On Tuesday the 10th, I took Carol up to Swedish becuase she had been having a mild fever for a couple days, and she was going into early labor. Contractions every 3-5 minutes. It was apparent when I came home from lunch on Tuesday at 1, that I needed to take her to the hospital again.

Carol was in the hospital 2 weeks earlier for a suspected kindey stone, but never confirmed. She had been having extensive debilitating back pain, and maybe a uti ( hard for her to tell while she is pregnant for some reason). In anycase, we eventually got her home, and she seemed to be ok for a week. She still wasn’t great, but we figured she was just 7 months pregnant and very uncomfortable from that.

The weekend before taking her to the hospital, she had been getting sniffly, and having a temp of 101-103. Doctors were called and we thought she just had a mild fever…take tylenol and bed rest. On Monday the 9th, Carol began complaining of severe body pain all over, not localized at all. This went along with a mild fever.

So Tuesday the 10th she has 103.7 temp, severe body pain, and contractions, we decide to take her to swedish.

Call the OB on the way, they just want her to come to their office next to swedish. Checked her, having contractions every 5 minutes but the dialtion. They immediatly scoot her to the delivery triage at swedish, who immediatly get her a room and put her on a monitor. The hospital was trying to get ready, so waited there for a bit together. She was in horrendous pain, and going to the bathroom every couple minutes, and began complaining of big abdominal pain. She asked for pain medication, which she never does, they came in with some Diluaded? I seem to remember.

After a couple minutes she began to get quiet, I figured the medicine was working so I called Carols mom to fill her in. All of sudden there are many nurses and doctors in the room, putting oxygen on Carol. Carol is awake but not responsive to me. They check her cervix and is now 3 cm dilated. They recommend a c-section.

Safiya was born about 10 minutes later at 4:51 pm….4.15lbs….17 3/8 inches. She is doing great, breathing on her own, and suckling a pacifier, and trying to eat from a bottle, but not very successfully yet.

Carol is in surgery for another 2 hours…apparently her blood pressure dropped severly. Enough that several drugs had to be used to keep it up. She was then trasnferred to the ICU, at about 7:08 pm. Where she has been since.

The details of the next few days are lengthy, but I will sum it up. The rest of that night was a battle to keep her blood pressure up, which they did by about 3 in the morning, but with several vasopressor medications. A very critical situation still. (her bp is fairly stable now, and they are trying to ween her off the med’s to see if she can sustain it).

The 11th was also a very critical day. She spent the whole day fighting a fever that was generally at least 103 degrees, and for a couple hours was around 106.9 degrees. She had ice baths, blankets, etc. That is now stable at 98 degrees. Late this day, she was placed on dialysis continuously. She was not clearing any of the toxins in her body, and getting very chubby from all the fluids they are pumping into her.

They also identified what is wrong with her. She has a Streptococcal Pnuemoniae infection. A septic infection…the worst…..with all possible complications. All major organs have been effected including her skin. The scariest part of this, is a syndrome called DIC. This has effected they way she clots, and bleeds. It’s fairly complicated, but she clots where she shouldn’t, so when she bleeds somewhere, all her clotting factors have been used up, so she bleeds.

This has made putting in every needle, tube, etc. very dangerous. All the clotting over her skin is starting to “boil”. The hope is that these spots are just on the top layer of her skin. If they are deep, it would be like she had been on fire, and will need to be transferred to Harborviews burn unit to deminish chanced of a secondary skin infection.

On the 12 and 13th, Carol has had some improvement. We like the upward trend, no matter how small it is. The goal for this weekend is to continue (I finally figured how to unbold it ) losing fluids, and maintain her blood pressure. If that is successful, they want to reduce some of her sedation (oh yeah she is not in a coma or anything, just general anesthesia…versed and fentanyl for the savvy) and see if we can get a finger to move or anything.

Here is a link to a story on Carol, and her family’s personal website. If you can, visit the Silent Auction and bid on something – or just donate directly.

You can also donate by visiting any Washington Mutual branch and donate to the benevolent account under Scott C. Decker FBO Carol J Decker and Safiya Decker.