Ariel M. - Quilt Finished in 2007

Born: May 15, 1994

Illness: Epilepsy, Cognitive Impairment

Ariel's Story

written by mom Linn

Ariel was born on May 15, 1994.  She was 3 weeks premature and had severe respritory distress and was transferred to another hospital by ambulance.  She spent a week in NICU, but was fine after that. 

Everything seemed pretty normal with her until she hit about school age.  Around age 6 I noticed that she could not read even though we had worked extensively on reading since she was 4.  Ariel is homeschooled and I just thought she was a late bloomer.  Year after year went by and she seemed to keep falling further behind in her schooling.  By age 9 I knew something was not right.  She was still not reading and having troubles with other school work she had done at a much younger age.  I hired a private tutor and she worked with her for a year with very little success.  I then took her to Speech, Language and Learning and had her formally tested.  They asked if her problems were just with reading or something else.  I told them that she didn't seem to be comprehending things very well.  They tested her and she was severely delayed in all areas of language and comprehension and they started lessons with her once a week.

During this time she also started having strange medical symptoms,  Osteomyelitis in the spine, which required a picc line and 5 days in hospital, swallowing difficulties and swelling out of no where.  I took her to countless specialists and no one could tell us what was wrong.  I finally got her into a Neurologist after seeing her mentally declining further.  She no longer could recognize shapes and other very basic preschool type things.  He ordered an EEG and Neuropsyche evaluation.  The EEG showed she was having seizure activity and Neuropsyche evaluation showed significant disability and an IQ of 47, which is very low. 

Her Neurologist started her on anti-epileptic meds and started testing her for all sorts of other things.  He has given her a diagnosis of Epilepsy and Cognitive impairment.  He feels there is something else big picture going on with her and has tested her for everything under the sun, even some fatal diseases.  She is now seeing a Genetecist who is going through all of her records and doing some thurough investigation into what's going on with her. Hopefully we will get more answers for her.  Ariel is a sweet girl who loves animals of all kinds.  We are trying to use her love of animals to help with her schooling.  She gets so frustrated with herself sometimes, but keeps on going.  I admire her determination.

Written by Ariel's mom Linn in September 2006