Before I started therapy I ha a multitude of test. EEG, CT Angiogram, Echo-cardiogram with bubble study, Zio Patch for 2 weeks...I had so much blood drawn it was like 10 vials! I was freaking out because I was severely anemic and I thought to myself I don't have much blood to spare Lady. My Anitcardiolipin was checked, CBC, BMP serum or plasma, Factor V Activity plasma, Lipid panel, Von Willebrand Factor, Anti-Thrombin III Antigen, Protein S activity, Protein C activity, TSH, CMP, Total Iron Binding Capacity, HBA1C...I don't know what most of these are I'm just copying my report. Either way I have never had so much blood taken away. Every test they did came back Negative. Her answer to that was we do not know...a Cryptogenic Stroke. I didn't like that answer. I wanted to know. I needed to know. What do I do now? I was left with a lot of lingering questions and anxiety. I started therapy in September last year...Occupational, Physical, and Speech Therapy. One of the first things I had to do was remember their names. My speech therapists taught me how to remember by association. I have done this plenty of times but it was like I had to start all over. Like being a child going to kindergarten. My therapists were all very nice and supportive. I din't share my associations except with my speech therapist because they were mine and I didn't want to use something that might bother them. Jill was Occupational therapist and she was sometimes in a weird mood ( she had a lot going on at home I found out and a husband who had MS so it affected her) but I remembered her name...ILL Jill. Barbie was my Physical therapist...Barbie Doll. Bonnie was my speech therapist...Bonnie and Clyde. I also had an assistant speech therapist doing an internship but I have sadly forgotten her name and how I used to remember it. Three days a week for 3 hours each of those days. I was prescribed a cane and began learning balancing exercises in physical therapy. The first day I stood on that squishy square I couldn't do more than a few seconds with out just about collapsing. I was given homework therapy to do in between visits. I don't remember much of occupational therapy except my therapists trying to tell me that childcare might be a great place for me to start. I was baffled and speechless. I finally got out that childcare is one of the noisiest active places I have ever worked so envision myself falling and then crawling under a table and covering my ears and crying. Her and I didn't do very much together. It was a disappointment but I focused a lot on physical and speech therapy. One of the first things my speech therapists did after her evaluation was introduce me to association memory. We did pretty elementary work sheets which I had difficulty with. I cried a lot. But over time this started to help me a lot...