Keep a diary to measure and record your symptoms in your Alaska disability case

My Alaska Social Security clients have found that it can be a long time before I can get a hearing on their Social Security disability case, and by then some of them find it hard to remember some of the details of their history.

This problem can be solved by keeping a symptom record or diary.

What kind of diary should I have?

This is not a traditional diary that you might think of, where people write long descriptions of their lives. The point of this diary is to keep track of your symptoms.

This symptom diary can be extremely helpful, particularly if you have trouble generalizing or providing sufficiently detailed information about your condition. The diary can keep track of your problems, and help quantify them. It will help clarify your history both for your attorney and your doctor, and it will be invaluable in helping you prepare for testimony at a hearing.

Although it can be written out in paragraph form, somewhat like a blog on the Internet, the easiest symptom diary is a log or chart that lists your conditions and their severity in some sort of check-off form.

Should I keep more than one diary?

Probably. You may have several different things that you want to record, and doing that all on one chart or diary could be too complicted.

Here are some of the things that you might keep track of:

• Your symptoms (and you may have several) such as:
  • Headaches.
  • Temperature.
  • Fatigue.
  • Problems sleeping.
• The things you used to do but can no longer do.
• Your medications.
• Your doctor appointments and treatment history.

Who will see my diary?

Do not make your diary public. If you keep track of it on the computer, do not post it as a blog.

Your symptom diary is for you, your attorney, and your doctor.

What should my diary look like?

Your diary can be a check-off chart of conditions or events over time. Here are a couple samples. You can revise these samples to make your own personal diary for anything you need.

Headache Diary — For each day of the month you, check whether you had a headache, how severe it was, how long it lasted, and its symptoms.

Continue to the full PDF version of the Social Security Disability Monthly Headache Diary.

Medication Diary — Keep track of the medications that you take each week. Show what time of day you took each medication. If the size of the dosage changes then you should include that in the record.

Continue to the full PDF version of the Social Security Disability Weekly Medication Diary.

Contact me for help

If your application has been denied, and you are not already represented by an Alaska Social Security disability attorney, contact me for assistance.

Use the form to the right to describe your claim. Or you may contact me at:

Paul Eaglin of the Eaglin Law Office
Alaska Social Security disability lawyer
E-mail me
907-374-4744

Fairbanks, Alaska