This hospital stuff is all new to most of us reading (and writing) this blog. Most of us don't frequent the hospital world and most of us don't know the difference between an 8 French Catheter and a foley. Unfortunately I know what both are and they both suck. ;)
One of the things I realized very quickly after all this mess happened to us was that the Internet was not going to be a good source for me to learn anything. Assorted versions of information available about what happened to Shell and Mikey were not organized, filtered, unbiased and sometimes just plain old inaccurate. So I stopped reading after the first night because for my own sanity's sake I had to put some trust in the docs and just ask all my questions of them.
I also know that isn't a perfect strategy either - being armed with good information so that the docs talking to you get a quick sense that you're 'with it' and they're able to give you the straight poop (and nothing but the poop, Ma'am) is important. It's also important to know what meds your sick family member is on and how they work and why, etc. Since Shell's been home I've read ALL of it and drawn my own conclusions - most of which is the same as what I learned by just being with Shell and the doctors.
What isn't good is reading reviews of obscure medical studies that conclude this or that about what happened to us, what will happen in the future or who's fault anything is. You never know what kind of drugs the author may have been indulging in at the time of publication, either.
We know that the AFE/DIC could have happened to any pregnant woman at any time. I've seen somewhat unreliable sites and folks say that maternal age, inducement, sex of the baby (it happens statistically more to baby boys than girls) all can play a factor. What I've also learned is that this condition can only be a confirmed diagnosis by performing an autopsy on a woman - something we're plenty fine with not knowing. ;) When some site says the 'risk is elevated' under certain conditions, the ultimate interpretation is they have no idea what caused it, but of the women that had it, so many were taking this drug, doing this thing with their left foot, a small percentage were scratching their noses, rubbing their eyes, thinking about their normal lives and the list goes on.
I also know that ultimately it was our OB being prepared for an event like this and having read an article on it a week prior to February 18th, when our life got dumped out like kids toys on our playroom floor. He called this within a few minutes of her presenting symptoms and did the C-section KNOWING that she would go into DIC and as such had to stitch her up tighter than Fort Knox. Plain and simple, he kicked ass and saved Shell's life. Even when she went back in for a 'clean-out' to remove the infected fluid in her belly, the uterus was perfectly intact and looked good. Incisions and stitches were perfect. For that we're eternally thankful.
That's about all we need to know about AFE.
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