Bladder Problems - Daily Log

Interstitial cystitis is a poorly understood bladder condition that causes long-term pelvic pain and problems peeing. It's also known as painful bladder syndrome or bladder pain syndrome. The condition tends to first affect people in their 30s and 40s, and is much more common in women than men.

Interstitial cystitis (IC) / bladder pain syndrome (BPS) is a chronic bladder health issue. It is a feeling of pain and pressure in the bladder area.

Benefits of a diary

The benefits of a (pain) diary are clear and it is evident that recording the characteristics and changes of your pain can help to improve overall management. Keeping a pain diary can assist to:

- Establish patterns of pain (e.g. flare ups at certain times, temperatures or after activities)

= Understand effective management techniques (e.g. which therapies / medication provide best pain relief)

- Improve patient-practitioner communication (e.g. more comprehensive information to make therapeutic decisions)

A pain diary can play an instrumental role in the management of chronic pain and help health professionals to gain a comprehensive understanding of the pain experienced by the patient. This helps to avoid gaps in the history, and certain patterns that can be addressed with or without pharmacological intervention can be implemented.

Using a pain scale to record the intensity of the pain is useful to describe changes of pain in detail and establish patterns in the pain diary.

The intensity is usually recorded on a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being no pain experienced and 10 being the worst pain imaginable. If the pain diary is being used to record changes at multiple intervals throughout the day, an average can help to give an overall picture of the pain for the day.

In addition to the numerical scale, it can be useful to describe the pain with words such as aching, burning, pounding, shooting, stabbing or throbbing. Describing emotions and psychological effects in words can also be useful.