Learn How to Track Your Symptoms: A Step-by-Step Guide

Going through illness is exhausting. Difficult. Scary. Whether it’s a seemingly minor ailment or a more serious illness such as cancer, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. You can’t wait to improve, but day after day you wonder if you are even making progress. If only there was some way to see if you are improving or not. Well, the good news is that you can monitor your progress using this easy step-by-step guide to track your symptoms.

So, why should you track your symptoms? After all, if you’re sick, you’re sick and there’s nothing you can do about it, right?

Wrong.

Why should I use a symptom tracker?

A symptom tracker is a tool used to record abnormal behavior in your body. You will set goals, see trends, notice improvement or worsening of symptoms,  and know when to seek medical care by using a symptom tracker.

Why it is important to track your symptoms.

Symptoms are a way of letting you know that something is wrong in your body. By tracking your symptoms, you will see a trend develop. This pattern will tell you if your symptoms are getting better, staying the same, or getting worse. And with that information, you and your doctor can develop a plan of care specifically for the symptoms you are dealing with.

What is a symptom?

A symptom can be, well, almost anything going on in your body. Here are some examples:

Headache

Pain

Nausea

Rash

Wound

Weakness

Heartburn

Cramping

Diarrhea

Constipation

Fatigue

Confusion

Dry mouth

Soreness

Cough

Shortness of breath

Hot flash

Dry skin

Swelling

Poor sleep

Weight loss or gain

What causes symptoms?

A symptom is something abnormal going on in your body. Abnormal is the keyword here. What may be a symptom for one person may not be a symptom for someone else. For example, if you find that you have lost twenty pounds then that’s bad. Right? Well, if you are trying to lose weight then a twenty-pound weight loss is a victory. But, if you are not trying to lose weight and find the pounds slipping away then that may be a symptom of something going on in your body.

What is the purpose of tracking symptoms?

It is important to track your symptoms to see what is working and what is not. It is common to need to try different things based on your symptoms. For instance, let’s say that your blood pressure has been running higher than normal lately. Your doctor recommends that you change your diet, get more rest and exercise, and come back in two weeks.

You do everything the doctor instructed you to do. You check your blood pressure every day, but it hasn’t gone down at all. You go back to the doctor and this time they have you start taking medication.

Again, you do everything as instructed, you continue to check your blood pressure daily, and make sure not to miss any doses of your medicine. When you go back for your follow-up visit your blood pressure is still up so your doctor orders you to take a different medication.

Once again you do all that the doctor asks you to do. At your next checkup, your blood pressure is back to where it should be. By tracking your blood pressure every day, your doctor was able to adjust your treatment plan until they found the right combination of medication and lifestyle changes to get your blood pressure down to where it should be.

Another reason to track your symptoms is to see if the treatment causes any new symptoms. In the example above, what if the first medication you tried lowered your blood pressure, but it also caused a strange new symptom like a cough? This new symptom would alert the doctor that you are not tolerating the medication, so they would have to try something else. Even though the pill got your blood pressure down, the new symptom proved that this was not the best medicine for you.

How do you monitor symptoms?

Depending on what symptom you are monitoring will determine how to track it. For instance, if you are measuring pain, you could record your pain level by using a number – one for very little pain through five for severe pain.

On the other hand, if you are monitoring your mood you may want to draw a face to represent your mood.

Determine how often to monitor symptoms.

Again, depending on what symptom you are tracking determines how often to monitor it. For instance, if you are documenting your weight loss progress you would probably record this once or twice per week possibly. But if you are monitoring your blood glucose, you will most likely do this daily or even several times per day.

Set a goal and a deadline.

Once you have a starting point and have determined how often to monitor your symptom, the next step is to set a goal and a deadline.

What do you want to accomplish? Do you want your symptoms to go away completely? (Of course!) And if that is not possible, what level is acceptable?

Having a goal to strive for is another way to keep track of the progress you are making. Use the acronym S.M.A.R.T to help you set your goal.

Specific = be specific. Instead of saying I want the swelling to go away, your goal statement could be “I want to see the swelling in my  foot decrease enough to get my slipper on.”

Measurable = have a way to measure your progress. In the example above, the way to measure the swelling is, well, trying on your slipper.

Attainable = something you know you can accomplish. If you’ve never run a race before, then setting your goal as running a marathon is unrealistic. Instead, your goal could be to run around the block. Once you can do that, you can set longer and longer distances until you can run that marathon.

Relevant = the purpose of your goal. For example, “I want the swelling in my foot to go down so I can put my shoes on and go to work.”

Time-based = a deadline when you hope to meet your goal.

Track your progress.

Using your symptom tracker, fill in the appropriate data for each of the symptoms you are tracking.

Re-evaluate the treatment plan or celebrate your success.

Once your deadline arrives it is time to re-evaluate your treatment plan or celebrate your success. If you have not met your goal by the deadline, then look over your symptom tracker and see if there is something you can do differently to accomplish your goal.

If necessary, set a new deadline and use your new plan to try to achieve your goal. You may need to try different avenues to reach your goal.

And what if you meet your goal by the deadline? Then by all means celebrate! You deserve it for all the hard work you put into making it happen.

How to use a symptom tracker.

We’ve talked about each step of the process, so now let’s put it all together and show you how to use your symptom tracker. First, let’s set up a scenario.

It’s a nice spring day, so you decide to go for a bike ride. It had rained recently and there are some puddles along your path. As you go down a hill, you hit a puddle that is deeper than it appeared, and you are thrown from your bicycle landing on your left side. You take inventory of your injuries. You feel pain in your left shoulder and notice some road rash on your hands and left shin. As you begin to stand up, you realize that you cannot put any weight on your left leg because your knee is extremely painful. You go to the emergency room and find out that you have no broken bones. Your shoulder is bruised, and you have a severely sprained knee. You are sent home with pain meds and crutches and instructed to rest, elevate your knee on some pillows, put ice on your knee and shoulder, and take it easy. You have a vacation planned in two months with friends and you would be crushed if you couldn’t go, so you use your symptom tracker to monitor your progress.

Baseline: 5/9/22 Severe pain and swelling in the left knee. Unable to do any activity.

Symptom monitoring: Daily at first, then taper as symptoms decrease.

Goal and deadline: Vacation with friends in two months.

Re-evaluate: 7/9/22 You are completely recovered and heading off with your friends on that vacation you so looked forward to.

Now let’s look more closely at your symptom tracker. On the day of your injury, you were in severe pain even with all the pain-relieving measures in place. As you began to heal, you notice that you are getting some relief from the pain with your medication. Next, you notice that the pain and swelling are beginning to go down and you no longer need narcotic pain meds and non-narcotic pain medication controls the pain adequately. As your healing progresses, you can increase your activity and the swelling goes away completely. With continued healing, you are once again able to be outdoors exercising as you like. And by the time your vacation comes around you are completely healed and ready to take on new adventures with your friends.

Conclusion

A symptom tracker is a tool used to record abnormal behavior in your body. To use this tool, determine which symptoms to monitor, decide how often to track symptoms, record symptoms on a table to see trends, set goals and evaluate the effectiveness of your current treatment. Take your symptom tracker with you to your follow-up appointments so you and your doctor can develop the best plan to help you return to your best state of health.

Wishing you all the best,

Kelly

 Are your cancer screenings up to date?

Yes, I am a nurse. No, I am not your nurse. The medical topics discussed in this, or any article on this site, are intended to be issues for you to discuss with your medical team if you feel they apply to you. None of the information you are about to read in this article is treatment advice for you from me. I do not have that authority.