Log Flares With Times and Triggers Until the Pattern Is Undeniable — Free
'It happens most weeks' is not usable, and it is not true either: flares cluster. This card takes dated entries with times and suspected triggers, counts how many fall inside the window you set, and compares that against the threshold you decided in advance — the point at which you said you would go back to the specialist in writing. Quiet weeks stay in the log, because the gaps are part of the pattern.
The proof surface
Free path: the card computes locally in the browser with no key and no account. Where an AI step helps, any free chat assistant works — Google AI Studio's free tier and Groq's free tier were both no-card and rate-limited when this page was reviewed on 2026-09-13 (limits change; check before you rely on them).
Why the flat version breaks
A symptom diary in a notebook cannot tell you that four of the last six flares followed a night shift, because it never counts anything and never holds a threshold. Dated entries with a window and a number attached turn an impression into a pattern you can quote, and a threshold you set while calm is the thing that stops a bad month being normalised.
How to use the flare diary index card in four passes
Times are what turn a diary into evidence: 06:20 after a night shift means something that 'a bad day' does not. Add the line the same morning rather than reconstructing a month later.
Mark it as a suspicion. Three flares after night shifts is a pattern a consultant can test; three flares with no context is three anecdotes.
Pick the count at which you said you would write to the specialist — four in thirty days is the starter figure. Setting it while calm is the whole point; renegotiating it during a bad week is how a year disappears.
Do not prune the entries that look unremarkable. The span of the log and the gaps between flares are part of what a specialist reads, and a log with only bad days in it invites the wrong conclusion.
SAMPLE DATA, NOT A VERIFIED CLAIM: Crohn's, stable on azathioprine · 22 Jul – 18 Sep 2026 · seven entries · four inside the 30-day window · three of them after a night shift · threshold 4. Replace these values with your own source before you rely on anything.
What breaks first
Recording symptoms instead of events
'Felt awful all week' is one entry with no time and no trigger. Split it into the days it happened; the card counts entries, and a week-long smear counts as one.
Moving the threshold when it is nearly crossed
That is the failure mode this card exists to prevent. If the threshold is genuinely wrong, change it in the log with a dated note, not silently.
Reading a trigger column as a cause
Two flares after red wine is a hypothesis worth testing, not a diagnosis. The card never verifies anything; it counts what you wrote and hands it to someone who can.
What you pay otherwise
| The usual route | What it leaves out | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| A symptom-tracker subscription | Pretty charts, your health data on their servers, alerts you did not design | monthly fee |
| A paper diary | Never counts anything, so the pattern stays an impression | a review appointment that restarts the history |
| Turning up with 'it happens most weeks' | The consultant re-takes the history from scratch | fifteen minutes of a twenty-minute slot |
| This page + the free flare diary index card | Computed in your tab, result on screen before you type anything | $0 |
Try the free flare diary index card
Seven dated flares are already filed against a threshold of four in thirty days, with the in-window count boxed at the head of the card. Raise the threshold to 6 and the stamp withdraws.
Open the free flare diary index card →Keep the work if you will use it again
Every entry, the window count, the threshold check and the quiet weeks kept, plus copy and share-link, with no account.
The on-screen result is free and repeatable forever. The one-time tier adds a tangible file you keep and the saved history that comes with it; it never removes or degrades the free result.
Boundary: This counts the entries you type; it is not a diagnosis, it cannot verify a trigger, and it must not be used to change medication or treatment. Take the log to your clinician and let them interpret it — and seek urgent care rather than logging if symptoms are severe or new.