relief

Jim had a great day yesterday, trying to wean himself off the IV pain meds and moving more. He got out of the bed into a chair three times in spite of immense pain from the chest tube. The more movement, the better, while still being careful not to use too much of his upper body weight to allow the hardware more time to "sink in" and stabilize. The problem is - as you all know - Jimbo is one strong guy. He's trying to figure out how much to restrain himself to help with the transfers yet still protecting his new robotic spine.

The doctors have mentioned possibly removing the chest tube later this evening. If all goes as planned, he could move back to Craig tomorrow (what a birthday present, huh? - his special day is Dec. 9).

The best news that came out of yesterday is more movement in the left leg. I felt it, the nurse felt it, and the doctor felt it. It is very slight, but you can feel the muscles in his foot, calf and quad all firing. We are taking this as a very positive sign. As the neurosurgeon said yesterday "the path is open." It's just a waiting game to see how quickly time will allow things to wake up.