When we were making plans to evacuate from Cape Cod and to fly Pádraig home, the doctors advised us that it would be safer for Pádraig to get a PEG, a direct entry into his stomach to which a tube could be connected in order to provide him with nutrition and hydration. They said it would be safer for the journey than a tube through the nose.

from: https://elai-bloggt.de/peg-button-selbst-gezogen-ballon-undicht/
from: http://forum.mndassociation.org/showthread.php?5182-Peg-users

(Note: the pictures above are not of Pádraig but from the web.)

He had the PEG for 15 months. However, in 2015 we gradually introduced Pádraig to drink and food. Since the summer of 2015 he took his food only orally. Since the beginning of this year he took his liquids and drinks only orally.

And today, his PEG was taken out.

It will take a few days to close and heal up. There will be a mark on his stomach that he once had a PEG but it will become a distant memory.

This is a very major step. One that few expected him ever to take.

Two other really important things happened today. Someone in the family got a preliminary date for a final operation that will move things in the right direction. And I had an almost one hour-long conversation with the Archbishop of Dublin about injuries to the brain, about Pádraig, and about efforts to help persons with sABI to recover. It was one of the best conversations in my life. Ever.