How To Keep a Symptom Journal (and Why It Matters!)

After a crash or other injurious incident, the list of things to do can seem never-ending. You need to file a report with authorities, see a doctor, communicate with your insurance company, track expenses on things like car repairs or lost wages, and much more. With such an extensive checklist, it’s understandable that a few smaller yet immensely important tasks can get overlooked or forgotten.  

A prime example of such a task is keeping a symptom journal in the wake of your injury. A symptom journal is a log of how you feel every day after the incident, and while it may seem like an unnecessary chore, it can play a pivotal role in securing the compensation you deserve later on in the legal process.  

To ease a bit of the burden on your shoulders as you navigate life with an injury, we’re dedicating this blog post to outlining what a symptom journal is, why it matters, and how to utilize it.  

What a Symptom Journal Is 

A symptom journal can take many forms––a physical notebook, a Google Doc, a Note on your iPhone––but its fundamental purpose is to serve as a personal tracker of your injury journey.  

Sometimes, personal injury cases can stretch on for several years, but even as time passes, it’s critical to be able to recall how the accident impacted you in the early days. You may think that your life has been so affected by the injury that you couldn’t possibly forget what it was like, but as months pass, details and memories fade.  

By logging what you may think are minor pieces of information, like having a headache in the morning or feeling extra stiffness in your lower back, you will be able to recall every step of your healing process. While fighting for compensation on your behalf, your attorney can use these specific details to show the insurance company or a jury just how impactful your injury was on your life, and your case will benefit.  

Why It Matters  

Your personal injury attorney needs to know the ins and outs of your case to be able to win your just compensation for you, but if months or even years have passed between the initial incident and when you sought their help, it’s incredibly challenging for them to develop the thorough understanding of your timeline.

Without a symptom log, you would need to recall as many details as possible and effectively relay that information to your attorney. Time wears away even at those with the sharpest memories, and key details of your case can get forgotten. By keeping a symptom log, you won’t have to comb through your memories to fill your attorney in––a day-by-day tracker will be right at your fingertips to use as evidence in building your case.  

How To Keep a Symptom Journal 

While there are many ways to go about keeping a symptom journal, there are a few key details we would recommend trying to fit into each entry to best follow your healing journey.  

• Date/time 

• Pain scale  

  • On a scale from 0-10, rate your pain. If multiple parts of your body are injured, assess each area.  

• New or changing symptoms  

  • If a new symptom arises, as is common in the days and weeks after something like a car crash, notate the start date in your journal. Also, monitor changing symptoms, like if back pain morphs from a dull pain into a burning pain.  

• Difficulties  

  • If your injury inhibits your daily life, write it down. Examples may be: 

    • “My lower back pain made it too difficult to bend over, so I could not pick up my groceries.”  

    • “My headache was so severe this morning that I called in sick to work.”  

    • “I wanted to go for my daily workout at the gym, but I chose to stay home and ice my hurt shoulder.”  

• Medications  

  • If you take any painkillers––over-the-counter or prescribed medications from a doctor after the incident––record the time and dosage. Not only is it important for your health to track how much of any given medicine you are taking, but these details can be important later when proving the severity of your symptoms.  

• Emotional impact  

  • Experiencing an injury can take a deep emotional toll as you adjust your daily routines to fit your new reality. If you notice yourself feeling down, depressed, or anxious, please log that in your journal. This can help you remain mindful of your own feelings and can point you towards utilizing other helpful resources like therapy or antidepressants/anti-anxiety medications if necessary, but it can also help your attorney successfully show the insurance company or jury that this injury did not just affect you physically.  

Keeping a symptom log early on and throughout the length of your personal injury case can help ease along every step of the legal process from allowing your attorney to better understand your journey to providing sufficient personal testimony that helps effectively and justly settle your case.  

Contributed to by Abby Chalmers