Fibromyalgia Pain Tracker

Tender points — tracking the classic fibromyalgia marker

The Tender Points Active field accepts 0–18, reflecting the 18 specific tender point sites that were part of earlier fibromyalgia diagnostic criteria. While the more recent diagnostic framework uses widespread pain index and symptom severity rather than tender point counts alone, tender point activity remains a meaningful daily signal for many people with fibromyalgia. The count varies with flares, stress, sleep quality, and physical activity level.

Logging tender point count alongside your pain level helps distinguish between days when widespread pain is moderate but few tender points are active (suggesting a different pain mechanism or better central regulation) versus days when both are high. Your rheumatologist or pain specialist can interpret the pattern more precisely than a single-measurement description of 'widespread pain.'

Fibro fog — tracking cognitive symptoms separately

The Fibro Fog Level input — Clear, Mild, Moderate, or Severe — acknowledges that cognitive symptoms in fibromyalgia are not the same as pain and do not always move together. Some days you may have moderate pain but relatively clear thinking; other days pain is lower but the fog is thick. This separation is clinically meaningful because some treatments (particularly sleep improvement and stress reduction) affect fog more than pain, while others (some medications) affect pain more than cognition.

Logging fog separately over weeks helps you identify what your cognitive function depends on. For many people with fibromyalgia, Fibro Fog severity tracks closely with sleep quality — a night of interrupted sleep reliably producing a foggy next day. Others find that high-stress periods drive fog more than pain does. This kind of personal insight is only visible through consistent, separated tracking.

Activity pacing and the boom-bust cycle

The Activity Pacing dropdown has four options: Well-paced, Slight overdo, Boom-bust, and Crashed. This is perhaps the most operationally important field in the tracker because boom-bust activity pacing is one of the strongest contributors to fibromyalgia severity over time. The pattern — doing too much on a low-pain day, crashing for two to four days afterward — feels like the condition worsening; it is actually a predictable consequence of exceeding your sustainable activity threshold.

Logging activity pacing daily makes the pattern visible in your data. A week that shows Well-paced for five days followed by Crashed is informative in a way memory alone cannot replicate. The Fibromyalgia Score counts Crashed pacing as a significant negative input, which serves as a prompt to review whether the preceding days contained an overexertion event.

Weather sensitivity and the factors you cannot control

The Weather Sensitivity field — No effect, Mild, Moderate, or Severe — acknowledges a real and frustrating aspect of fibromyalgia: symptoms often worsen with barometric pressure changes, humidity shifts, or cold temperatures. Logging this daily lets you see whether your worst periods correlate with weather patterns, which is genuinely useful information even if you cannot modify the weather.

First, it helps you anticipate: if you know that pressure drops reliably worsen your symptoms, you can plan to reduce activity and add additional rest on those days rather than treating the crash as a surprise. Second, it provides context for your care team: a two-week worsening period that coincides with documented weather sensitivity is interpreted differently from a two-week worsening without explanation.

Medication adherence and gentle exercise in fibromyalgia

The Medication Adherence field logs whether you took all prescribed doses, missed one, missed two or more, or took nothing. Fibromyalgia medications — duloxetine, pregabalin, milnacipran, and others — work through consistent use. The Exercise Today field has a specific option for 'Overexerted,' which is distinct from 'Gentle' or 'Moderate.' Overexertion triggers post-exertional worsening similar to the boom-bust pattern and is worth logging explicitly to see whether it consistently precedes crash days.

Gentle, consistent exercise is one of the most evidence-supported non-pharmacological interventions for fibromyalgia — but the operative word is gentle and consistent. Logging exercise type alongside next-day pain and fatigue over several weeks helps identify your sustainable exercise window. Build that picture now — save your history free, no credit card needed.

How to use it

1. Log Pain Level (0–10) as your average widespread pain for the day, then select Fatigue Level and Sleep Quality from the dropdowns.
2. Rate Fibro Fog Level separately from pain — Clear through Severe — to track cognitive symptoms independently.
3. Enter Tender Points Active (0–18) as the count of classic tender point sites that feel painful with light pressure today.
4. Select Activity Pacing honestly — Crashed and Boom-bust count as distinct negative signals in the score.
5. Log Stress Level, Weather Sensitivity, and Exercise Today to complete the full picture and check the score and verdict.

Who it's for

• Person newly diagnosed with fibromyalgia establishing a baseline — Logs all fields daily for eight weeks before starting a new treatment, giving their rheumatologist a pre-treatment baseline to compare against future entries.
• Someone investigating boom-bust cycle triggers — Tracks Activity Pacing and Pain Level day-by-day, documenting that Crashed entries consistently follow days logged as Boom-bust or Slight overdo — quantifying the delay to 48–72 hours.
• Person with fibromyalgia and significant cognitive symptoms — Separates Fibro Fog from pain scores to identify that fog level tracks closely with sleep quality, supporting a sleep management discussion with their provider.
• Individual on a graduated exercise program — Logs Exercise Today type alongside next-day pain and pacing status to find the exercise volume and type that produces no boom-bust consequences — their personal sustainable threshold.

Key terms

Boom-bust cycle

The pattern of high activity on low-pain days followed by multi-day worsening — a hallmark of fibromyalgia management failure. Avoiding it through consistent pacing is a primary treatment goal.

Fibro fog

Cognitive symptoms in fibromyalgia including slowed thinking, memory difficulties, word-finding problems, and difficulty concentrating. Distinct from pain and often independently traceable to sleep and stress.

Central sensitization

Amplified pain signal processing in the central nervous system — the proposed underlying mechanism of fibromyalgia. Results in pain responses to stimuli that would not normally be painful.

Tender points

Eighteen specific anatomical sites that are painful with light pressure in fibromyalgia. Used in earlier diagnostic criteria; still a useful personal symptom signal for many patients.

Frequently asked questions