With joint pain, the number on the scale depends on when you write it down. The same knee hurts in three different ways when you get out of bed, after the weekly shop and at night. An arthritis pain tracker keeps those kinds of pain apart, so you and your doctor can see which one is changing.
That applies to osteoarthritis, the wear of joint cartilage, and to inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. The two behave differently, and the differences show up in the details you record. Your GP or rheumatologist does the interpreting. Your part is the observation.
Four kinds of joint pain, logged separately
| Kind | How you recognise it | What you note |
|---|---|---|
| Morning stiffness | The joint is stiff after getting up and loosens with movement. | Minutes until it moves as usual |
| Start-up pain | The first steps after sitting hurt, then it eases after a short while. | The situation and minutes until it eases |
| Pain on load | It hurts during or after stairs, carrying or long walks. | Type and length of the activity |
| Pain at rest | It hurts without movement, at night too. | Time of day and whether it wakes you |
Doctors ask about the length of morning stiffness on purpose, because it often differs between inflammatory and wear-related joint disease. Write down the minutes and leave the interpretation to the clinic. If rest pain or night pain is new, bring that change up at your next appointment.
A fixed shorthand in the note keeps logging fast, for example "MS 25" for 25 minutes of morning stiffness, "SU" for start-up pain or "load stairs". You can also create your own tags, such as "start-up pain", "stairs" or "swelling". Tags are easy to count and compare later.
One joint at a time
If you put your left knee and your right hand into a single value, you get a curve that fits neither joint. Inflammatory arthritis can affect several joints at once, while in osteoarthritis one or two joints often lead. Two setups cover both cases:
- One pain definition per joint, such as "Left knee" and "Right thumb base". Each joint gets its own colour and curve. This suits you if a few joints dominate your days.
- One definition called "Joints", with the affected body locations added to each entry. This suits pain that moves around or involves many joints.
Alongside the pain, note your function once a week. Record how far you can walk without a break, whether you manage the stairs in one go and whether you can open a jar or do up buttons. Details like these show your doctor what your joints cost you in daily life, which a 6 on the scale can't convey on its own.
Marking flares
Rheumatoid arthritis alternates between calmer phases and flares. Osteoarthritis can flare up too, with an inflamed, irritated joint. In both cases the joint is often swollen, warm and more painful than usual. At the start of a flare, note:
- the date it began
- the joints involved
- swelling, warmth or redness, yes or no for each
- how long morning stiffness lasted on those days
- what you did in the days before
Log the end of the flare as well. After a few months you can read off how often flares came and how long they lasted. A written plan for flare-ups is the place for what helps you on those days.
Treatment steps are separate milestones: a joint injection, starting a disease-modifying drug, a course of physiotherapy. Start logging about four weeks beforehand, so you have something to compare the following weeks against. Many people with arthritis also say their joints react to changes in the weather. You can check that for yourself with a four-week weather self-test.
What to bring to your appointment
After six to eight weeks you have figures your doctor can work with:
- typical length of morning stiffness and whether it has changed
- number of days with pain on load, and the activity behind it
- nights with pain at rest
- flares, with count, length and joints involved
- your walking distance without a break, stairs, grip
The general setup of a diary you can keep going for months is covered in How to keep a pain diary.
See a doctor promptly if a joint suddenly becomes hot, red and badly swollen, especially together with a fever. The same goes for a joint you can no longer put weight on after a fall, and for new swelling in several joints.
How PainTrack handles it
The free version includes one active pain definition. With it, you use the "Joints" setup and add one or more joints to each entry via "+ Add location" on the body figure. Fingers can't be picked one by one, because the figure combines wrist and hand into a single region. Write the exact finger joint in the note. The body map on the Analysis page shows you over 7 and 30 days which joints hurt most often and most strongly. You create your own tags under More → Tags. A flare or a joint injection goes in as an event, for instance with the type "Other" or "Started therapy". That is free too.
With PainTrack Pro you give every joint its own pain definition, see the body map over 90 days or your whole history, and get a before and after comparison for each event. The PDF doctor's report can include the body map with your most frequent locations.
Frequently asked questions
How do I track arthritis pain? Log the intensity at least once a day and note whether it was morning stiffness, start-up pain, pain on load or pain at rest. Keep badly affected joints separate and write down once a week what you can still manage in daily life.
What is the difference between start-up pain and pain on load? Start-up pain comes with the first movements after a rest and fades after a short while. Pain on load builds up during longer or heavier activity, such as climbing stairs or carrying shopping.
How do I document a rheumatoid arthritis flare? Note the start and end, the joints involved, swelling and warmth, and how long morning stiffness lasted. Take these details to your next rheumatology appointment.
Does weather affect arthritis pain? Many people with arthritis report that it does, and studies have reached mixed results. Check it against your own data, for example with the tag "weather changed" over several weeks.
PainTrack is not a medical device and does not replace medical diagnosis or treatment. The app is intended for personal documentation and self-observation.