Update Oct 17th

Early review of last evening's alarming event:
Yesterday I got a call from Deborah at 5:10 PM. She said Jimm had a clot in his lungs and was in trouble, and that the family was being called in. In fact, she had been directly told by one of the doctors that his chances of survival were slim.
The update of Oct 16th at 5:30 PM was based on this call. The only info I could get from her in her hurried and distressed state was that they had something down in his lungs trying to get this stuff out, and that his heart had stopped once earlier during the crisis.
Thus, the mention of the pulmonary embolism, often a life-threatening occurrence, and not uncommon in patients like Jimm. In fact, a fairly rare thing had happened. A sizable mass of coagulated blood, a large clot, had built up somewhere higher in his throat and dislodged. It went down through his trachea to the bronchi and managed to shut off the airflow to both lungs causing his heart to stop for a short period. According to the docs, the 6 minute mark is seen as the danger point, but his stoppage lasted less than a minute. Most likely a bronchoscope was used to try and pull the largest clot out. They were successful enough to stabilize Jimm overnight with the vent working as hard as it ever has, but more needs to be done this morning. Also they will need to analyze where this mass came from. One early guess was that it may have come from the the problematic bloody tracheostomy tube. That will be discussed in a meeting of doctors today.
All I can say is that I am relieved for the time being.. I really thought that Laura's call at 9:15 last night was word that we had lost Jimm.
He had a tough day, and has had a tough four and a half months.. but he is still here.

Hang in there with me.. I'll see if I can get anything further later in the morning.
Thanks for being there.

aw