5 Details to Put in a Bladder Diary Before Your Visit

A coffee cup, a bathroom trip, a leak on the stairs. Put each on paper.

Five entries worth recording

1. Drinks. Record the time, type and amount. Write “coffee” or “water,” with the amount you drank, instead of leaving a row marked “morning drink.”¹

2. Bathroom trips. Note when you urinate and the amount. Ask the clinic how it wants you to measure this. Bring its form if one is available.¹

3. Leaks. Mark each episode. A wet liner belongs in the record even when the leak seems too small to mention. The diary asks how frequently leakage happens.¹

4. Urgency. Write whether you felt a strong urge before the leak. Don’t merge this with the bathroom-trip entry. The NIDDK¹ records urgency separately.¹

5. What you were doing. Include the activity at the time of leakage, such as coughing or walking upstairs. Give the clinician the event, without assigning yourself a diagnosis.¹

What the record cannot tell you

A diary doesn’t diagnose the cause. The NIDDK¹ also describes medical history, examination and tests, including urine testing, as parts of evaluation. And you don’t need a finished diary to ask for help with bladder control.¹

Keep the record going

Laugh, Sneeze, Jump includes a three-day bladder log, a twelve-week tracker and an appointment prep sheet, according to the book’s toolkit description. Consider it if you want those records collected in a printed book alongside the bladder topic coverage. See the book.

Take the page with the coffee cup on it to your visit.