Hi, my name is Denise Jons and I experienced my AFE in 2008 at age 41 with the birth of my 2nd son. I was diagnosed with Placenta Previa and had a date set for my C-section. I started bleeding three days before my schedule time so I was told to go to the hospital. Once I arrived and was checked out, the doctor on call told me I needed to deliver that night. I remember being in the surgical room and hearing my son cry. Then I started having difficulty breathing and told the doctor. That was the last thing I remember until I woke up two days later. I had been placed on a ventilator and I remember the doctor explaining to me what had happened. The doctor said I had an amniotic fluid embolism then went into DIC and started bleeding. I received 20 blood products before the bleeding stopped. The doctor did not perform a hysterectomy. I went was discharged two days after I regained consciousness along with my baby boy. I had a drainage tube attached through my abdomen for two weeks to drain the blood. I must say that I did not really feel a whole lot about my AFE since I was not awake for the traumatic part but I know my husband was afraid that I was not going to make it for a little while. It just seemed surreal that I went in on a Monday and had such a traumatic birth and then released from the hospital on Friday.
I was very fortunate to have my mother stay with us for 3 weeks after I was released to go home. A couple of days after being released I bent down to pick up something and had a sharp pain in my back that lasted for a few weeks. I went to my doctor and she thought had irritated my sciatic nerve and sent me to physical therapy. I still did not get relief so I went to a chiropractor and after a few visits my back pain went away.
I was very fortunate that once my back problem was over I felt much better and had no lasting effects of the AFE. I was off of work for 9 weeks and life was busy and back to normal. I now have two healthy boys age 10 and almost nine years old.
I did do research about what had happened to me and found the AFE Foundation. I filled out all the paperwork to allow the release of my medical records so that research could be done. I just feel very blessed that I do not have any lasting effects of my AFE.