Stroke can change a survivor’s personality. “If our relationships are like a dance, when personality changes, when someone fundamentally changes their dance steps, that requires other family members to change their dance steps as well.”

The type of rehabilitation and support systems a survivor receives at discharge can strongly influence health outcomes and recovery. In this, the first part of a two-part series on stroke rehab, we offer guidance for the decision-making process required when it’s time to leave the hospital.

The temporal lobe has several functions, mainly involved with memory, perception and language.

Fine motor skills are how we use our hands and coordinate the small muscles that control our fingers. Those skills, along with other arm functions such as reaching and grasping, can be affected by stroke. The stroke’s severity determines the extent of this weakness.

Stroke is unpredictable, but one extremely common effect of stroke is fatigue. Some studies indicate that as many as 70 percent of survivors experience fatigue at some time following their stroke.

It can sometimes be hard for family and friends to recognize how much post-stroke fatigue may be affecting a survivor. We’ve created a quick-reference sheet that you can share with family and friends to help them better understand.

Survivors are sometimes concerned that they are losing function after they leave formal therapy – making gains while working with therapists, but feeling loss of strength and function even when continuing to do exercises at home. Rehabilitation experts weigh in on the topic.

Occupational therapist, Dr. Glen Gillen, adds his perspectives to those of the physical therapists featured in "Am I Losing Ground?" in this supplemental web-only feature.

Strokes can often affect vision and processing of visual information. The most common visual deficit is hemianopia, or visual field cut. Understand different types of field cuts and learn about potential treatments.

Parenting gets complicated when the parent also has to manage the dynamics of stroke recovery. Juggling the calendar of family activities with personal medical appointments is just the beginning.

Mary and Reed Harris have been partners in Reed’s stroke recovery for nearly ten years. Personal relationships rely on communication so Reed’s global aphasia was met with more than a few challenges. They share their story, tips and advice to others for living with the effects of aphasia day-to-day.

Stroke survivor Robert Cull’s medical team was persistent in trying to identify why he’d had a stroke and made an important discovery about his health in the process.