Two-Week Symptom Tracker
From Chapter 7, "Keeping the Record": two weeks of written-down symptoms beats a year of remembering. One line a day. That is the whole thing.
What you type here never leaves this device
There is no server behind this page. Nothing you fill in is sent anywhere, stored anywhere but here, or seen by anyone, including me. Each entry is saved to this browser's local storage as you type, so you can close the tab and come back tomorrow. Clicking "Clear this tracker" deletes everything you've saved, for good.
If you'd rather not take my word for it, the code is at assets/symptom-tracker.js — read it, or search it for "fetch" and "XHR" and see that neither appears.
How to keep one somebody will actually read
This is for the slow signal — the thing that's been going on for weeks or months. It is not for the fast one: if what's happening to you is on Chapter 3's list, a two-week record is the wrong tool, and starting one is a way of feeling responsible while nothing is being done. Some of that list is a call to 911 rather than an appointment.
Two weeks. Not indefinitely. A fortnight of honest daily entries is worth more than six months of decreasing enthusiasm, and it has an end date, which is why you will finish it.
One line a day. Date. Severity out of ten. What you did or ate that was unusual. Where you are in your cycle, if you have one. That is the whole thing. If it takes more than thirty seconds you will stop by day five.
Note the good days too. People record only bad days, which makes every record look like unrelieved misery and destroys the pattern. The good days are half the signal.
Write it the same time every day. Evening usually. Consistency matters more than accuracy.
Do not diagnose in the margins. Felt awful, think it's my thyroid is worth nothing to a reader and quietly commits you to a theory. Woke at 4, 7/10, day 22 is worth a great deal.
— Chapter 7, "Keeping the Record"
Your two-week record
Name
Two weeks starting
| Day | Date | Severity /10 | What was unusual (food, activity, anything) | Cycle day, if applicable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| 14 |
What this is, and what it is not
This is your working notebook, not the page you hand over. Chapter 7's own instruction: nobody has time for the notebook. When your two weeks are up, turn what you've noticed into a Signal Card for your signal — that's the page to bring to the appointment. Go to the Signal Cards.
Nothing here is scored, and nothing here diagnoses anything. It is a plain daily log, read by a person.
Worth Investigating has not yet had its final author read-through, so the exact wording above may still change before the book is published. How I research and write