Aphasia—difficulty speaking and remembering words or names—is one of the most vexing aftereffects of stroke and other types of brain damage. Aphasia can also affect the ability to listen, read, spell, and work with numbers. After my stroke, I couldn’t remember my husband’s name or how to call 911. Every sentence was a struggle: to […]

As  stroke survivor with impaired dexterity in my hand, typing on the computer is one of my greatest frustrations. Emails and web posts are measured in hours, not minutes. So I’m always looking for ways to save time. I think of myself as decently tech-savy, but I learned several new time-saving tricks today from New […]

Losing the ability to communicate well is one of the most devastating effects of a stroke. It was to me, when I had a stroke in 2002. One day at the drugstore, shortly after my discharge from the hospital, the pharmacy clerk asked, “Is that Anne with an “e” or without?” I hesitated, confused by […]

  Am I Crazy? As an autoimmune patient with APS, as a stroke  survivor on blood thinners, people sometimes ask why I travel to places teeming with opportunities for disaster. “Places where medical care is thin, the water is often unsafe and the food chancy; places with infectious diseases, malarial mosquitoes, venomous snakes and the […]

There’s a thought-provoking article from Associated Press on the wire this week: Alzheimer’s debate: Test if you can’t treat it? The gist of the debate is this: with today’s more sophisticated tests–such as the diffusion MRI–it’s easier for doctors to identify brain damage (in the form of plaques) that might suggest someone is developing Alzheimer’s […]