This morning, I spent a bit of time writing up some thoughts about the accident. Doing what I do (or should be doing:), I did a bit of research and found this book about “City Cycling”. It’s a book of edited articles, one about “Cycling Safety”. For various reasons, it’s a really interesting article that says, amongst other things, about cycling accidents: The language of injury causation is often distorted, with a tendency to blame the victim. They say that what could be considered ‘normal behaviour’ becomes ‘irresponsible’ (especially when children are involved) whereas the real causes, dangerous neighbourhood and roadway design and dangerous driver behaviour are usually not addressed.

Think about it: it happens regularly. Stuff is turned upside down. Victims become perpetrators. Dictators and mass murderers become heroes. Terrorists become freedom fighters. Torture becomes an acceptable interrogation technique. Innocent children become ‘collateral’.

This is when you need a clear head. When you have goal posts that don’t shift. When you know where you stand. When you stand firm and name what is bad: quite often, like Rumpelstilzchen, it stumps with its feed, gets really angry, and then – disappears.

Another day in the room. Pádraig is now getting physiotherapy to strengthen his core which will allow him to breathe better, which, in turn, will make it easier to take out the tracheostomy, eventually. That would really be another big step forward: being able to manage without this tube stuck in his neck. He is well able now to breathe, even with the tracheostomy completely closed – which is what we are practising once or twice a day. The problem is that he can do this only when his head is in a good position. What he needs to work on is to develop the muscles and strength to keep the airwaves open, even when his head is not in the ideal position.

He needs to stump his feet, not just tap:), and the tracheostomy will disappear – just like Rumpelstilzchen!!!

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