He has been off of the ventilator and breathing on his own for most of the hours of the last two days. The ventilation is only used for a couple of hours each night just to make sure his lungs stay fully expanded and clear.

We have never as a family given much thought to Jim’s big toe. It is just one of those sort of functionally boring parts of the body. It helps with balance, walking and would facilitate a career as a ballerina should he wish to explore that at any time. Never in the history of mankind has a group of people (including Jim) been so throughly electrified with the potential of joy and hope to see some big toes wiggle. Dr. M has confirmed that the movement in his toes is in fact…movement and not a simple reflex. Dad keeps telling us that it is coming back and that his body is healing. And according to his toes today, that sure seems to be true. Against every odd in the neurological book, we have progress. (Yes, children, there is a Santa Claus.)

It’s a very small victory, but to us it feels like the best news in the universe of toe wiggling universes. The hovering dark sobriety of not knowing if anything would ever wiggle again took a good lashing today. One small step for our biggest hopes and dreams and one sound thrashing for frayed neurological wiring. (That is a technical term to how our pathways work. I know because I have a Doctorate from the University of Google.) Something is reconnecting. It will certainly take time but we are going to relish every single toe wiggle we can get.

Here is a video of some, much more subtle, movement as he was resting after physiotherapy. This might have actually been a repulsion on his part to having his toes tickled by his sister, Lorna.