🎯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 Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) course.
What ACHD Is
You were born with a heart defect. Repaired or palliated. Now you need specialty follow-up.
Learn ItWhy Specialty Follow-Up
Your anatomy isn't standard. General cardiologists may miss what's specific to you.
Learn ItSpot the Red Flags
Fainting · sustained palpitations · stroke signs · severe shortness of breath.
Learn ItTriggers
Dehydration · altitude · pregnancy · surgery without ACHD planning.
Learn ItKnow Your Anatomy
Diagnosis, prior procedures, residual lesions. Carry a written summary.
Learn ItDaily Meds
Often beta-blockers · anticoagulants · diuretics. Adherence critical.
Live ItImaging Schedule
Echo, MRI, CT on a personalized schedule. Don't skip.
Live ItActivity Limits
Highly individualized — especially for cyanotic, single-ventricle, or pulmonary HTN.
Live ItMake Every Visit Count
ACHD visits are precious — bring all questions, including pregnancy and surgery plans.
Live ItYour ACHD Team
ACHD specialist + adult cardiologist + sometimes pulmonologist + OB if pregnant.
Live ItTelehealth
Useful for med management; structural imaging in-person.
Live ItInsurance & Cost
Highly individualized. Pediatric-cardiology-trained adult specialists often centralized.
Live ItPregnancy & Surgery
Both require ACHD planning before, during, after. Don't wing it.
Live ItTeach & Mentor
ACHD patients often feel isolated. You can change that for someone.
Share ItAdvocate
Push for transition programs from peds to adult care. Many fall through gaps.
Share ItResearch & Trials
Genetic links, novel valve therapies, transplant outcomes.
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?
ACHD patients need clinicians who know their anatomy. The ladder is about who you call.
Handle at home
- Stable baseline
- Usual fatigue or cyanosis level if applicable
- Following meds and imaging schedule
Log it. Keep your ACHD specialist appointments.
Call the office / message the portal
- Mild palpitations
- Running low on meds
- Pre-procedure questions (dental, surgery, pregnancy)
- New medication from another doctor that you want vetted
Same day. ACHD-specific questions need ACHD-specific answers.
Urgent / Acute care
- New arrhythmia symptoms
- Worsening exercise tolerance
- Marked cyanosis if applicable
- Persistent new headaches (could be polycythemia in cyanotic patients)
Urgent care, then ACHD specialist follow-up.
ER NOW / call 911
- Fainting
- Severe shortness of breath at rest
- Sustained palpitations
- Stroke signs (paradoxical embolism risk in some)
- Severe headache or new neurologic symptoms
Call 911. Tell them you have ACHD and give them your specialist’s name.
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.
“Palpitations started this week, a 4, worse with caffeine, started after I forgot a dose of my beta-blocker, sitting and breathing helps, and I had a long flight 5 days 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 Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD):
- “Do I need antibiotic prophylaxis for dental work or other procedures?”
- “What activities are safe — especially for cyanotic, single-ventricle, or pulmonary hypertension patients?”
- “Pregnancy — what does the planning need to look like for me?”
- “What imaging schedule do I need — echo, MRI, CT?”
- “If I’m taken to an ER, what should they know about my anatomy and meds?”