The beauty in the photo is one of my absolute dearest friends, Karen Bryan. To know Karen is to love her. She is always trying to do for others, always taking care of others. She is so funny, constantly making people laugh. She started out as my boss actually years ago, and I consider her and her family, my family now. She works for Boyd County Schools, as a kitchen manager for Boyd Early Learning Academy. She is so loved by all of our students, and staff alike. Her nightmare started the first weekend in March, when she had what we thought was stomach bug. She is a diabetic, and quickly deteriorated until she couldn’t stand, let alone walk. She was disoriented, couldn’t keep anything down, and just continued to get worse. She fell at home and they called an ambulance, but after waiting over 5 hours in the waiting room lobby without being seen, she left the ER. She was taken to her family Dr the very next day, where she was told to drink Gatorade, that she was dehydrated. By 1 the third day, her husband messaged that she was being admitted to Cabell hospital ICU, she was septic, which they initially said was from a bad UTI. I went to see her 48 hours after admission, and she had no idea who I was, nor could she have a conversation, she was so disoriented, struggling with her words and couldn’t stay awake. On March 8, she went down for a CT, and was in emergency surgery less than an hour later, due to a necrotizing soft tissue (flesh eating bacteria) infection they found in the top of her leg. They removed a large chunk of her upper thigh, and explained to the family it was the only way to save her life, said this bacteria is one of the most life threatening when left untreated. She came out of surgery critical, but stable and spent the next 6 days in the Intensive care unit. The Dr when he came out of surgery told the family that had it been 6 hours later when they found it, she wouldn’t have survived. They absolutely saved her life by getting her there when they did. Karen is now home, however has a long road ahead of her to recover. She is meeting with wound care Monday, and after that we will hopefully have an idea of what is ahead. This is uncharted territory for us, but I am so grateful to know that although this was a surprise to us, it wasn’t to the Lord, that he has been with and protecting her from the beginning, and will continue to walk with her down this hard hard road. Most people have no idea how serious her situation has been, but have asked how they could help, what does Karen need? She lives with her husband Kenny, and grandson Ryker. She is unable to stand to cook, or even sit and do it as she is so very weak after everything her body has been through, so I thought setting up a meal train to be sure they have dinner each night that she doesn’t have to worry about would be a huge help to her, and she agreed whole heartedly. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and thank you to those who sign up to make/buy dinner for them on a night! Karen is the type of person I pray I grow up to be. While dinners and things like paper products will be a huge help, she is so weak and not up for visitors. Hopefully after a couple weeks that will change