Symptom Chart


Symptoms Chart – April 2008

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Here’s what happened to me last month. Pretty up and down with all the new meds. Sucks. Depression (yellow bars) is noticeably up. To download a PDF of this file click here Download 04_april.pdf (298.0K)

For more information on these charts click here.

Symptoms Chart – March 2008

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I would have sworn that I posted this at the end of March, but it looks like I forgot. My brain’s a mess with memory these days. To download a PDF of this file Click here.

Anyway… here’s what was happening with me last month. Note the updated design to incorporate meds. Didn’t really need it last month as I stopped taking all of the supplement I was on — basically got frustrated with their lack of results — but for April’s chart it will have some relevance.

For more on what these charts are all about, click here

Symptoms Chart – February 2008

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Here’s my symptom chart for February. You can download a PDF of it here.

A very roller coaster month for me both emotionally and with my symptoms. Fortunately, at the end of the month I finally had some insight into what might be going on. Let’s hope that March has a better pattern and shows some progress.

There’s a description of these charts in the January post.

Symptoms Chart – January 2008

01_januaryHere’s my symptom chart for January. You can download a PDF of it here.

About These Charts:
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a Graphic Designer. I’m also a data geek. I love facts, figures and statistics. Even more, what I love, is to merge the two together. The perspective that visualized data provides is so cool. So, after reading somewhere that it was a good idea to keep track of your symptoms over time I devised this chart to do just that.

The charts are really just for me. I showed it to my PCP and could have cared less. I went to see an Allergist and he told me that I should "spend more time getting well and less time charting my symptoms." Lucky for him he’s also a friend of mine. Truth is, after making the template, it only takes me about 3 minutes every couple of days to update the chart. It’s all automated. I like doing them and don’t care what the doctors think. However, I do hope someone else out there is intrigued.

The horizontal access contains every day of the month. The 0-10 values on the vertical access are pretty arbitrary — 0 = No symptoms, 10 = Symptoms extreme enough to keep me home from work or in bed. Across this access there are seven different symptom categories. These are my main symptoms, though I have others. I may swap things out
in the future, but for now these are the things that I monitor daily:

  1. Fatigue (red)
  2. Brain Fog (orange)
  3. Weakness (yellow)
  4. Sore Throat (green)
  5. Headaches (blue)
  6. Muscle Pain (brown)
  7. Tingling (pink)

In addition to keeping track of the symptoms, I also try to keep track of things that might change or affect them. Across the bottom are indicators for when I do stretches, biking, running, swimming or visit a doctor.