Update on Sara ~ 9/30/08

Please pray fervently this morning.
I went to visit Sara last night. She was looking pretty good, but all of the sudden she went from ok to the most excruciating pain within minutes of my arrival. She said it felt like something was in her leg scratching to get out. She was crying and you could just tell she was not having a good time. Sara is not normally one to complain, so for her to feel this way, it has to be bad.
So the nurse came in and gave her some pain meds and after about 10 minutes, she finally started to feel some relief. However, shortly thereafter, her IV line failed, so they had to call the VAT team to come do another one. It took them close to an hour to get there and during that time, she had another "attack". Was able to get some oral medication for her, but obviously, that doesn't work nearly as fast.
Meanwhile, they called the doctor and had her come in and look at the leg. While the redness had decreased in size, it was covering her entire leg from her ankle up to her knee, the area close to her ankle was very red, purple, and black. It looked very angry, almost like blistering and of course it was swollen to boot. They leave and a little while later the general surgery team shows up to do a consult. They checked it out, asked all kinds of questions and said they thought they needed to do surgery, they were going to consult with the attending and they'd be back.
The VAT tech finally shows up at this point to get the new IV going, but Sara is having another "attack" and is near inconsolable. The combination of the pain and the news she might need surgery was just a little too much to handle. The VAT tech does get an IV line in and they get her some more pain meds and her leg calms down again for a little while.
The surgeon comes back and says he is going to take her to surgery. They wanted to biopsy the purple/black area all the way down to the muscle to see if it is necrotizing fascitis. A pathologist would be on hand to look at the sample while she is under anesthesia and if it was necrotizing fasciitis, they'd take all the skin down to the muscle out. If they don't do this, she could lose her entire leg or even die. She again has another "attack". The pain meds are only working for 20-30 minutes at a time.
Well, it turned out to be necrotizing fasciitis. They took some skin out last night and she is going into surgery again right now to take more. They are hoping to stay ahead of the infection so she doesn't lose her leg, but that is something that very well could happen.
She is in the ICU right now on some pretty heavy narcotics and antibiotics. Her mom, dad and sister are with her and her brothers are coming today.
Please pray that Sara doesn't have to lose her leg. Skin grafting some day is much easier to deal with than a prosthesis.
Your prayers are very much appreciated.