Charting Symptoms

[Bill]

Tracking symptoms has always sounded easier than I find it to be in practice. Oh, I start off good but then miss some days....

 

I developed the scales below so that I could just record some numbers each day. The scales are geared to my son's symptoms and is helped by the fact that his symptoms seem to remain constant over time. I use a spreadsheet with each row a day and have a column for notes. Not perfect but better than my previous system.

 

 

Scales

 

OCD

Shut Down 9

8

Others Contaminated 7

6

Functional but Persistent 5

4

Functional with Triggers 3

2

Not noticeable 1

 

 

Behavior

Raging/Must be Restrained 9

8

In Face/Won't Yield 7

6

Angry/Defiant but Yields 5

4

Pain in the Butt 3

2

Happy 1

 

 

Anxiety

Cocooning all Day 9

8

Some Cocooning/Constant Fingers 7

6

Picking Fingers Often 5

4

Some Finger Picking 3

2

None 1

 

I define cocooning as sitting on a chair, wrapped in blankets, watching TV all day long.

[Suzan]

Nice! I use a word doc and just make notes whenever there is something note worthy. This is important for me otherwise I can't remember anything. But then I have to do a lot of searching to find the symptom or time period I need to reference in a doc appt and it's hard to find. A spreadsheet like you mention might be easier. I also tend to only write when things are bad or if nothing changes for a long time I get tired of saying the same thing day after day.

 

Susan

[sf_mom]

I especially love your behavioral rankings. Mine should read identical in category.

 

-Wendy

[Bill]

Nice! I use a word doc and just make notes whenever there is something note worthy. This is important for me otherwise I can't remember anything. But then I have to do a lot of searching to find the symptom or time period I need to reference in a doc appt and it's hard to find. A spreadsheet like you mention might be easier. I also tend to only write when things are bad or if nothing changes for a long time I get tired of saying the same thing day after day.

 

Susan

 

 

I also plotted the first six weeks of data in Excel looking for correlation between medications and scores. Correlation with Tindemax on weekends was clear. I do not keep it up to date, probably will not plot again until later in February as our next appt. with LLMD is 1 March.

Edited January 26, 2011 by Bill

[lfran]

Bill, thanks for posting.

 

Can you elaborate on what "OCD: functional with triggers" means? My DS9 has always had tons of tics, but now I see a lot more triggers to his motor movements and I am wondering if it is time to start thinking of it as OCD instead (just the compulsions part, I don't think there are any obsessions. And there doesn't seem to be anxiety associated with the compulsions -- he just has to do them, but they are ritualized to specific situations, like picking up a book to read, or closing the car door, or getting an answer correct on his homework, or hearing a certain sound).

 

Can you (or anyone) shed some light on this? It's been tics for so long (years) but this seems different. (and the tics have mostly gone). I'm confused.

 

Thanks.

 

 

Nice! I use a word doc and just make notes whenever there is something note worthy. This is important for me otherwise I can't remember anything. But then I have to do a lot of searching to find the symptom or time period I need to reference in a doc appt and it's hard to find. A spreadsheet like you mention might be easier. I also tend to only write when things are bad or if nothing changes for a long time I get tired of saying the same thing day after day.

 

Susan

 

 

I also plotted the first six weeks of data in Excel looking for correlation between medications and scores. Correlation with Tindemax on weekends was clear. I do not keep it up to date, probably will not plot again until later in February as our next appt. with LLMD is 1 March.