After recovering from your stroke at the hospital, you may be offered inpatient rehabilitation (rehab)–most likely at another specialized institution where you will typically spend one or two weeks. In at least some urban areas, however, the demand may be such that your choice of inpatient rehab institutions could be limited. For example, you might be given only one or two options.

After finishing inpatient rehab, however, your choices might be even narrower. You will like need occupational therapy (to help you deal with the essential tasks of living such as taking a bath or shower, getting dressed, eating, eventually preparing food and cooking, and of course navigating inside your home while minimizing the risk of falling), physical therapy (learning to walk better, navigate obstacles, and improve your balance –which may be significantly impacted by your stroke), speech therapy (which includes improving not only your ability to talk and understand speech, but also your memory and reasoning), and visual therapy (which may include a Humphrey’s visual field test to measure the size of your visual field).

Unfortunately, some of these services may become available only after waiting a few months, during which the brain may have lost precious time–since the brain seems the most plastic and able to recover during the first six months after a stroke.