The Question That Breaks Me
"Can you walk me through what happened during your last bad episode?"
I'm sitting in my doctor's office. She's looking at me expectantly. And my brain has gone completely blank.
I know I had a bad episode. I remember it being bad. I remember crying. I remember canceling plans. I remember my husband bringing me food because I couldn't get off the couch.
But the details? Gone.
What triggered it? When exactly did it start? What did I try? What helped? How long did it last? Did it come on gradually or hit all at once?
I lived through it. I suffered through every minute of it. And I can't tell you what happened.
So I fumble through an answer. "It started... I think it was Tuesday? Or maybe Wednesday. I had a lot of pain. And urgency. I took some medication—I can't remember which one. It lasted... a while. Maybe two days? Three?"
My doctor nods and writes something down. But we both know this isn't useful. This isn't information she can work with.
And the worst part? I had a symptom tracker open the whole time. I logged things. But when I go back and look at my data, all I see are disconnected numbers. Pain: 7. Urgency: 8. Bathroom visits: 14.
Numbers don't tell the story. And the story is what I can't remember.
Why Traditional Tracking Fails Difficult Days
Here's the fundamental problem with every symptom tracker I've ever used:
They capture moments. They don't capture experiences.
A traditional tracker treats Tuesday at 2pm as an isolated data point. Pain level: 6. Okay. Logged. Next.
But that's not how difficult days work. Tuesday at 2pm was connected to Monday night's poor sleep which was connected to Sunday's stressful family dinner which was connected to Saturday's decision to "push through" and go to that event anyway.
And Tuesday at 2pm led to Tuesday at 6pm led to Wednesday morning led to canceling Thursday's plans led to finally feeling human again by Friday.
It's a complete narrative arc. A story with a beginning, middle, and end. With causes and effects and lessons learned.
But traditional trackers give you what? A bunch of scattered timestamps with numbers attached. Good luck piecing that together three weeks later when you're sitting in a doctor's office.
I've tried. It doesn't work.
What If We Tracked Differently?
When I started building Penny, I kept coming back to this problem.
My bladder diary was good. My wellness check-ins were helpful. But when bad days happened, all that data still felt disconnected. I could see that Tuesday was rough. I just couldn't see the full picture of what "rough" actually meant.
So I asked myself: what if we didn't just track symptoms? What if we tracked the entire experience?
Not just "pain: 7" but the complete story. What led up to it. What happened during. What finally helped. What I learned for next time.
That's what Episodes are.
Episodes capture complete chronological stories of difficult days—not just isolated data points, but the full narrative that providers need to actually understand what's happening.
How Episodes Actually Work
Starting an Episode
When things start going sideways—when you feel that shift from "managing" to "struggling"—you tap one button: Start Episode.
Penny captures the timestamp. You can optionally note what might have triggered it. And then something magical happens:
Everything you log from that moment forward automatically connects to this Episode.
Every bathroom event. Every wellness check-in. Every quick note. All of it gets linked together, building a complete picture of what this difficult time looks like as it unfolds.
You don't have to do anything special. You don't have to remember to tag things or categorize them. You just keep logging the way you normally would, and Penny handles the connection.
During an Episode
This is where the magic really shows up.
As you move through a difficult day (or days), your Episode accumulates data:
- 12 bathroom events logged, 8 with moderate-to-severe urgency
- 3 wellness check-ins showing declining energy and rising stress
- Quick notes about medications tried, foods avoided, strategies attempted
- The full timeline of how things escalated and (hopefully) resolved
When you're in it, you're just surviving. You're just tapping buttons and getting through. But Penny is quietly building the complete case study in the background.
Ending an Episode
When things finally calm down—when you feel like yourself again—you tap End Episode.
Penny captures that timestamp too. And then it asks you two simple questions:
- What helped? Medication? Rest? Heat? Time? A specific food or activity? What finally made a difference?
- Summary: In your own words, what was this Episode about? What do you want to remember?
These aren't mandatory essays. They can be three words or three sentences. But they're the pieces that turn raw data into actual insight.
What You Get
The result is a complete case study. A bounded, documented, comprehensive record of a difficult experience that includes:
- When it started and ended (duration calculated automatically)
- What might have triggered it
- Every symptom logged during that time, in chronological order
- How your overall wellness changed throughout
- What you tried and what worked
- Your own reflection on the experience
This is what your doctor actually needs.
Not "I had a bad week." Not scattered numbers on a spreadsheet. A complete, professional, organized summary that they can review in two minutes and actually understand.
The Answer You'll Finally Have
Next time you're sitting in a doctor's office and they ask "Can you walk me through your last bad episode?"—you'll have an answer.
Not a fumbling guess. Not a vague memory. A complete, documented, timestamped record of exactly what happened.
"Yes. My last Episode was December 3rd through 5th. It started after a stressful work week with poor sleep. Over 48 hours, I logged 28 bathroom events, 19 with severe urgency. My energy dropped from 4 to 1. I tried ibuprofen and heat. The heat helped more. By day three I was back to baseline. Would you like to see the full summary?"
That's a completely different conversation.
And honestly? It's not just for your doctor. It's for you.
Because when you're in the middle of a difficult day, it helps to know: this will end. It has a start and it will have an end. And when it's over, I'll have a record of what I survived. Proof that I'm not imagining this. Evidence that I can learn from.
Episodes aren't just tracking. They're validation.