🎯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 Sudden Cardiac Arrest (Survivor) course.
What SCA Means
Your heart stopped. You were brought back. Most arrests are fatal — you're rare.
Learn ItDaily Prevention Stack
Anti-arrhythmic · beta-blocker · ACE/ARB · statin if indicated.
Learn ItSpot the Red Flags
Multiple ICD shocks · collapse with no response · severe shortness of breath.
Learn ItTriggers
Missed doses, sleep loss, electrolyte shifts, stimulants, untreated apnea.
Learn ItKnow Your Cause
Ischemic, structural, electrical, genetic. Drives prevention strategy.
Learn ItICD Care
Device monitors and shocks if needed. Remote monitoring built-in.
Live ItFamily CPR + AED
Everyone in your house should know CPR and where the AED is.
Live ItCardiac Rehab
Yes, even for SCA survivors. Supervised + careful but it works.
Live ItMake Every Visit Count
Use the Visit Tool. Bring symptom log + any device alerts.
Live ItYour Care Team
Electrophysiologist + cardiologist + PCP + sometimes psychology (PTSD common).
Live ItRemote Device Monitoring
Your ICD reports automatically. Trust the system, stay engaged.
Live ItInsurance & Cost
ICD + monitoring covered. Cardiac rehab covered. Don't skip.
Live ItDriving Rules
State-specific. Usually a no-shock period required before resuming.
Live ItTeach & Mentor
Help families learn CPR. Your story is the motivator.
Share ItAdvocate
Public AED access + CPR training in schools. You're the case study.
Share ItResearch & Trials
Subcutaneous ICDs, genetic screening, post-arrest cognitive recovery.
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?
SCA survivors have a thin margin. Recognition + CPR + AED save lives.
Handle at home
- Stable baseline; living life with the ICD
- Following meds and clinic visits
- No ICD activity
Log it. Your ICD checks itself remotely — trust the system but stay engaged.
Call the office / message the portal
- New palpitations or lightheadedness
- Running low on meds
- Single ICD shock (the device worked — call the device clinic)
- Side effect issues
Same day. Single shocks are device-clinic territory, not ER.
Urgent / Acute care
- Frequent palpitations
- Worsening exercise tolerance
- Mild new shortness of breath
- Mood drop (post-SCA depression and PTSD are common)
Urgent care or device clinic urgent slot.
ER NOW / call 911
- Multiple ICD shocks in a row
- Collapse with loss of consciousness (someone else should start CPR and call 911)
- Severe shortness of breath at rest
- Chest pain that doesn’t pass
- Persistent fast heart racing with weakness
Call 911. Multiple shocks = electrical storm. Collapse = repeat arrest until proven otherwise.
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 yesterday, a 5, worse with caffeine, came on after I missed a dose of my anti-arrhythmic, sitting quietly helps a little, and I’ve been sleeping poorly this week.”
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 Sudden Cardiac Arrest (Survivor):
- “What caused my arrest — and what’s my long-term risk?”
- “Family screening — should my siblings and children be evaluated?”
- “What activity is safe with my ICD?”
- “Am I screened for post-SCA depression and PTSD?”
- “Driving — what are the rules for me, and when does that change?”