Diary ideas, how do you keep your info/meds/appts/foods/drinks recorded?

I'm trying to keep a diary and thinking of a few ways to do this, so I can keep track for myself. I haven't done this before because I was just going through each day a time but as I'm adding/changing supplement, vitamins, food, etc., I find I want to keep track now.

So far, I've got a calendar for each month all in one binder. I put little notes on each day, E for enema or NE for no enema, what time I take my pills AM PM but I have a legend to go with those. i.e, 1. 4 pills in AM, so next to the AM, I mark a 1 with a circle, a 2 for PM for 3 pills, 3 being for vitamins, mostly vitamin D (again either AM or PM beside it) and so on. In between those monthly calendar are lined paper, 1 sheet per day, where I add more details, ie., food and drink and add more details from the legend for that day. I'm tracking my gallstone pain and attacks.

And I bring my binder to doctor appts, to remind myself and them, what test I had and if results are back yet or even why I went to see them in the first place. I keep track of my menstrual cycle as well because as I get older, I notice that this starting to play a part in level of UC when flaring...And I keep track of my BM's, and initialize the type and color.

Yes, sounds a bit complicated but open to better ideas! Over to you!
I'm not trying to capture everything or to be in any great scientific detail but it helps. I do this in the evening as a recap of the day.

I personally have started a pretty good system. I use thick paper, almost like notecard paper... that I have had printed up for work. The papers are read the long way. The bottom sheet of paper has sets of two lines divided by dark bold lines. I list each medication or symptom in that one. I then overlay that piece of paper with a piece of paper that looks like graph paper, but also divided up per two horizontal lines with a dark bold line. It has vertical lines that split the horizontal lines, making many squares. Each day horizontally represents a square, and I can go through about 10 supplements and 5 symptoms just by putting a "Y" or "N" for many, plus other symbols and numbers for certain amounts. I'll try to show you what I mean on this post

Feb. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

BM's per Day 9 5 ? 6 4 3 6 9 4 6

Weight 163 163 163 ? 163 162 163 164 162 162

Colon Pain N S N S S 1 3 1 1.5 1

Blood N N N N N N N T T T

Mucos N N N N N N N N N N

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On the colon pain I just found out it was easier to write a number on a 1-10 scale, with 1 being minimal.

This method makes it very easy to scan down and compare days. I could take a picture of the binder if you need more details, if there's a place to post or send it. I've been doing this for about 20 days now and have gained a better understanding of what helps and hurts my UC than I ever had before.

Good luck.

Post Edited (Thoreau) : 2/15/2011 9:09:08 PM (GMT-7)

great idea. I use an Excel Spreadsheet, I'd be glad to share if you want. I also found one someone posted a while back that was excellent. Recently looked back at my spreadhseet and can easily see when i was in flare b/c I only tracked during those times. Prob a good idea to track through remission as well. highlight the good!