Just listening to the news @ 9 – waiting time for hospital treatment in Ireland has increased by 12% and the HSE is again reporting a huge deficit. Sounds like as if things are not getting better, but worse. I know that different people have different views on this, but I cannot, as hard as I try, understand how a Government can cut taxes to make people feel good about the so-called economic recovery, when there are so many people suffering. – There also was a report on the radio this afternoon saying that Ireland is short of thousands of nursing home places, with old people in need of a place in a nursing home having to wait four months.

I met Pat in the airport this morning when she was getting of the plane I was about to board. We talked on the mobile across bullet proof glass. What a feeling!

Early morning rise tomorrow to get to Limerick by 8am.

Got a call by the Hamburg Doctor in charge of looking after young people with disabilities who had good news about Pádraig’s treatment and therapy plan following his discharge from the hospital. Looks like that if we find a bigger apartment she’ll have, with a bit of luck, 24-hour care and therapy in place by the time he’ll leave hospital.

Pat had a real good day with Pádraig. He had a double ‘Vojta‘ therapy session, the first in several weeks, one of these where he is on his front on a special Bobath table and the therapist works so hard with him that they both end up completely exhausted. Pádraig moves limbs when the therapists stimulates certain parts of his body. It’s fascinating and amazing to see the effect of this kind of physio therapy.

When I talked to Pat tonight, I felt that today she had a similar experience in the hospital as I had had yesterday. There is a sense of presence with Pádraig, there are reactions, that are all difficult to capture as ‘hard facts’, but that are, nonetheless, there. And I’m sure that they will, over time, more visible and more clearly observable.

Once I’m back from Limerick tomorrow night, I’ll do my mental preparation for the marathon. According to my ‘plan’, I’ll just have to do another 5km on Saturday of a ‘light jog’ before the coming Monday. Easy, eh?