Earlier today, Cormac Ó hEadhra interviewed Pat on RTÉ Raidio na Gaeltachta on “Cormac ag a Cúig”.

The full programme is also available on the RTÉ (Irish Radio) Raidio na Gaeltachta website (the interview starts at 00:16). RTÉ followed up on our Open Letter to Taoiseach Enda Kenny, T.D. Pat talked about Pádraig’s accident, his transfer from Cape Cod to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, the lack of adequate care and specialized neuro rehab services in Ireland, and Pádraig’s involuntary transfer to Hamburg.

This is Pádraig in studio with Éadaoin Nic Giolla Bhríghde in Sept 2011. Cormac Ó hEadhra is presenter.

The programme caused an incredible amount of activity. Pádraig would have been delighted to see what an Irish language programme can achieve: Apparently, there have been meetings between the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Health earlier today. The Taoiseach wrote a letter to us which was waiting for his signature after his meeting with my fellow German Angela, and Pat’s childhood friend Paul David Hewson, otherwise known as Bono (she has a confirmation picture with herself and the man with the pink glasses) down at the National Convention Centre. And that is not where the story ends. Later in the afternoon, a number of newspapers rang, among them the Independent and the Irish Daily Mail. We’ll see tomorrow to which extend they will report on the interview.

RTÉ also released a press release.

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RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta
Press Release

            Mother appeals to Taoiseach for improved Rehab services


Pádraig Schäler, 23, received a serious brain injury in an accident in the US last summer.  In an interview today on Cormac ag a Cúig on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta his mother, Patricia O’Byrne, described her experience of trying to get the correct medical treatment for her son, and the decision she made, together with her husband Reinhard Schäler, to pen an open letter to the Taoiseach titled: “This Broken Health System” earlier this week.

Due to the lack of adequate services for Pádraig’s care and rehabilitation in Ireland, the family has had to move to Hamburg, Germany, to ensure that he receives the care he needs.

Pádraig Schäler had just finished his studies in Trinity College last year when he went to the US on a J1 visa.  On 27 June he acquired a very severe brain injury when he was hit by a van while cycling on Cape Cod.  He had insurance, but because he was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, his insurance would not cover him.

Patricia told Cormac that they were inspired to write the letter to the Taoiseach after hearing his speech on Fine Gael’s new universal healthcare proposals.

Patricia explained that they transferred Pádraig, who remains in a coma, back to Ireland two and half weeks after his accident.  He was brought to Beaumont Hospital, where he spent 4 months.

“All the experts stressed the importance of early rehab in cases such as Pádraig’s, but Pádraig was going to have to wait 1 year in Beaumont for a bed in the National Rehabilitation Hospital.  Even then, he would only receive 3 months of rehab.  There are only 3 beds in the whole country for people with injuries like Pádraig’s.  The experts all said that he would need 1.5 to 5 years rehab, so even after a 1 year wait, he would not get the care he needed.”

Patricia explained that Pádraig’s father, Reinhard, went to Germany and was told that Pádraig could not receive care there as he was not resident, so his parents made the decision to move there with their son so that he could get the care he needed.  Their two daughters remain in Ireland.

“It was a very difficult decision.  Pádraig has a great love for Ireland, and our lives are there – my work, my husband’s work, our family.  But here in Germany he is receiving excellent care, and the doctors have time to spend with him, to talk to him, to stimulate him.  They have given us much more hope for his future”.

The open letter to the Taoiseach was published on the website set up by the family,caringforpadraig.org, and can be seen here http://caringforpadraig.org/english/.

Patricia O’Byrne was speaking today from Hamburg on Cormac ag a Cúig on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta.

–ENDS–
Issued by RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta

Further information:
Caitríona Ní Bhaoill, Press Officer, RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta
086 8769585   caitriona.nibhaoill@rte.ie

Disclaimer: The information in this e-mail is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee. Access to this e-mail by anyone else is unauthorised. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution, or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. Please note that emails to, from and within RTÉ may be subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1997 and may be liable to disclosure.

Tá an t-eolas sa ríomhphost seo faoi rún agus d’fhéadfadh sé a bheith faoi phribhléid dhlíthiúil. Is ar an seolaí amháin atá sé dírithe. Níl cead ag aon duine eile rochtain a fháil ar an ríomhphost seo. Mura tú an faighteoir beartaithe, tá cosc ar aon nochtadh, cóipéail, dáileadh, nó aon ghníomh a dhéanamh nó a fhágáil ar lár i dtaca leis an ríomhphost agus d’fhéadfadh sin a bheith mídhleathach. Tabhair ar aird le do thoil, d’fhéadfadh ríomhphost chuig, ó agus laistigh de RTÉ a bheith faoi réir an Achta um Shaoráil Faisnéise 1997, agus d’fhéadfadh go ndéanfaí é a nochtadh.

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When I was finished writing up my rather long and winding meanderings about control or no control, about being able to determine one’s life or being a pawn in someone’s much larger game plan, I had another thought which is much shorter, much more pragmatic, and much more to the point. So here it is:

If you get sick you get treated for that sickness. If you have cancer, you get cancer treatment; if you have a kidney problem, you will be treated in a renal clinic. If you have a brain injury in Ireland, you have a right to appropriate treatment lasting three months. That’s it. Until you receive that treatment, you are kept in an acute ward; after that treatment, if your condition continues, you are transferred back to that acute ward or you are sent to a home. As simple and as horrific as that.

So, following this short intro, here is tonight’s earlier update.

“God exists. It’s not you. So just relax.” That’s what a priest once said to Matteo Renzi, Italy’s new prime minister, according to a recent article in Der Spiegel, a German weekly news magazine. I really like that. It’s short. It’s to the point. Give up the illusion of control.

Pádraig had a more ‘normal’ day today. Or maybe his interaction with us, the doctors and nurses has become something that has become almost ‘normal’. Again, this interaction is not much more than reacting in a basic, but nonetheless significant, way to very simple stimuli or requests. Of course, we would like to see more of this interaction and would do anything to make that happen. He has not eaten anything in more than eight months, not tasted any kind of food in all that time. I have no idea what that means, but it’s an incredible deprivation of very basic senses.

Control, or rather the lack of it (you are not God) is sometimes hard to accept. Because we are being told multiple times every day that we can get anything we want and that we can be anybody we want to be: we just have to put on the right deodorant, wear the right clothes, drive the right car, eat the right food, spend our holidays in the right resort. So we become frustrated, because we don’t have enough money for this particular perfume, we cannot afford these really nice jeans, we are still driving the 07 banger, and we have to spend our holidays with the in-laws in the country.

Now, if it was true that God exists, that He was not me or you or one of us, then I could truly relax. No need to worry. No reason to try and influence things that God had already figured out anyway. Trying to control anything when control itself is an illusion would, indeed, be pathological.

Mozart: Die Zauberflöte

Today’s German Music Tip
W. A. Mozart, Die Zauberflöte (from the 2006 Festival in Salzburg). You’ll need 3 hours to watch this – but it’s sheer pleasure. If you don’t have 3 hours, listen to Edita Gruberova singing in 1971 one of the most famous Aria from that opera: “Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen”. Translate that.
What’s hot
Signs
What’s cold
Certainty
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Mensch Meier! Hab’ ich gar nicht dran gedacht zu kaufen! (When you are stopped on the S-Bahn by a conductor / ticket controller and asked for your ticket.)

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

You are the master of your own life. You can choose what you want to do and you can choose what you do not want to do. Your choices determine the course of your life. If you want change, if you believe that things should go into a different direction in your life, it is up to you make those changes. You are standing at the wheel, you are the captain of this vessel, and you determine its course.

Except, when you aren’t and when you can’t. Which is a lesson that life, sooner or later, is going to teach you. It’s a lesson in humility, it’s a lesson in the need to accept things that are out of your control. It’s a hard lesson to learn. Being in control is so much easier.

If you really had a choice, which life would you choose? Would it be better? Would a life without difficult moments, without grieve and pain, be a better life? Would it be really better if you could eliminate all the bad stuff, or would you turn into Bruce Almighty who messed up the whole wide world playing the good and caring God for a few days, a God that protects each and everyone of us from harm? Would you really enjoy a life in which you did not have to count on the solidarity and compassion of your family, of your friends, of strangers?

Yesterday had been one if not ‘the’ best days for Pádraig in a long time. Today, he topped it again. He opened and closed his eyes on ‘command’ – another first. Even better: he did this not just for the Oberärztin; when she called the Chefarzt to show him Pádraig’s progress, he did what he usually does not do: he repeated it for the Chefarzt.

Today, we received, by hand, from a friend, a booklet that friend’s aunt, a primary school teacher in Donegal, had prepared with her second class students who have all been praying for Pádraig ever since his accident. The students are around 8-9 years old.

They all wrote letters to Pádraig, telling him that they had heard about his accident, that  they are praying for him every day, and – wait – they wrote down in their letters their favourite jokes for Pádraig to cheer him up. Here is a sample: “Why did the Jelly Baby go to school? – Because he wanted to be a Smartie.” If you have children, if you are close to children, or if you are still young at heart, this must be the most moving ‘post’ you could ever get.

Think about it. This most beautiful, hand made present with the prayers and the jokes from Ryan, Shannon, Laoise, Lorcan, Ross, Caolán, Aod, Andrew, Molly, Saoirse, Cormac, Caillon, Leah, Conor, Aísling, Rónán, Jude, Jack, and Olwyh, from 8, 9 and 10 year old kids who never met Pádraig in person, is an incredible outpour of love and compassion from kids far up in beautiful Donegal. I will show this booklet to Pádraig tomorrow and I am sure, it will give him a big big boost of energy and laughter that will make him better! Absolutely!

Today’s German Music Tip
Jupp Schmitz, Am Aschermittwoch ist alles vorbei (1953)
What’s hot
Straight out
What’s cold
Scheming
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Na ja, wenn’s der Wahrheitsfindung dient!

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

For the first time in 15 years, I am no longer the proud holder of an annual Iarnród Éireann ticket.

I really admired him. He usually arrived before me. His eyes were covered with one of those eye covers you used to get on transatlantic flights. His earphones connected to a portable radio. His ticket on the table in front of him, so that the conductor would not have to wake him up. No doubt, he was a seasoned traveller. It was perfection. All angles covered. I was a novice trying to learn, trying to see what I could pick up from the regulars. We never exchanged a word. Never even said hello. Eight years later, we were waiting for the Dublin train at Limerick Junction, as always. For the first time ever, he came over to me and said ‘Hello, you have been traveling on this train for a long time, haven’t you?’ – ‘Yes, but not half as long as yourself’, I replied still in shock that this man, my daily travel companion for years, who had never even acknowledged my existence, all of a sudden was talking to me. He continued: ‘Well, to be honest, I had been on the train for just a few days when you turned up first. I got a promotion but had to move to Limerick for it. It was going to be just for a couple of years. Well, it took a bit longer, but today is my last day. And before leaving my life on the train behind, I wanted to say hello and goodbye to you.’ And that’s where we left it. That’s how I lost my friend, the traveller. I never had a chance to say good bye to the train, to the people I got to know, the conductors. For them, I just disappeared from the face of the earth…

Pádraig sat out twice today, another first, as far as I know. About four hours each time. It was amazing how well he managed these long hours without showing any significant signs of fatigue. He is training very well and his physical condition is getting better almost every day. His music therapy today involved tapping the Bodhrán. He closed and opened his hand, and moved his tongue out a bit – all on command.

Today, I got a phone call from RTE who will be reporting on the open letter we wrote (and two of his friends so skillfully translated into Irish) to Enda Kenny on one of their daily news programmes on RnaG at 5pm, Mon-Fri. They will also send it on to the Minister of Health, James Reilly, T.D., to see whether he has any comments.

Pancake Tuesday today. No music.

I have a colleague at work who, when I start giving out and telling him about all the things I am going to do to make (not the world, but) Ireland a better place to live in, asks me, with a lovely smile on his face: ‘Reinhard, for how long have you been living here?’ – basically telling me, that having spent more than half of my life in the country, I still haven’t got a breeze of how things work here. But, apparently, writing to your T.D. is the way to do it. T.D.’s can get you your passport super fast (there is a special post box for them in the Dail), and a really famous but now slightly discredited T.D. in our constituency (he was Taoiseach at the time, and his daughter is a famous writer) managed to get the double-yellow lines removed in front of my very elderly mother-in-law within days, after we had tried unsuccessfully for weeks to find the person responsible for double yellow line removal in Dublin Corporation.

For those of you interested in inter-cultural studies, this is another of the many differences between Ireland and Germany: in Germany, people would not even know which constituency they live in, never mind being aware of who their local politicians are. (Thinking about my mother-in-law who sadly is no longer with us, there is another lovely story involving her, a German, and a roofer, which I will tell another time.)

Today, I posted my first letter in Irish. No, it was not me who translated the English version into Gaeilge, but two of Pádraig’s friends. (I am still working on my Irish – but my day will come too, one day). It’s Pat’s and my open letter to An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, T.D., which Pádraig would, not doubt, have written in Irish in the first place. The letter is now up on the website (www.caringforpadraig.org) and it’s also going to all of the four T.D.s of Dublin Central: Paschal Donohoe , T.D., Minister for European Affairs, Fine Gael; Joe Costello, T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with responsibility for Trade and Development, Labour; Maureen O’Sullivan, T.D., Independent; Mary Lou McDonald, T.D., Sinn Féin. I will keep you posted on their replies.

Last week, Pádraig was measured for his custom-made wheel chair. It will take a few weeks for it to get ready, you will remember, but we can’t wait for it. As the weather is getting better and the first buts become visible, he is getting ready for the rose garden and his first walk in the park. We all hope that he’ll stay on course, becoming more alert and more mobile over the coming weeks. And at least for the time being, it looks like he is doing really well. Today, he was opening his eyes when we were with him, and he seems to have much more controlled movement in his ‘good’ eye. We have been told by his doctors that they will try to encourage him to also use the other eye a bit more.

We’ve heard about preparations going on for St Patrick’s Day but nothing concrete yet. Today it’s Rosenmontag, the main day of Carnival in Germany. People in Northern Germany are far too reserved to get involved in silly things like Karneval, Pappnasen, and Kamelle – they leave that to the people living in the Rhine region, mostly Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Mainz. It’ll be some job to get them out of their famous ‘coolness’ for St. Patrick’s day:)

Today’s German Music Tip
De Höhner, Viva Colonia (2007). Even if you don’t like it – this is “Kölle Alaaf”, people basically going crazy, just because – well, they don’t really need a reason.
What’s hot
Karneval
What’s cold
Aschermittwoch
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Rosenmontag

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

I was going to look up what ‘normal’ means before writing tonight. Then I thought: no need to look it up – I know myself what normal is. It’s a state that on one hand gives you some security, because ‘normal’ doesn’t attract any attention, is not being laughed at, and is not pitied. ‘Normal’ gives you some respite, you blend in with the crowd.

But then, I did not really want to write about ‘normal’. I wanted to write a state that is the opposite to normal – but I couldn’t find a word to describe this state. Maybe ‘crazy’ , like rock stars? Or sick, like societal outcasts? Or ‘extraordinary’, like heroes? I want to find out more about non-normal lives because I feel that whatever I do, however much I pretend that life just goes on, that you go with the flow, none of what I am living through is ‘normal’. The strangest thing is when I am in ‘normal’ life situations acting ‘normal’, for split seconds even joining ‘normal’ life. I am beginning to realize that life will never ever be ‘normal’ again for me. And I am getting this feeling that my new non-normal life has just begun to emerge. And as much as I would like to know, I have no idea what it is going to be like.

Pádraig was fine today. His two Irish visitors got a dispensation from the hospital to come in and see him before visiting time to say ‘good-bye’ to Pádraig. They were delighted when they both got a firm squeeze of their hands from Pádraig before they left. Sundays are quiet in the hospital, it feels like recovery time after a busy week with a full schedule of different therapies, all quiet exhausting. It is good to have a Ruhetag once a week on Sunday, to both recover from last and to get prepared for the next week.

There was no rest for the swimmers in Trinity today where D.U.S.C. had called upon swimmers to ‘swim a mile for Paddy’. And before I forget: thank you to all the organizers, and especially Jane.

This is an extract from what organizer Jane wrote to us afterwards:

We had swimmers young and old down! Five little guys and girls came from Tallaght swim team, 3 from Aerlingus and 3 from Atlantis who came down with their mums and dads after seeing the post on the swim Ireland website! One 9 year old from Atlantis had never swum more than 400m before and did the whole mile non stop!!

Today’s German Music Tip
Schwimmer, Gegen die Wand (2012). The music won’t be everybody’s cup of tea – I think you’ll need to turn it up to really enjoy it.
What’s hot
Miles
What’s cold
Kilometres
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Das ist sicher nicht jedermann’s Sache

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

I spent this morning writing an open letter to our Taoiseach, Enda Kenny. I had read the Irish Times’ reports on the Fianna Gael’s Ardh Feis in the RDS yesterday. In his address to the Ard Fheis, he said that he was looking forward to the publication of the White Paper on Universal Health Insurance (UHI), which will outline how he will “tear down the barriers“ to access. “So for a change, when implemented, a new health service will be ready and waiting if you and your family need it.“ – I just felt this man should not let get away with such a statement. You can read the letter here. I emailed it to him and posted it. I also sent it on to a journalists and newspapers. You will have seen on http://www.caringforpadraig.org/similar-experiences/ that there are other young people like Pádraig, all of them in a similar situation regarding neuro-rehab. Why on earth does the State not look after its citizens when they most need being looked after? I just don’t get it.

Pádraig was good today. He had two lovely visitors from Dublin with him yesterday and today. It’s amazing what a difference the faces and voices from friends can make to the whole atmosphere in Pádraig’s room and on the whole ward. Saturday is a quiet day, not much is happening. – But…, I am not sure whether I mentioned before that Pádraig’s better hand and arm are on his right hand side. The left hand and arm had usually not been involved in much activity. However, tonight when I was leaving and when I took his left hand, he moved his left lower arm way up into the air. Another ‘first’, and we talked about it all evening.

I am not sure whether you have been in Germany and have seen the “Stolpersteine”, put into the ground to remember a person or a family taken from their home, deported and then killed by the nazis during the 2nd world war. Their purpose is to make you stop in your tracks, and to think.

Stop and think. What moved you when you got up this morning? Did you do today what you believe in? If today had been your last day, would you have been happy with it? Have you been kind and generous to others?

I am going to take an ‘early’ night tonight and stop right here.

Keep including Pádraig in your thoughts.

What do you say when words are not enough?

So many unbelievable things are happening. One is that we can, unfortunately I think sometimes, still listen to the Irish news from Hamburg.

Irish property developer Sean Dunne who filed for bankruptcy last year in the US with debts of $942 million (€690 million), and who has also been made bankrupt in Ireland, said he made a profit of €70 million selling 30 zoned acres at Woodtown in Rathfarnham, Dublin, in 2006 or 2007, according to today’s Irish Times. It was paid in “hard cash, brought in a suitcase,” he said. “You were joking about that? It was banked?” Nama’s lawyer Tom Curran asked. Mr Dunne said he didn’t know what he did with the money – he could have bought more property, given some to his wife, paid off debt or spent some on a holiday or a new car.

Pádraig is getting fitter. You wouldn’t think that someone in his still not-so-good condition could even train or being coached. But he is, both training and being coached. There is no way that he would have been able to go through physio, speech therapy, music therapy, a new approach in his respiratory therapy using an EzPAP (increasing the pressure in his airways to open up his lungs), followed by a few hours in the viva-la-Thekla – just a few weeks (day!) ago, as he did today. He held his head up high for a few seconds without any support, and did really well swallowing. There are so many people really doing more than their best to mobilize him, getting him to breathe better, to swallow, to connect back with his body. So many people believing in him, convinced that he will show us that a young, determined, and fit young man can produce miracles. Not the kind of one second apparitions, but the ones that take a bit of time to happen, and then stay with us forever.

After a really tough morning, he closed and opened his hand for Pat when she asks him to do so, he took her hand and lifted it up to his chest. This morning, this was another first, he held up his head for a few seconds when sitting out; this afternoon, he was still able to hold his head straight with very little support for a few minutes at a time.

Sometimes, words are not enough to describe how I feel. When things are going really well, the joy, the hope, the boost of energy. Sprachlos.

Today’s German Music Tip
Bläck Fööss, Männer (1989). This group is not everybody’s cup of tea, but the ‘a cappella’ version of this song, one of my all-time favorites, is not bad. The original version, by Herbert Grönemeyer (1984), is always worthwhile listening to! – Watch the keyboard player wearing boxing gloves:)

“Männer haben Muskeln,
Männer sind furchtbar stark,
Männer können alles,
Männer kriegen ‘nen Herzinfakt,
ohh Männer sind einsame Streiter
müssen durch jede Wand, müssen immer weiter.”

What could anybody add to this? 🙂

Today’s Second German Music Tip (special for our Irish friends:)
Bono (!) and Grönemeyer, Mensch (Rockgipfel Rostock 2007, parallel to the G8 meeting in Heiligendamm, in Northern Germany. Watch 4m30s: “Frau Merkel, halt Dein Versprechen, keep your promise”) – Both, Bono (!) and Grönemeyer, singing in German.

What’s hot
Fitness Coaches
What’s cold
Letting go
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Sprachlos

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

Forget about Nazaré in Portugal, forget about Hawaii. According to Der Spiegel, Mullaghmore Head near Sligo is the best place on earth for surfers. Six degrees celsius cold water, heavy winds, and 15m high waves – it’s like surfing in the middle of a tsunami, according to one of Germany’s professional surfers.

For the past eight month, exactly, today, I have been looking at different kind of waves. I have learnt about heart monitors, oxygenation, the right heart rate, respiratory frequency, dangerous body temperature – most of it presented on monitors in steady forward moving waves.

Eight months ago, I was booking flights from Sanya, Southern China, via Shanghai and Detroit to Boston, in the middle of the night, not thinking, but wondering whether and when this nightmare I was having would end. Exactly 12 hours away from me, that was the time difference, a van had hit Pádraig, within minutes it was on Facebook, and Pat talked to a police officer while that officer was still on the scene. I left that hotel in the middle of the night and left on an 8am flight. 26 hours later I arrived in Boston and drove up to Hyannis. While traveling, I rang the hospital. They told me I could ring them any time of the day or night to find out how Pádraig was doing. When I entered Pádraig’s room, my heart broke. Pat was there and some of Pádraig’s friends. I knew I wasn’t going to wake up.

Today, we met Pádraig’s Speech Therapist. She told us all about tracheostomies, how they work, why patients need them, when and how they can be weaned off. We helped her to switch Pádraig over from his ordinary trachy front piece to a ‘speech’ valve which closed off the trachy opening and made him breathe through his mouth and nose again, also allowing him to make sounds. She and her colleague visit Pádraig three times a week and work with him to develop his swallowing capacities again, bit by bit, so that he will be able to get rid of the trachy eventually.

My eyes are filling up with tears, my throat is getting sore, my ears are ringing non-stop, my body aches like that of an old man, and my mind is refusing to take anything in. There are moments like this. I know they’ll pass. The world is still turning. The sun will still be shining in the morning. W. H. Auden’s request to “pack up the moon and dismantle the sun” was never taken on by anybody. Tomorrow, I’ll start training for the Hamburg Marathon. And I’ll make a deal with Pádraig.

Eight months. Waves have been my life ever since. Shooting up and tumbling down at an incredible nauseating speed. Pushing me ahead of them with all their force. Making me feel small, beaten, powerless. Teaching me humility. Pushing me under the water until I could hardly breathe. Making me gasp for air. Covering me from above so I didn’t know day from night.

Tomorrow will be another day. Riding the wave. Staying on top. With Pádraig. Always.

Today’s German Music Tip
BAP, Wellenreiter (1982).

What’s hot
Riding waves
What’s cold
Being afraid
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Mensch, hast Du so was schon gesehen?

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Upcoming events: http://www.caringforPadraig.org/events

He really liked the idea of having a parrot. He would sit on your finger or your arm, really tame. You could talk to him, and he would talk back at you. When you’d need a bit of private time, you could lock him up in a cage and do your own thing. Parrots don’t need to be brought out for a walk. They don’t have to be trained to do their business outside. They sounded like the ideal pet. There were several problems to be overcome on the way to become a proud owner of a parrot. Most had to do with money.

So, we needed to get smart about it, and improvise a little. Next time I went to Germany, I had to buy a cage – they were so much cheaper there. During one of my visits to see my mother, I managed to find a pet shop selling a parrot cage I could carry, just about, and the my rental car was big enough to accommodate. You can guess how long ago this was when I tell you that the airline had no problem taking the massive parrot cage in as part of my ordinary luggage allowance. These days, our national and not so national airlines wouldn’t even take budgie cages. The next major problem was the price of the parrot itself: it was massive.

Luckily, we found a brilliant pet shop in Wicklow, just off the N11 outside Bray. They sold cockatiels. While cockatiels are not quite of the same caliber as the African Grey Parrot, they only cost a fraction – they were so affordable, Pádraig decided to get a pair of them. Yes, he would become a breeder himself and get rich, selling cockatiels to his friends, neighbors, family, and on his webstore. There was no magic, what this guy in Wicklow could do, he could surely do in his sleep!

So one Saturday morning, we went off to Wicklow, and bought a pair of cockatiels. He called one of them Elvis – because of his fancy hair do. At home, the massive cage was ready to welcome it news tenants. The cockatiels came in boxes which was great for transport. Unfortunately, these boxes were too big to fit through the narrow flap of the cage. So we had to bring both the cage, and the boxes with the cockatiels into our back garden and as close as possible to one of the sheds – we didn’t want them to escape, you see.

(Are you still with us, with the story? I know it’s getting a bit long, but we are almost there.)

What happened next was what you probably expected all along. Pádraig’s worst nightmare. The cockatiels got frightened, when we opened the flap of the box, they charged out, first towards us, and then for the door of the shed, into the wild. Panicking, we charged after them shouting ‘Elvis! Elvis come back! ELVIIIIS! Where are you? Come back!’

Close to tears we were looking everywhere.

Then there was a know on garden door. When we opened it, two nice young lads, with a bright smile were standing there. One held Elvis in his hands. The other said, with a huge big smile, “Elvis has left the building”.

Needless to say, we made sure Elvis never left the building again. Also needless to say, that while they tried and did lay some eggs, those eggs never hatched, and Pádraig never got rich selling dozens of cockatiels. He had overcome all those insurmountable problems to get the cockatiels: cages, finance, transport, and dozens of small things (like convincing me that this whole venture was not an incredible act of madness). But as soon as the goal was reached, it lost its attractiveness almost immediately. Excitement threatened to turn into routine – and no self-respectable young person would be ready for that, when there are so many other things to be achieved, to be chased, to be explored. He was not quite ready yet for “Zieh’ die Schuh aus, bring den Müll raus”, all those ordinary, boring things adults have to do. He still isn’t.

Today, Pádraig kept his carers and doctors busy for the best part of an hour. Having had therapies in the morning, and having sat out for about four and a half hours, he was moved back into his bed. While he never really likes to be moved, today he showed his disapprovement. His oxygen levels went down to uncomfortable levels. Pádraig was really really lucky that the staff looking after him today and the Oberärztin know him so well. Instead of doing what less familiar carers would have done immediately, i.e. moving him back on to the ventilator, they calmly talked to him, threatened him a little (in a nice way), comforted him a lot, gave him confidence, made him feel safe – and managed to bring him back to normal levels of oxygen and a good heart rate. I arrived in the middle of it all, and just stood by the side of the room, admiring and in my heart thanking the people who with their professionalism and care, their knowledge, confidence, and persistence have made it their ‘business’ to give everything possible to Pádraig that could support his recovery.

Today, Elvis did not leave the building. He is going to hang in a little longer. And when he will leave, it will be through the front door, on his way to meet his date(s) in the rose garden. In the meantime, we are still waiting for more tips on how to properly celebrate Paddy’s Day in Hamburg, in Eilbek, in the Schön Klinik. Any ideas?

Today’s German Music Tip
Roger Cicero, Zieh die Schuh aus (2006). Unglaublich, how much German music there is. Just when I thought, it was going to get a bit difficult, someone really nice reminded me of Roger Cicero. This is good music, with even better lyrics – to bring you back down from your high-flying circus, down back to what really matters: take off your shoes and take out the garbage. Could anything be more romantic?

What’s hot
Persistence
What’s cold
Panic
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Unglaublich, was?

Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
http://www.caringforPadraig.org
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