Post-Transplant: Daily Journal

In addition to the PAGs, schedules and lists included in this blog, you should keep a daily diary – a small notebook should suffice, or a 3-ring binder (make copies here and on blank paper and insert using tabs for each month).  You could use it to make a few simple notes daily about how you feel, but I suggest something with a bit more structure that includes two daily PAGs, like this:

AM PAG: xx/yy/zz	Type	Rating	Duration
Physical Condition 1
Physical Condition 2
Physical Condition 3
Emotional State

Notes: (in your journal)

PM PAG: xx/yy/zz	Type	Rating	Duration
Physical Condition 1
Physical Condition 2
Physical Condition 3
Emotional State

Notes: (in your journal)


Try to quantify how you feel, both emotionally and physically, at the start and end of the day, with a few notes to expand on each PAG if required.  If you felt emotionally lethargic at the start of the day until around ten am, note that down and try to give it a rating based on the 0-10 scale for overall discomfort.  If you had cramps in your hands in the evening for half an hour, note down that.  Your follow-up tests may indicate that your electrolytes are not yet in balance and that recorded symptom would help them make a diagnosis and prescribe a treatment.



Use as many or as few lines as you need to describe how you feel.  At the end of this page I’m going to include some blank PAGs for you to fill in at the end of each week.  I'd suggest doing this for three months or so, or for the full year if you can (make multiple copies of that page to get as many PAGs as you want).  Review your daily PAGs, then summarize how you’re feeling at each week’s end – include a date on the heading of each.  The line item components are blank – fill in a general description of your physical or emotional state, or be more specific if you like.  Try to characterize the overall sensation using descriptive words in the Type space, along with a Rating and Duration where possible.  Include notations for time of day if an event can be pinned down to that degree of specificity.



It will be easier to see progress reviewing these weekly PAGs than by the daily ones.  I won’t put in space for notes, as those should all be in your journal with the daily PAGs.  You may think it’s slow-going, but you’ll probably find that each week is a slight improvement over the week before.  You’ll start to notice a difference both on the pages, and in yourself.



As for the daily journal content, I would include general notes on how you feel in your PAGs, with specific information and updates given by your transplant team.  Since you have a list in this blog for your prescriptions, use the journal to keep track of any effects you may experience by a change in medication.  If you don’t normally take a sleeping pill, you should note down the times you do in your journal, so that you start to see a pattern of when you need that med – it can lead to some insight for the elimination of it in the long run.



The biggest benefit of the daily journal is self-awareness.  Even though the regrowth of a new immune system takes a full year, most patients see a big difference by the end of the second month.  Many begin to feel ‘normal’ again by that point.  I felt pretty good then, but it wasn't until half a year, a year and a year and a half had passed that I realized that improvement was continuous.  If you use your daily journal throughout the first two to three months, you’ll probably continue to use it thereafter, and that will provide an additional record of your transplant experience and recovery.  You’ll find the weekly PAGs at the end of this page.