Side-effect diary: symptom, severity 0 to 3, timing after the dose, what helped

Nausea two days after every injection is a different problem from nausea every morning. Constipation that started the week the dose went up is a different problem from constipation that has been there since day one. A prescriber can only see those patterns if the diary has a date, a time-since-dose and a severity that means the same thing each day. That is the whole design of this sheet.

How to fill it in

The severity key is printed on the sheet: 0 none, 1 noticed it but it did not change my day, 2 changed what I ate or did, 3 could not do normal activities or needed help. Pick the number before you write the words; it keeps you honest across a fortnight.

The "hours after dose" column is the one people skip and the one prescribers value most. Look at your dose log for the injection time and count from there. "About 36 hours" is fine. The "what helped" column is for your own benefit: small meals, ginger, a walk, skipping a fatty dinner, lying on the left side. After two cycles you will have your own evidence about what works.

Enter a start date in the builder and the fourteen date cells fill in at daily steps. If you would rather write dates by hand, leave it blank.

The box you should read first

At the foot of the sheet is a short list of symptoms that the Wegovy and Zepbound medication guides tell patients to report to a health care provider right away rather than at the next visit: severe stomach-area pain that does not go away and may spread to the back, upper-right abdominal pain with fever or yellowing of the skin or eyes, vomiting or diarrhoea severe enough to stop you drinking, changes in vision, signs of an allergic reaction, and low blood sugar if you also take insulin or a sulfonylurea. The list is printed so that it is in your hand at 2 a.m., not on a website. It is not a diagnosis of anything; it is the label's own list of when not to wait.

Using the diary at a visit

Bring the sheet and the dose log together. The provider visit question list has a question that starts "looking at my dose log and diary"; that is the moment this sheet earns its keep. If constipation or nausea dominate the page, the hydration and fibre tracker is the natural next sheet, and the guides site has a longer piece on managing gastrointestinal effects at formblendsguides.com.