well. – When we left tonight, Pádraig had kind of woken up: both of his eyes were open and he seemed to follow our conversation, and to react with squeezing our hands.

Over the coming two weeks, there will be a few friends visiting. It’ll be great for Pádraig to get all the news from home!

Today’s German Music Tip
Herbert Grönemeyer, Bochum (1984/2012) – I’m not from Bochum, but from Dortmund, just beside Bochum, but this could be a song about my home town (was it not for the VFL Bochum:)
What’s hot
Bell X1, Kodaline, The Coronas sending their best wishes to Pádraig
What’s cold
rain, rain, rain on the motorway
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Witzwort, Quickborn, Welt – All names of villages we pass every day.

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
web: http://www.caringforPadraig.org