🎯Three Content Types · One Force Field
Every square belongs to one of three content types — not three levels you climb. Track 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
Deeper detail lives in the Prepared Patient Parkinson's Disease course.
What PD Actually Is
Loss of dopamine neurons. Movement + non-movement symptoms.
Learn ItWhy Med Timing
Carbidopa-levodopa effective for hours, not days. Schedule precise.
Learn ItRed Flags
Fall with injury · severe confusion · psychosis · severe swallowing issue.
Learn ItTriggers
Missed meds, infections, dehydration, new medications, stress.
Learn ItNon-Motor Symptoms
Depression, sleep issues, OH, constipation, cognitive change — all common.
Learn ItMed Discipline
Same times daily. Apps, alarms, pill organizers.
Live ItExercise as Medicine
PD-specific exercise (boxing, dance, big-amplitude movement) slows progression.
Live ItDiet + Protein
Protein can blunt levodopa absorption. Time meals around doses.
Live ItFall Prevention
Home modifications, PT, balance work, cane/walker when needed.
Live ItMake Every Visit Count
Bring on/off diary, fall log, mood, sleep, BP log.
Live ItYour Care Team
Movement disorder neurologist, PT/OT, speech, sometimes GI, psychiatry.
Live ItApps + Devices
PD apps, smart pill bottles, GPS, voice-amplifying devices.
Live ItInsurance + Cost
Generic carbidopa-levodopa cheap. Newer agents and DBS variable.
Live ItTeach & Mentor
Newly diagnosed need to hear from someone living well years in.
Share ItAdvocate
Push for PD research funding and accessible communities.
Share ItResearch & Trials
Disease-modifying agents, gene therapy, alpha-synuclein targets.
Share ItThree things to learn before you actually need them.
Workflow lives in the Prepared Visit Tool. Trackers in your Course.
Which door do I use?
Parkinson’s is gradual but timing-sensitive. The ladder catches problems with meds and falls.
Handle at home
- On-time medication, predictable mobility
- Manageable tremor and stiffness
- Following PT/exercise plan
Log it. Stick to your med schedule rigorously.
Call the office / message the portal
- Mild on/off fluctuations
- New dyskinesia (involuntary movement)
- Running low on carbidopa-levodopa
- Mood drop or sleep disturbance
Same day. Med timing is everything in PD.
Urgent / Acute care
- Severe off periods preventing function
- Falls increasing
- Vivid hallucinations or paranoia
- Severe orthostatic hypotension
- Constipation severe enough to consider impaction
Urgent care or PD clinic urgent slot.
ER NOW / call 911
- Fall with injury — especially head
- Severe confusion
- Severe difficulty swallowing or breathing
- Loss of consciousness
- Suicidal thoughts (depression common in PD)
Call 911. Hospital teams must know to give PD meds on schedule.
How to describe a new symptom in 30 seconds
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.
“Off periods longer this week, a 6, started after I changed when I took my carbidopa-levodopa, worse in the afternoon, taking the dose earlier helps a little, and I’ve been constipated for 4 days.”
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 Parkinson's Disease:
- “Is my medication schedule optimized — do I need pump, infusion, or device therapy (DBS)?”
- “Am I being screened for the non-motor symptoms — depression, sleep, OH, GI?”
- “What’s my exercise plan — PD-specific PT, boxing, dance?”
- “Can I be in clinical trials — disease-modifying agents?”
- “What about advance directive and goals-of-care planning?”