Like so many hockey mothers, Marlene Reimer has been through this before, and it never gets easier. Nearly three weeks into her son James’s latest experience with the unpredictable effects of a head injury, there’s anxiety in the uncertainty.

“We’re beginning to be a little more concerned than we were at first,” the mother of the Maple Leafs goaltender was saying Wednesday. “At first, when (the Maple Leafs) said it was just going to be a day-to-day whiplash kind of thing, you just wait it out. But definitely our concerns are getting a little stronger as time that passes. We’re definitely hoping there are going to be some answers coming out of the team shortly, what they’re doing or what they’re planning to do.”

Marlene was speaking over the phone from the family’s home in tiny Morweena, Man., a 2 ½-hour drive north of Winnipeg, only a couple of days removed from a Toronto visit with James and James’s wife, April. James, of course, is still feeling the effects of an Oct. 22 collision in Montreal in which his protective mask was knocked into orbit while the Leafs goaltending prowess was simultaneously thrown into doubt. The team, which had won four of six heading into that game, is coming off two straight lopsided losses in which the respective starters, Ben Scrivens and Jonas Gustavsson, have been pulled. So it’s not a stretch to suggest Leafs Nation is desperately pining for James’s return.

Given the standard secrecy that surrounds NHL medical reports, Marlene Reimer ranks among the few people on the planet who can speak freely and with some authority about the current condition of Toronto’s sorely missed No. 1.

So, how is James?

“He looks clear. His eyes look fine. But he says he still has that nagging headache,” Marlene said. “I think his doctor finally said, ‘Let’s take you off the ice and see if it improves.’ ... I’m hoping there’ll be some good news pretty soon.”

Every case is different, of course, and James’s is curious, to be sure. What was once termed “whiplash” by the club has since been referred to as “concussion-like symptoms,” not to mention the generic “upper-body injury.” If the fans roll their eyes at the terminology, imagine how a parent feels.

“That’s the frustrating part for us — not knowing what it is, and why they’re not calling it a concussion when they say ‘concussion-like symptoms,’” Marlene Reimer said. “Like, how is that not a concussion? ... The initial test showed him to be clear of a concussion. But as it goes on, it’s kind of mystifying. He’s okay some days. And some days he’s definitely not okay.”

The worrying thing, for the Reimer family, is that this isn’t James’s first run-in with this type of injury. Marlene said James, 23, has had “several” concussions, not to mention the case of whiplash he suffered last season while playing for the AHL Marlies. (That bout of whiplash, she said, came with a sore neck and headaches, but James recovered from it “quickly” and without the lingering effects that have accompanied his current state).

Marlene Reimer remembers James’s first concussion vividly. It came in a midget-AAA game, a collision that left James, about 16 years old, lying prone on the ice as a long silence fell over an arena. On that day Marlene, unhappy with the care her son appeared to be receiving, burst onto the ice to help.

“I thought, ‘That’s my boy lying out there,’” she said. “I figured, ‘If there’s no action, I’m definitely going to make sure we get some action.’ I know when all was said and done he said, ‘Mom, don’t you ever do that again.’ I said, ‘Well, then, make sure your trainers look after you. Because mom’s coming if they don’t.’”

Brian Burke, the Leafs general manager, doesn’t yet need to worry about fending off a protective matriarch as she barges into the Leafs’s trainers’ room. Marlene said she hasn’t harboured concerns about the quality of medical care being administered to her youngest of four children since James progressed to the game’s upper echelons.

“I’ve definitely seen an increase in respect for the effects of a concussion,” she said. “But at the same time, sometimes it seems to take a while before they’re recognized as concussions. To me, in a way, it’s still too slow. Maybe they have to. They start at the bottom. They say, he had his bell rung. He had whiplash. Or, concussion-like symptoms, and finally, a concussion. Well, by that time, a fairly long period of time has elapsed where treatment could have begun. At the same time, I know that, as much as the team wants to win, I do admire the way they’ve taken James out and have just let him be the person who decides whether he’s well or not.

“I know (Leafs coach) Ron Wilson had asked him, before they brought Ben Scrivens up the first time, ‘How do you feel?’ ... And James said, ‘Not 100 per cent.’ And Wilson had said, ‘Okay, well then you don’t play.’”

Marlene is concerned enough about James’s brain-injury history that she keeps a file of articles detailing the latest research on the subject.

“That is my big concern, that he stays healthy,” she said. “And if he doesn’t, what are the repercussions? What is it we should be looking for? How should it be handled? What are the best options if he does get hurt?”

Speaking of questions: How is James occupying his time on the injured reserve? His mother said he goes to practice every day, though he isn’t currently partaking in on-ice practice. (He does light workouts while his teammates skate).

And how’s the home life? The big news is that James bought April a puppy for her birthday; it’s a Havanese and high maintenance.

“He said it feels like they’ve just had a baby,” Marlene said.

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The pup’s name? It’s the same as a certain goalie’s nickname: Optimus.

When will Optimus Reim, the master, be given a medical leash long enough to resume his playing career? A hockey mother let out an exasperated sigh. Certainly Leafs Nation can relate to the angst surrounding a great unknown.

“I asked him on the weekend, ‘When do you think you’ll be back?’ He said, ‘I have no idea.’ And now he’s been out so long that, by the time he’s ready to go back, he’s going to need to do a lot of conditioning and he’s going to have to do a lot of practicing. It’s not like, ‘Today I feel fine. Let me take the net.’ I’m sure it will be a slow road back,” Marlene Reimer said. “We’re worried, for sure. But really, with a concussion, it’s so much a wait-and-see. One day he’ll say he hasn’t had the headaches and you think, ‘Oh, yes. Maybe he’ll be back this weekend.’ The next day he says, if he’s going on a 1 to 10 scale (where 10 is perfect health), he’ll say it was a 3. So you wait for the next day.”