Whether you are religious or not, catholic or not, the events of Easter, the ‘story’ of Easter, must be one of the most extraordinary ones you will ever hear. A few years ago, I was cycling home from Heuston Station, just before Easter. It was late. Cold. Dark. I was listening to music on my phone (were phones not made to make calls anyway?). The usual. Dylan, Stones, Young, Lindenberg, Bach. “Oh Haupt voll Blut und Wunden”, the passion. It made me think. Realize. Is the story of the passion the story of life? Are those three or four days, or maybe this whole week leading up to Easter Sunday, is this our life? Triumph on entering Jerusalem; a last big meal with our friends; the kiss of the traitor; the judge that believes but does not impose a just verdict; the long walk up to Golgotha, the help from strangers, friends, family; the suffering and the end; finally, the defeat of death. The victory of hope.
Pádraig had a bit of a setback today for a few minutes when he was moved into a new position. His oxygen levels went down quite low. This used to happen regularly, but it had not happened for quite some time. Luckily the staff (nurse and doctor) managed to get his breathing back up to normal without more than the routine intervention, more or less as ‘always’.
After that, we arranged the merry-Reck-MOTOmed for Pádraig, which “führt zur Ausschüttung von Glückshormonen” according to its manufacturers. In our case it simly führt zur Ausschüttung von ‘stress hormones’, in a good way. We are getting really better in adjusting the machine to Pádraig, and in getting him to do the exercises almost every day, but it is still a bit stressful, again: in a a good way. – My common sense tells me that this is really fantastic, he needs the movement, his legs need to be ‘coached’, his feet will need to realize that they are controlled by him. The more his blood circulates, the better and the sooner his brain will recover. We are so excited about this, it’s hard to explain.
When we told Pádraig that we were now going to lift his legs into the merry-Reck-MOTOMed, he started to move his feet! Once he got going, interestingly, his hear, temperature, and oxygen level did not go down – all the important parameter improved. Isn’t that marvelous? We remind ourselves all the time to take it very easy with Pádraig and we will stop the merry-Reck-MOTO Med as soon as he gets too stressed out.
Bach, BWV 244-63 O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Strandkorbgrenze
Twitter: @forPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Hospi-Tales 
Cáisc shona! You are quite right, Reinhard, we all have our personal ‘caminos’ to travel in life. Pádraig’s immediate one is to get to the rose garden, to see, smell and enjoy the roses. Tarlóidh sé – it will happen. Coinnigh an creideamh, Siobhán x
Spring time seems to take just that little bit longer to arrive this year, Siobhán. The roses haven’t come out yet, and this super-cooper-custom-made wheelchair hasn’t arrived yet. In the meantime, we keep going on the bike! – Reinhard
Cáisc mhór mhaith agaibh. Thanks for sharing all of this with us Reinhard. So happy to hear about Pádraig’s progress, and so excited for him to get to the rose garden :). Thinking of you all today. I really liked your “Good Friday Agreement” idea, there are lots of us here in Ireland who are going to help you make this a reality. Grá mór do Phádraig, Caoimhe
Thank you, Caoimhe! – Yes, I like the idea of the ‘2nd Good Friday Agrement’ a lot too. We’ll start working on it tomorrow, and we should talk about it some time to see how to get it going. – Reinhard