new challenge

Thurs. Dec 24th - Sam spent Wednesday night at ECVR. Steve took food and Sam's prescriptions to ECVR first thing this morning. Around noon, Dr. Williams called to give us an update. He said Sam appears to be comfortable but they are keeping him on oxygen. He doesn't think he has pneumonia but is continuing the antibiotics just to be safe. We discussed the possibility that he has a Pulmonary embolism. This is a condition that Dr. Stoll had discussed with us before and is obviously not a path we wanted to take. It is most likely due to his cancer and the way it is spread through his system. His pulse-ox today is up to 96% due to him being on oxygen.
Several things could happen at this point. One possibility is he could pass the blockage and regain lung capacity. Another possibility is that the remaining unblocked areas of his lungs could begin to compensate for this blocked area. Yet another possibility is he may continue to have labored breathing and need oxygen all the time. It will take a few days to evaluate him and determine the scope of our challenge. At this point, Dr. Williams wants to keep him at ECVR to evaluate him and keep him on oxygen. We visited Sam briefly tonight just long enough to take him out for a bathroom break. Dr. Williams said we wouldn't want to keep him off oxygen for too long so we kept it brief.
It is so sad to see the oxygen line stapled to his nose.