Updated 3 October 2026
At a glance
- A flare is the return of symptoms, and remission between flares can last for weeks or years (NIDDK).
- A stool form scale can be used to monitor change in intestinal function, based on a study of 66 volunteers (PubMed).
- Fatigue affects nearly 80% of people with active inflammatory bowel disease and 50% of those in remission (Crohn's & Colitis Foundation).
- Crohn's Journey keeps the 14 days of stool, pain, meal and medicine entries in one dated history that exports as a one-page summary.
A clinic visit is short, and two weeks of symptoms are hard to recall in order. Fourteen days of the same six lines turn memory into a page.
This guide lists the six daily lines, how to record stool form, which other symptoms to include, how to list meals, medicines and tests, and how to build a one-page summary with three questions.
Six lines for each of 14 days: stool, urgency, pain, meals, energy and medicine entries
Two weeks is long enough to hold a flare day, a quiet day and everything between. It is short enough to read quickly at a visit. NIDDK states that symptoms of Crohn's disease vary with the location and severity of inflammation, so each day's lines should cover more than one symptom; see its symptoms page.
Six daily lines for 14 days
Crohn's Journey (part of Health Journey Labs) writes the same six lines every day, including days with nothing to report:
- Stool: form on the scale and how many times.
- Urgency: how many trips were rushed, and any trip at night.
- Pain: where in the belly and how strong, from 0 to 10.
- Meals and drinks: what was eaten, in short lines.
- Energy: one word or one score.
- Medicine entries: which medicines were logged that day.
Day 14 ends with a count of the days that were clearly worse than the rest. That count is the first sentence of the visit.
The guide to starting symptom tracking explains the same habit for the first week of a new record.
The Daily check-in in Crohn's Journey covers physical symptoms, emotional state, nutrition, sleep, exercise, meds and external factors in one guided pass. The calendar view then shows the 14 days with each day colored by intensity.
Stool form in Crohn's on a 7-point scale and why it counts
A study of 66 volunteers, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology, had participants keep a diary of stool form on a 7-point scale and of how often they went. It reported that a stool form scale can be used to monitor change in intestinal function. Stool form tracked transit time more closely than the number of trips did.
That finding comes from volunteers, not from a group with Crohn's disease. It supports one habit: write the form every time, in addition to the count.
Table for logging each stool
Crohn's Journey logs each stool in the columns below.
| Column | What to write for each stool |
|---|---|
| Form | The number from the 7-point scale |
| Urgency | Rushed or not, and whether it woke the person up |
| Marks | Anything else seen, in the person's own words |
Source: Crohn's Journey
NIDDK lists diarrhea as one of the most common symptoms of Crohn's disease. Over two weeks, the form column shows how many days were loose and how many were not, which a count alone hides.
The Stool Tracker (Bristol Scale) in Crohn's Journey records stool form, urgency or bathroom load and short marks, and it reads them together with pain, meals and energy. A loose week and the meals that came before it can then be compared line by line.
Belly pain, joint pain, fever and nausea: the other symptoms that belong in the two weeks
NIDDK lists the most common symptoms of Crohn's disease as diarrhea, cramping and pain in the abdomen, and weight loss. Other symptoms on the same page are anemia, eye redness or pain, feeling tired, fever, joint pain or soreness, nausea, loss of appetite or vomiting, and skin changes such as red, tender bumps under the skin.
The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation brochure on managing flares adds frequent or urgent bowel movements and bloody stool to its list of common symptoms, and it names rashes, body aches and eye problems among other reports.
Two weeks of notes should include the symptoms outside the gut, since the clinician will ask. A column for each keeps the lines short:
- Belly pain: place, strength, and whether it came before or after a meal.
- Joint pain or soreness: which joints.
- Fever: whether it was present that day.
- Nausea or vomiting: how many times.
- Skin and eyes: any new change, with the date.
A Flare Tracker entry in Crohn's Journey keeps onset, intensity and a short note for a day clearly worse than a usual week. The Daily Journal adds what the day limited in typed or voice notes.
Meal and drink lines: a two-week food journal a clinician can scan
The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation flare brochure states that each person with inflammatory bowel disease needs to find out which foods affect symptoms and which do not, and that keeping a food journal may help track how diet relates to symptoms. MedlinePlus states that stress and eating certain foods do not cause Crohn's disease but can make symptoms worse.
A food journal for a visit stays short. Over 14 days, the lines are for pattern spotting, not for rules.
- One line per meal or drink, using the words used at home.
- The time frame to the next symptom, if a symptom followed: the same evening, the next morning or none.
- Caffeine and alcohol as separate lines on the days they were part of the day.
- A note when a meal was skipped because of pain or urgency.
The journal records what happened. It does not judge which foods are safe, because that decision belongs to the person and the care team.
(Crohn's Journey framework) Keep the food lines and the stool lines on the same date so the clinician can read across a row.
The Food Tracker in Crohn's Journey takes meal or drink lines, with caffeine and alcohol, and reads them with pain, urgency, energy, stool and sleep. The Weight Tracker holds scale or body notes alongside stool, meals, energy and sleep when a clinician is watching weight.
Medicine entries, blood counts, stool tests and imaging: dated lists for the same two weeks
NIDDK states that to diagnose Crohn's disease, doctors review medical and family history, perform a physical exam and order tests; the doctor asks about symptoms and any medicines taken. Tests include blood tests, stool tests, endoscopy and imaging, per the NIDDK diagnosis page. Blood tests check for anemia, a high white blood cell count and a high C-reactive protein level, and stool tests look for inflammation and rule out certain infections.
Dated lists for the two-week page
In Crohn's Journey, the two-week page carries dates, not interpretations:
| Item | Write down |
|---|---|
| Medicines | Name and the date of each logged entry |
| Blood tests | Test name and result date |
| Stool tests | Test name, including calprotectin, and result date |
| Imaging and scopes | Type and date |
Source: Crohn's Journey
Medicines are listed as dated facts. The visit question takes this form: "Is it worth reviewing my medicine entries together with these two weeks?" The clinician decides what the entries mean.
From Crohn's Journey, we recommend writing the date of the last test even when the result has not arrived, because a missing date is the first thing a clinician asks about.
My Meds in Crohn's Journey stores medicine names, timing and medication entries, including biologics and steroids, and reads them with stool weeks, pain and sleep. My Labs stores result dates for blood counts, stool tests, calprotectin and imaging, read with symptoms and function.
Flare days against quiet days: what the 14-day contrast shows
NIDDK states that when people have symptoms it is called a flare, that most people have periods of remission between flares, and that remission can last for weeks or years. Researchers estimate that 1 million people in the United States have Crohn's disease, and it is more likely to develop between ages 20 and 29, according to the NIDDK definition and facts page.
A 14-day page shows both kinds of day. Quiet days matter as much as flare days because the clinician compares them.
The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation reports that fatigue affects nearly 80% of people with active inflammatory bowel disease and 50% of those in clinical remission, per its fatigue page. For that reason, energy belongs in the daily lines even when the gut is quiet.
- Mark each day as worse than usual, usual, or better than usual.
- Count the worse days and write the count on top of the page.
- Write one line about what the quiet days had in common, if anything.
The guide to explaining the disease to family helps when the contrast between a flare day and a quiet day confuses people at home.
The Flare Tracker in Crohn's Journey separates a one-off rise from a repeating pattern across weeks, and the weekly and monthly views color days by intensity. The 14 days then read as a contrast, with the flare days easy to spot.
Bloody stool, fever and vomiting: contact first, then write the date and details
The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation lists bloody stool and nausea and vomiting among the common symptoms of a flare, and NIDDK lists fever. These items call for contact with a clinician as well as a line in a notebook.
Contact a clinician through the usual route when symptoms change quickly or cause worry. If a person seems to be in danger, call your local emergency number (911 is one example).
After contact, the record helps the clinician with the details they will ask about:
- The date each symptom began.
- How often it happened since.
- What else changed the same days: pain, fever, meals or a new medicine entry.
A log kept for two weeks gives the clinician dates and counts to work from, so the answers do not depend on recall.
A Flare Tracker entry in Crohn's Journey keeps onset, intensity and a short note, and the Stool Tracker (Bristol Scale) keeps urgency or bathroom load, so the details of the days around a symptom are ready to read aloud.
The one-page summary: day counts, stool form, medicine entries and three questions
A short appointment leaves little time for 14 daily lines. The summary reduces them to a page a clinician can read quickly and still lets the person add detail on request.
- Top line: the number of worse-than-usual days out of 14.
- Stool: the most common form, the range of trips per day and the nights with a trip.
- Pain and other symptoms: the days and the places.
- Meals: any line that repeated before a bad day.
- Medicines and tests: names and dates.
Three questions follow, in neutral form: "Is it worth reviewing the stool form pattern together with these dates?", "Is it worth reviewing my medicine entries together?", and "Is it worth reviewing which test dates are due?"
The guide to a 15-minute visit lists what else to carry on the day.
(Crohn's Journey checklist) State the number of worse days first. The visit then starts from the pattern, with the details held back for questions.
The Doctor Report in Crohn's Journey exports a one-page summary with dates, stool and meal context, symptoms and function. My Care Team stores clinicians and short visit notes, with prompts for what to ask and bring, notes during the visit and a review afterward.
How Crohn's Journey can help
A paper notebook can hold 14 days of lines when it stays in the bag. For a tracker with a stool scale and a one-page export, the best Crohn's disease apps 2026 guide compares the options.
Crohn's Journey is a personal Crohn's disease tracker from Health Journey Labs on the App Store and Google Play. Crohn's Journey lets a person log stool form, urgency, pain, meals, medicine entries and test dates on the same dated page. After 14 days, the history becomes a one-page summary that opens the visit with the pattern. Below is what you can use and how each part helps.
- Stool Tracker (Bristol Scale) — Records stool form on the Bristol scale, urgency or bathroom load and short marks, read with pain, meals and energy.
- Food Tracker — Takes meal or drink lines and reads them with pain, urgency, energy, stool and sleep.
- Flare Tracker — Flags a day clearly worse than a usual week with onset, intensity and a short note, to separate a one-off rise from a repeating pattern.
- Daily check-in — A guided daily form for physical symptoms, emotional state, nutrition, sleep, exercise, meds and external factors.
- Daily Journal — Typed or voice notes on what the day limited, partner talks and visit debriefs, adding context to the scores.
- Weight Tracker — Holds scale or body notes, and weigh-ins when a clinician is watching weight, read with stool, meals, energy and sleep.
- My Meds — Lists medicine names, timing and medication entries, such as biologics and steroids, for comparison with stool weeks, pain and sleep.
- My Labs — Keeps the dates of blood count, stool test, calprotectin and imaging results alongside symptoms and function weeks.
- Weekly Goals — Stores one small aim for the week and whether it held, read with real check-ins.
- Learn — Short topics and prompts on flares, pacing, bathroom load and visit preparation, tied to your logged weeks.
- AI companions — Clara for general chat and specialist companions on knowledge, fitness, nutrition and relationships, all working from your logged history.
- My Assessments — Structured check-ins beyond the daily scores, plus onboarding questions about life and social context.
- My Care Team — Stores clinicians and short visit notes for preparing questions, taking notes in the visit and reviewing afterward.
- Doctor Report — Exports a one-page summary with dates, stool and meal context, symptoms and function from the logged history.
- Period Tracker — Records start and stop dates, flow and how heavy or light bleeding felt, read with pain, stool and energy.
Everything you log builds one history, and insights get stronger as it grows. Custom symptoms let you add your own labels.
We make Crohn's Journey at Health Journey Labs. This guide is educational and does not replace medical advice. Diagnosis, medication decisions, and urgent care decisions belong with your treating clinicians.
Sources
- NIDDK — Definition & Facts for Crohn's Disease
- NIDDK — Symptoms & Causes of Crohn's Disease
- NIDDK — Diagnosis of Crohn's Disease
- Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology (PubMed) — Stool form scale as a useful guide to intestinal transit time
- Crohn's & Colitis Foundation — Managing Flares and IBD Symptoms
- Crohn's & Colitis Foundation — Fatigue in IBD
FAQ
Why two weeks of notes instead of one day?
Two weeks holds a flare day, a quiet day and the days between them, which gives a clinician a contrast to read. A single day cannot show whether a symptom repeats or happened once.
Across the fortnight, the calendar view in Crohn's Journey colors each of the 14 days by intensity, so the worse days stand out at a glance, and the history keeps growing, so a later two-week page can be compared against this one.
What should I write each day?
Write six lines: stool form and count, urgency including night trips, pain with place and strength, meals and drinks, energy and the medicines logged that day. Days with nothing to report still get a line.
For the daily entry, the Daily check-in in Crohn's Journey is one guided form for symptoms, emotional state, nutrition, sleep, exercise, meds and external factors, so every day gets the same questions and the 14 days are easy to compare.
What is the Bristol scale and why does it help?
It is a 7-point scale for stool form. A study of 66 volunteers found that stool form tracked changes in intestinal function, which is why writing the form adds information beyond the number of trips.
The Stool Tracker in Crohn's Journey records stool form on that scale, plus urgency or bathroom load and short marks, read with pain, meals and energy, so the form pattern across two weeks is already on the page.
Is it worth counting trips at night?
Yes. Night trips show how much a day or an evening cost, and a clinician can ask about them directly. Write the number of trips and whether they interrupted sleep, as a fact.
For night trips, the Crohn's Journey Stool Tracker keeps urgency or bathroom load, and the Daily check-in keeps sleep, so a night with three trips and a short night's sleep both show up in the same dated history.
Should I log joint pain, fever or skin changes?
Yes. NIDDK lists fever, joint pain or soreness, eye redness or pain, and skin changes among the other symptoms of Crohn's disease. Date each one and note whether it appeared on a gut-flare day.
In Crohn's Journey, a Flare Tracker entry holds onset, intensity and a short note, so a joint-pain day that fell on a flare day can be compared with one that did not, across the full two weeks.
Do I need a food journal for the visit?
The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation states that a food journal may help track how diet relates to symptoms. Over two weeks, short lines for each meal, plus any symptoms that followed, are enough.
If you keep one, the Food Tracker in Crohn's Journey takes meal or drink lines, including caffeine and alcohol, and reads them with pain, urgency, energy, stool and sleep, so the lines before a bad day are easy to find later on.
How do I list medicines without making decisions?
Write each medicine name with the date of each entry as a plain fact. For the visit, a neutral question works: "Is it worth reviewing my medicine entries together with these two weeks?"
For the medicine dates, My Meds in Crohn's Journey stores medicine names, timing and medication entries, and reads them with stool weeks, pain and sleep, so the clinician sees which entries fell in the better days and which in the worse days.
Which tests should I list with dates?
List blood tests, stool tests such as calprotectin, endoscopy and imaging, each with its date. NIDDK states that blood tests check for anemia or inflammation and stool tests look for inflammation and certain infections.
In Crohn's Journey, My Labs stores result dates for blood counts, stool tests, calprotectin, imaging and other tests, and reads them with symptoms and function, so a clinician sees which tests were done in which weeks.
How do I decide which days count as worse?
Use your own usual week as the reference. A worse day is one clearly below that usual week; write only worse, usual or better, and keep any longer explanation for the visit itself.
To mark a worse day, the Flare Tracker in Crohn's Journey flags a day clearly worse than a usual week and keeps onset, intensity and a short note, so the count on top of your summary page comes straight from the history.
Is it worth logging fatigue when my gut is quiet?
Yes. The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation reports that fatigue affects nearly 80% of people with active inflammatory bowel disease and 50% of those in remission, so energy belongs in every single daily line.
On a quiet-gut day, the Crohn's Journey Daily check-in records energy alongside the gut symptoms, and the weekly view colors days by intensity, so tired days with a quiet gut can be shown to the clinician as well as flare days.
What if I notice blood in the stool or a fever during the two weeks?
Contact a clinician through the usual route when symptoms change quickly or cause worry, and call your local emergency number (911 is one example) if a person seems to be in danger. The log can wait.
Afterward, a Crohn's Journey Flare Tracker entry keeps onset, intensity and a short note about the symptom, so the clinician hears the dates and the details at the next visit instead of a summary built from memory alone.
Can an AI chat help me turn my notes into questions?
A chat can help phrase questions from your notes, but it only knows what you type into it. Decisions about medicines, tests or symptoms belong to your care team, so use the chat for wording only.
The AI companions in Crohn's Journey, including Clara, already see the logged history, so a request for visit wording starts from the real 14 days instead of from a summary typed out again.
What goes on the one-page summary?
Put the count of worse days first, then the common stool form and trips per day, the pain days, any repeated meal lines, and medicine and test dates. Add three neutral questions at the bottom.
The Doctor Report exports a one-page summary with dates, stool and meal context, symptoms and function, so the page is built from the same daily entries and nothing needs to be retyped before the visit.
What privacy steps matter for bathroom and stool notes on a phone?
Think about who can see the phone screen, a shared tablet or a printout on the table. Keep the notes factual and leave out names, workplace details and anything you would not want a housemate to read.
Health notes in the app fall under its privacy policy, which describes how data is stored and handled, and questions about what a note means go to a clinician, because medical advice comes from your care team.