As Nikki pointed out the "steps" are to broad. For example I can still physically take care of all my needs but if I choose to clip my own finger nails my pointer finger and thumb will hurt for days afterward and lock and cramp the whole time (not to mention my nails look like they where trimmed with a metal cutter), so how does one answer, I chose "need assistance". But when the day comes that i cant do it it will still be "need assistance".
Like everything else it is really not geared to help us as much as to give them a reason to collect our money, its all part of the quarterly death watch, - we call clinic, I have mine tomorrow.
What I am interested in will be the strength comparison from last quarter to this. Even though it is done only by the pressure the doctor perceives you are pushing with to me it is an interesting baseline. I asked him why they don't have tools that measure the pressure and he assured me that his experience made his ability to measure very accurate. I know where I have gotten weaker but it will be interesting to see.
Last month I participated in a "finger study" being done by Penn State and was surprised to find out that my right fingers where weaker than my left. As I am right handed and have had more pain in my left hand this shocked me some. There study used pressure points so I am pretty sure they where accurate. My left hand did not show less dexterity then my right but more strength. I find this interesting although it does nothing to help with the disease and its progression - but then again nothing does.