Why It Makes Sense To Keep A Health Planner

Today's post from brainlessblogger.net (see link below) advertises a product that may be useful to you if you're living with long-term neuropathy. It's cheap and easy to order but my suggestion would be to make your own version and use an ordinary note book to record your neuropathy patterns. That said, maybe you'll want to buy the product mentioned here (a suggestion I almost never make on this advert-free blog) but first maybe you need to ask yourself if you need something like this. One thing is sure, if you're living with such an unpredictable disease as neuropathy, it's very easy to lose track of the patterns of your illness and symptoms. This can lead to forgetting things when you arrive at the doctor's office and can't remember when you felt this or that, or for how long it lasted. Remember, it's becoming increasingly necessary for your doctor to have an accurate overall picture of how your nerve damage is progressing - effective treatment may depend on it. Having a sort of health planner such as the one described below, will save time and enable you and your doctor to get to the crux of the problem and find the best treatment more quickly. Give it a go and create one for yourself - it will cost practically nothing but may help you piece together the variety of symptoms and experiences that go with having neuropathy. There are thousands of printable templates available for free on the net.
 

Review: Plot your health planner
September 17, 2018 Nikki
 
Plot Your Health is a wellness and health planner for all your health needs. I found some of the sections extremely useful for managing my chronic illness. This is the sort of thing you can bring to your doctor appointments to show symptom progression and pain.


Things the health planner includes (space for 3 months)
Condition details
Medication and supplement record
A calender- which I use for appointments and short notes
Doctor/Wellness visits
Symptoms 1-10 list
Medication tracking
Mood tracker coloring page
Habit tracker for anything or readings
Tests, scans, and bloodwork tracking
Overview of pages in the health planner

Let’s talk about the Habit Tracker:

I found this quite helpful as I needed a way to track some goals I have. In particular, sleep modification, quitting smoking, and reducing my caffeine intake. All of which I am doing slowly and carefully but need a way to track it.

Doctor/Wellness notes

If one thing describes me, before illness, and certainly after it is absent-minded. And I always have things I need to mention to my doc that I forget. Or she says something and then the moment I am out of the door… poof… gone. So this section is extremely useful to me.

Medication tracking

Now, this would help you remember if you took your meds or not. But I use a sorter that helps with that. What I do need to remember is when I take my ‘as needed’ meds. Like my antinausea med that can only be taken three times a day. And my migraine triptan that can only be taken 2 times a week (and I am constantly forgetting if I have taken it that many times or not. Or if I took it the day before or not).

The calender

This is great for tracking the infinite amount of appointments I have had lately. But I also write little notes in there.

Symptom tracker

This is great for noting my migraine days and intensity of those migraines. Because it is hard to determine if a treatment is working if I don’t track its progress. It also helped me because you can see patterns pretty easily.

Mood tracker (coloring page)

I have depression which is well managed with Abilify. However, I am therefore very aware of the impact of moods on pain. And, also, very aware depression is insidious and can sneak up on me. Tracking my moods is something that is important to me.

With the Plot Your Health planner, everything is in one place. It is great for bringing to you doc or specialist appointments to discuss symptoms patterns and effectiveness of treatment. I have a real thing with forgetting to write things down or put it in my phone because out of sight out of mind. But since this all in one it helps me remember to note all the important things I need to remember and track. And it will help with treatment plans and habit changes. I have gotten into the routine of using it and am going to bring it to doctor appointments with me so that I can better remember what she says. There are also blank note pages and I think that is an ideal spot for your gratitude journal or thoughts.

https://brainlessblogger.net/2018/09/17/review-plot-your-health-planner/