Imara Update

I know many people are interested in hearing how Imara is doing.  She is doing good in ways we thought she would not be, but not so good in ways we didn't quite expect.

She is learning English, playing great with other kids, loves learning, and is generally a happy, sweet, and feisty little girl.  Her superficial injuries are healing well, she just has scars all over her body, but the coloration is getting much closer to her regular skin tone so they do not jump out as much as they did right after the abuse.  She failed the hearing test in one of her ears and that is still being assessed and we are still working on her brain injuries.

She is having expected 3 year old attachment fits and we are seeing some pretty classic PTSD signs as well (which would be expected after your mom dies, being severely abused, moved into a foster home, in and out of hospitals, and then flown to another country and going in and out of hospitals there), but then we are seeing some fairly unusual symptoms.

There is a possibility that Imara is having seizures.  Imara is regularly high functioning - intellectually where she should be for a 3 year old, can talk in sentences, can follow complex requests, gross motor skills a little delayed, and fine motor skills delayed around a year, but overall, high functioning - but, then, all of a sudden she turns off.  There isn't a great way to describe it, but she suddenly blanks out, and stays that way for 30-90 minutes.  Her face loses expression, she doesn't really know where she is, usually can't communicate even when she wants to, sometimes she can only make one sound ("Ga") and repeats it over and over, has unusual fears she doesn't usually have, drools, can't keep food or drink in her mouth, can't do things she regularly can, loses balance and sometimes crawls on the floor instead of walking, doesn't really hear what is going on around her, can sometimes follow simple commands slowly, blinks unusually, and makes an unusual smacking noise with her mouth, generally showing moderate to severe intellectual disabilities.  Then, 30-90 minutes after it starts, she comes right out of it.  She goes right back to her high-functioning self, dancing, singing, talking, playing, and engaging with people.  These episodes happen 2-4 times a day sometimes precipitated by getting hurt (stubbing her toe or running into something), but most of the time we can't identify any common initiating event.

We have gotten to the point where we know Imara enough to be able to differentiate regular, tantrum, and episodic "blank out" behaviors.  We were actually asked a few times right after people heard she was abused and accused of being a witch if she had seizures.  It seems to be a fairly common occurrence that people in Congo think someone that is having a seizure is being possessed because complex brain disorders are not commonly known/understood.  Up until now, no one noticed if she was having seizures or not because she does not have muscle involvement like what most people think of a seizure as being.

Imara is scheduled for a MRI and EEG next week.  The trick now is trying to figure out what is going on.  Seizures or not?  Something from the trauma (brain damage, PTSD, etc.)...something prior to trauma (brain tumor, etc.)...we are just praying it can be quickly determined and hopefully fixed so Imara can keep growing and developing.