🎯Three Content Types · One Force Field
Every square belongs to one of three content types — not three levels you climb. Track personal progress in your Course and Skills Lab.
📘 Learn It Content type
Concepts to absorb.
🛠 Live It Content type
Daily skills and habits.
📣 Share It Content type
Teach, advocate, carry forward.
🛡️Your Force Field — 16 Squares
Read each square. Deeper detail lives in the Prepared Patient Aortic Valve Disease course.
What Aortic Valve Disease Is
Stenosis (narrowed) or regurgitation (leaky). Both can fail the heart over time.
Learn ItMedication Limits
Meds manage symptoms but don't fix the valve. Replacement is sometimes needed.
Learn ItSpot the Red Flags
Fainting with effort · chest pain at rest · severe shortness of breath.
Learn ItSymptom Triggers
Exertion, dehydration, fast heart rates, fluid shifts.
Learn ItSeverity Numbers
Valve area, gradient, regurgitation grade. Trended on echo over time.
Learn ItDaily Meds
Often BP meds + diuretic. Some patients on anticoagulation.
Live ItEcho Schedule
Regular imaging — yearly or more often near intervention threshold.
Live ItActivity Limits
Vigorous activity restricted if severe stenosis. Stay engaged within limits.
Live ItMake Every Visit Count
Bring your symptoms, exercise tolerance, and recent echo report.
Live ItYour Care Team
Cardiologist + structural heart team + PCP.
Live ItTelehealth
Med management works telehealth; imaging is in-person.
Live ItInsurance & Cost
Valve procedures covered. TAVR has changed the landscape; costs vary.
Live ItTAVR vs SAVR
Less-invasive transcatheter vs surgical. Discussed by Heart Team.
Live ItTeach & Mentor
Pre-op patients value hearing from someone who came through it.
Share ItAdvocate
Push for early symptom recognition — many wait too long to mention them.
Share ItResearch & Trials
TAVR durability, mitral and tricuspid transcatheter therapies.
Share ItThree things to learn before you actually need them.
This is the teaching. Workflow lives in the Prepared Visit Tool. Trackers in your Course.
Which door do I use?
Aortic valve disease is silent until it’s not. The ladder is about catching symptoms early.
Handle at home
- Asymptomatic at your usual activity level
- Following imaging schedule
- Mild fatigue at end of a hard day
Log it. Imaging trends matter more than how you feel on a quiet day.
Call the office / message the portal
- New shortness of breath with stairs you used to climb
- Decreased exercise tolerance over weeks
- Running low on heart meds
Same day. Symptom onset is a major trigger for valve replacement decisions.
Urgent / Acute care
- Chest tightness with effort that resolves with rest
- Lightheadedness with exertion
- Marked fatigue you can’t explain
Urgent care or cardiology urgent slot. These are valve-pressure symptoms.
ER NOW / call 911
- Fainting (syncope) with exertion
- Chest pain at rest
- Severe shortness of breath at rest
- Sudden palpitations with weakness
- Stroke signs
Call 911. Symptomatic severe aortic stenosis is dangerous — fainting can mean cardiac arrest.
How to describe a new symptom in 30 seconds
Six questions clinicians listen for every time.
What is it?
Plain words.
How bad?
0-10.
When did it start?
Time + what you were doing.
What made it worse?
Movement · food · meds.
What helped?
Even a little.
What else was new?
Fever · med · supplement · stress. The forgotten detail often shifts the diagnosis.
“Climbing stairs got hard this past month, it’s a 6 of fatigue, worse with two flights, sitting for 5 minutes recovers me, and my last echo was 9 months ago.”
Questions worth asking
Four for every patient, every condition, every visit:
- “Could this be a side effect of one of my medications, a supplement, or something else I’m doing — and should we change that?”
- “Would any non-drug therapy help — physical therapy, meditation, rest, ice or heat?”
- “If I can’t afford this medication or this test, can we talk about samples, alternatives, or a social worker who can help?”
- “What should I be watching for between now and my next visit — and when do I handle it myself, when do I call your office, when do I go to urgent care, and when do I go to the ER?”
Questions specifically for Aortic Valve Disease:
- “What’s my valve area, gradient, or regurgitation severity — and where am I on the surgical timeline?”
- “Am I a candidate for TAVR or do I need surgical AVR?”
- “What symptoms should I report immediately?”
- “What’s my echo schedule — and what’s the trigger to move it up?”
- “What activity restrictions or precautions do I need?”