When you're faced with a diagnosis such as Lupus, the road to recovery can be very difficult. There is no cure and no single medication that can take the pain away so we're left with trying to work with medications that are used to treat other illnesses. Everyone's symptoms are different so treatment for one person can differ for someone else. Trying to find that balance can be very trying. For me, it took about a year and a half to find the right combination of medications. That year and a half felt like an eternity. Sometimes I had to wait for a couple months before the medications would start working. And because I was in a flare, it was difficult to tell what was contibuting to my quality of life. Was my activity level (stress, exercise, work, etc,) contributing to my recovery or making me worse? 

My husband saw all my ups and downs and offered a really good suggestion at that time.  He thought it would be a good idea to keep track of my symptoms, what I ate and what medications I was on. Great suggestion but unfortunately, I didn't start working on that suggestion until about a little over a year ago (I was diagnosed in May 2007). I was so overwhelmed at that time that adding something else that "I needed to be doing" was another project on its own. But in the long run, I listened and I created my Daily Log.

It was pretty simple at first.  I jotted down the basics on an Excel spreadsheet (i.e., what medications I was on, what symptoms I was having, what doctors told me and what I ate that day) and called it my Daily Log. Sounds great, right?  Well, it wasn't as organized as I wanted it to be but it was a start.

Recently, I started reading this book called Despite Lupus: How to Live Well with a Chronic Illness.  I didn't realize how helpful that book would be for me! Sara Gorman gives great advice about how to keep track of your daily life.

So with her help, I revamped my Daily Log. (Thank you Sara!).

Here is how mine looks today.


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