Some, well: many, very many years ago, I decided to buy a CD with the movie Shrek in Germany. I thought it was so funny and entertaining that Pádraig and his sisters would like it so much that they wouldn’t mind that it was in German. It would be a great way for them to learn more German, in a fun way.

They were delighted.

Pádraig took the wrapper of, took out the CD, pushed it into the CD player connected to our telly, selected ‘English’ – and off they went having a great time, watching ‘Shrek’, laughing their heads off. Only that they movie was running in English. The tech guru that I am had not even thought about the possibility that CDs come in different language versions. Well, they do…

When I watched ‘Shrek’ in German (on my own:), I realised who badly translated all the nursery rhymes were. ‘Run, run, like the Gingerbread Man’, for example was translated literally, word by word. Good job, I thought, the kids had not watched it in German!

I had to think of that story yesterday, when Pat and I saw the German version of the Gingerbread Man, called ‘Stutenkerl’, with the typical pipe (the kind I had once used for my first smoking adventures).

Tonight, Pádraig’s big sister is with him. She’ll be there with him until Pat goes back tomorrow. Today was such a busy day that I can’t think clearly, my head aches, my eyes hurt.

Just before I switch off the light, a thought about the scandal ‘discovered’ at this home in Mayo. What I haven’t heard any commentator saying is that there was nothing to be ‘discovered’. Everybody working there, including the management, knew what was going on, and if they did not participate, they allowed it to continue. In the same way that everybody in the ‘system’ knows that long-term patients in hospitals and homes, patients with severe acquired brain injuries, people who cannot protest, get injured and suffer with dropped feet, dangerous bed sores, and injured shoulders. Everybody knows… “how the State treats the most vulnerable people” (RTÉ news at 9, tonight).

Today’s German Music Tip
Udo Lindenberg, Gegen die Strömung – As a song, it’s ok. As a title, it couldn’t be better. The world needs more people moving against the current, against the wind, being themselves, knowing what is right and what is wrong.
What’s hot
Skrek
What’s cold
Run, run, Gingerbread Man
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Stutenkerl

What do you think when someone mentions “pull-ups”? Seriously.

Body builders? People who want to pep up their muscles?

To be honest, I don’t think I ever managed a pull-up in my life. I haven’t given up on it yet, but it’s still going to take some time before I’ll get there.

Well, I was thinking about that when I was doing those really mindless exercises with Pádraig. Fingers, hand, lower arm, upper arm. About ten times up and down. Not that they wouldn’t be good for him. They are. But it’s very passive. And boring. And sooo un-challenging.

So I thought: why not try some simple, easy ‘pull-ups’. Just starting with the arms.

And while doctors and physios are still discussing whether he is able to open and close, and close and open, his hands, or at least one hand, and which hand works better than the other… I put my hand into his. I lifted my hand up. And guess what? Pádraig held on. All by himself. He, by himself, held on to my hand (I did not hold on to his) and when I lifted my hand and arm up, his arm went up to.

There was no difference, absolutely none, between the left hand and the right hand. He held on to my hand (I did not hold on to his) when I lifted my arm up, and he basically pulled himself up (well his arm, at least) by holding on to my hand when I lifted it.

Today, we did it 20 times on each side. Another first!

By Christmas, at least some of his muscles will be back (and I’ll have built up some on my own too:).

Today, his doctor stopped one of the drugs Pádraig had been getting to control possible cramps. We don’t know, of course, whether this was just coincidence – but today, Pádraig ate really well, a full plate of chocolate pudding and mashed apples. No problems with swallowing at all. And he spent another few hours with the cannula blocked off. No problems with that either.

We had a short conversation today with his doctor on his tracheostomy and the different views we got from a speech therapist and two nose, throat and ear doctors in the UKE. We’ll keep exploring all the options and working on the best solution for Pádraig.

Today’s German Music Tip
Udo Lindenberg, Baltimore. – A German version of this great Randy Newman song, about the seagulls coming into town for survival in a city where you really don’t want to be – because its end is near. They steal a car and get away, far away. Take my hand.
What’s hot
Pull-ups
What’s cold
Pull-downs (is this a new word?)
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Klimmzug

It’s late, heading towards the midnight hour in Hamburg. Just finished having a 2-hour call with a colleague and friend in the US, mostly about work, but, inevitably, also about Pádraig and how he is doing.

During that conversation I realised how complicated and complex this whole situation is. What do you answer if someone asks you “and how is Pádraig doing”?

There is the short answer. For some reason, I’m not a man for short answers. (In my first job, when I had been in Ireland for just a short time, someone asked me “how are you”. I grabbed a chair, sat down, and told him. He never asked me that question again:)

Well, how is Pádraig?

He is getting better. All the time. He has setbacks but gets over these, as he does at the moment get over the operation he had last Friday. He has made tremendous progress, really, compared to where he was after the accident. One day, I will get back to those days when doctors were confronting us with the most difficult questions you could ask a parent. When they were completely and utterly out of line. Not today. Pádraig can eat (small quantities and mashed and very smooth like stewed apple or yoghurt); he can communicate (moving his tongue, most of the time); we have heard him saying words (very few and very simple words which were very ‘breathed’, with a very low and weak ‘breathed’ voice); he can breathe by himself and without additional oxygen (most of the time); he can sit in a wheelchair for several hours without a problem; he can ‘stand’ on a tilt table for 30 minutes; he can ‘cycle’ the MOTOMed (the  machine moves his legs); he squeezes our hands at appropriate times; he smiles and (sometimes) cries at the appropriate times. All very basic things. But he is with us. And he is improving in very small steps all the time.

While he himself cannot move or control most of his body, he has been moving hundreds and thousands of people around the world. Many have been doing things they had never ever even had dreamt of – until they launched the Dreamboat and got on board.

But, above all, there have been so many people, countless, who have expressed their love in a way that must have changed them forever. In a way that they will never forget. In their lifetime. They will pass this on to their children and grandchildren. And together, they will make the world a better place.

I got a call this morning. It took a while until I realised who I was talking to. It was Pádraig’s orthodontist. He asked me to send him “Amhrán do Pádraig” posters for his practice; and he offered to look after Pádraig’s teeth, visit him, make sure they were ok. Imagine that. Think about it. That was another Dreamboater, just like yourself!

I wish I could be with you tomorrow night in person. In spirit, I will be. Pádraig will be there too. Right bang in the middle. Sticking out heads above everyone else. One of his arms high up in the air. Smiling. Sailing down the stream. Having fun. On the Dreamboat.

Nothing is impossible if you believe in it.

When I rang the UKE this morning, just to see how Pádraig had been during the night, they told me he was fine.

Then they said that if we wanted to talk to an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist about Pádraig’s tracheostomy, we’d better come over immediately, because he was on his way.

When we got there after a drive that was just a tiny bit too fast, we just made it for the meeting with the ENT specialist. Turned out that we also just made to be with Pádraig when he was getting ready to be transferred back to the Schön-Klinik.

Tonight he is back in his ‘old’ room, in his ‘old’ bed. The idea of having lived in a hospital, the same hospital, for over a year. Can you imagine that?

I have decided to get onto this Dreamboat. Not because it’s trending in Dublin, but because it’s just amazing. Don’t worry if you don’t know what ‘trending’ is. I didn’t know either – just that one of Pádraig’s friends tweeted that THE DREAMBOAT IS TRENDING TONIGHT IN DUBLIN. Just behind the “jungle”.  What’s the “jungle”? Sure it wouldn’t float!?

I had doubts it would swim, I thought it would sink. Just shows you – if you believe you’re limited, you are. If you believe that anything is possible as long as you try hard enough, as long as you believe, then there won’t be any doubts, no limits!

Basically, it means that there were so many tweets about the “Dreamboat” tonight that it got into second place, just behind the jungle-get-me-out-of-here! The #Dreamboat is afloat. No doubt!

There has been another article about the launch of the #dreamboat in a national newspaper.

No matter what. No matter where we’ll be.

We will all be in the Grand Social on Wednesday Night. In 48 hours.

And it floated like a dream
On those waves just you and me
Is it a sign of things to come
Lets just sail and have some fun

In 48 hours.