"Keep a bladder diary and bring it to your next appointment."
That was the instruction. No templates. No examples. Just... keep a diary.
I walked out of that appointment and immediately Googled "bladder diary template." What I found was chaos.
Some said track every sip of water. Others wanted estimated volumes in milliliters—as if I carry a graduated cylinder into the bathroom with me. And all of them assumed I had the mental bandwidth to remember any of this while living with a bladder that was actively making my existence miserable.
I gave up three times.
I tried spreadsheets (too complicated). I tried generic health apps (too many clicks). I tried writing times on the back of a receipt (which I lost).
By the time my follow-up appointment arrived, I had a crumpled paper with inconsistent data and absolutely no patterns to show. My doctor looked at it and said: "Can you try again and come back in a month?"
Reader, I wanted to scream.
Why Traditional Bladder Diaries Fail
Here's the thing nobody tells you: medical templates are designed by people who don't need them.
They assume you're functioning at full capacity—alert, organized, unbothered by pain. They don't account for the reality of tracking while symptomatic, when you can barely remember your own name.
They also fail to capture what actually matters for conditions like interstitial cystitis (IC) or overactive bladder (OAB).
They ask for volume, but they ignore discomfort. They don't link your 3am bathroom trips to the fact that you barely slept. They give doctors isolated numbers. No story. No context. No patterns.
What Providers Actually Need
When I started building Penny, I went back to basics. I asked: What does a urologist actually want to see?
The answer was simpler than I expected:
- Frequency: How many times per day? How many at night? (The nocturia question is crucial for OAB.)
- Urgency: Were you managing, or were you running?
- Discomfort: Pain, pressure, burning?
- Patterns: Is this getting better or worse? Are there obvious triggers?
- Context: What was happening in your life?
Nobody needs milliliter measurements. They need the story.
How Penny's Bathroom Diary Works
I built the tool I needed—one that respects your brain fog.
When you log an event in Penny, it takes about 15 seconds. You tap clear options:
- Type: Urination or bowel movement (both matter for pelvic floor)
- Timestamp: Auto-fills, adjust if needed
- Urgency: None to severe
- Volume/Completeness: Simple options, not measurements
- Discomfort: 0-5 scale
- Notes: Optional, for anything extra
That's it. No essay required.
Penny automatically calculates the stats that tell the story: total events per day, day vs. night breakdown, urgency percentages, average discomfort, peak times.
Changing the Conversation
Here's what changes when you walk into an appointment with real data:
Instead of: "I feel like I go to the bathroom a lot."
You say: "I'm averaging 14 bathroom events per day. 67% are moderate-to-severe urgency. My discomfort averages 3.2 out of 5, peaking between 2am and 5am."
That's not a complaint. That's evidence.
Providers have 15 minutes to understand months of your life. When you show up with organized data, you're not asking them to believe you. You're showing them proof.
You deserve a tool that meets you where you are—not one that makes you feel like a failure for not tracking "correctly."