Confirming what happened

One of the few things I remember during my recovery in the hospital was Dr. C coming in to talk to me.  I don't remember him being there long, or even coming in and leaving.

But I remember him sitting next to me and telling me what they found.  They were able to examine Charlotte and confirmed that she had also already been victim of the infection by the time I went into surgery. 

Doctors are unable to confirm that kind of infection until after the fact.  The evidence is in the water and you can't examine that water until it breaks like Christina's did or unless they retrieve it.  And because they can't retrieve it and still keep the baby alive inside of it, well, that's why they can't say absolutely for sure what's happening until it's over. 

That's why they couldn't definitively say "Twin B is infected, it's over" but rather they have to say "There's no way for Twin B to escape the infection once it's started and we have every reason to believe it's started."

I think this is true for both fraternal and identical twins, but with identical, there's simply no question.  They share a placenta, there's no escape.  I don't really know if it would have been different if they were fraternal.

But yeah, he confirmed that she was already infected.  I don't know why but it's better to know that.  I can't imagine if they had told me that she was clean and it just hadn't gotten to her yet but it would have.  That would have left an even larger lingering doubt.  I guess it helps because it means we were very close to giving her every moment of life possible before I would have been infected beyond repair as well.