Stroke Recovery & Rehabilitation

Our care team that starts planning for your recovery as soon as you’re admitted to the emergency room. You may work with a care coordinator, patient navigator, social worker, or nurse to decide where to go when you leave the hospital and help you connect with resources in your hometown community.

Throughout your stroke recovery, find rehabilitation and care services to meet your needs at Essentia. Learn about:

• Inpatient stroke rehabilitation – Stay at Essentia Health-Duluth and regain skills, strength, and independence through Miller-Dwan Rehabilitation Services’ CARF-accredited Stroke Specialty Program
• Skilled nursing and long-term care – Get 24/7 care along with rehabilitation services
• Home health care – Receive care and therapy in your home
• Outpatient rehabilitation services, including physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy – Live at home and visit a therapy center for rehabilitation services
• Neuropsychology services – Assess how stroke has impacted your thinking abilities

Stroke Rehabilitation Team

Your rehabilitation team consists of many different therapists such as:

• Physical Therapists (PT)
  Physical therapists will visit with you during your recovery to help you regain your strength. They will help you walk, exercise, and regain muscle strength.
• Occupational Therapists (OT)
  Occupational therapists are trained to help you do daily tasks. If you have trouble with movement after your stroke, they'll work with you to learn new ways to do everyday tasks
• Speech Language Pathologists (SLP)
  After a stroke, some people have a hard time speaking or swallowing. A speech therapist will work with you to regain muscle strength. They'll also suggest a safe diet for you. If speech is hard for you, they will give you tools to help you speak and have people understand what you say.

Life After Stroke

If you've survived a stroke, there is hope and a road forward. Recovering from a stroke will take time. Having a support system of family and caregivers is especially important.

Caregivers are essential in stroke recovery. If you're the caregiver for a loved on who's had a stroke, make sure you lean on your health care team to get the information you need.

Our stroke and rehabilitation teams are here to answer questions and provide resources to help you. It's important to know that you're not alone. Get connected by attending a Stroke Support Group.

Stroke After Effects & Symptoms

After a stroke, there are many symptoms you may experience. Which symptoms you have, depends on where the stroke happened in your brain.

Aphasia

If a stroke affects the part of your brain that knows language, you may develop aphasia after the stroke. Aphasia is a language disorder. If affects the ability to communicate. It does not affect intelligence - even if a person's speech is jumbled or hard to understand.

Emotional Changes

Survivors of stroke react to their diagnosis in many ways. Some may feel extreme sadness.

The most common emotional reactions to stroke are:

• frustration
• worry
• anger
• not caring any more
• giving up
• depression or sadness

Stroke causes two common emotional changes:

• Emotional liability - Rapid mood changes, physical reactions that don't match an emotion (example - laughing when you actually feels sad), prolonged emotions (laughing or crying for much longer that you'd expect).
• Depression - You may feel sad or lack motivation. Signs of depression include:
  • sadness
  • hopelessness or helplessness
  • crankiness
  • changes in eating or sleeping

It is natural to be emotional after a stroke, so try to be patient with yourself. Talking about your experience and accepting your feelings about the stroke may help you work through these emotions.

Talk to your doctor if you're experiencing feelings of depression. There are ways they can help you.

Fatigue

It is common to feel more tired after a stroke. You may lack energy or strength. There are many reasons you may be feeling fatigued. Some may be related to poor sleeping or eating, or lack of exercise.

It's important to talk with your health care team to find out what may be causing your fatigue.

Stroke Follow-up Care

Our stroke team will reach out to you after your stroke to check-in with you.

Your follow-up care will likely include a combination of rehabilitation. Our stroke neurologists or advanced practitioners, physiatrists, therapists, and nurses will all be a part of your follow-up care.