How Are You Feeling Today?
I hate this question.
Not because it's unkind—it's usually asked with genuine care. I hate it because I genuinely don't know how to answer it.
"How are you feeling?" assumes there's one answer. Like my entire body and brain can be summarized in a single word. "Fine." "Tired." "Okay." Pick one.
But here's my reality at any given moment:
My bladder pressure is maybe a 3 out of 5. My energy is shot because I woke up four times last night. My stress is through the roof because of a work deadline. My mood is actually pretty good because my kid said something hilarious this morning. My back aches but not as much as yesterday.
How am I feeling? I don't know. All of it? None of it? It depends on which part you're asking about.
And here's the kicker: if I can't answer that question for myself, how am I supposed to explain it to my doctor in a 15-minute appointment?
The Missing Context
Here's something I learned the hard way: tracking symptoms without tracking context is almost useless.
I had months of bladder diaries. I could tell you exactly how many times I went to the bathroom on any given day. I could show you the urgency levels, the discomfort scores, the timestamps.
What I couldn't tell you was why.
Why was Tuesday so much worse than Monday? Why did I have three good days in a row and then crash? Why does the same medication seem to work sometimes and not others?
The bathroom data was there. But the story around it was missing.
My doctor would ask: "Were you stressed that week? Did you sleep okay? Were you pushing yourself too hard?"
And I'd stare at her blankly. I couldn't remember. By the time I was sitting in her office, I could barely recall what I had for breakfast, let alone what my stress level was three Thursdays ago.
Symptoms don't exist in a vacuum. But that's exactly how we track them.
The Pattern I Almost Missed
June 2025. I was desperately preparing for the specialist appointment that would eventually change everything.
I had my bladder diary data. I had my medication lists. I had pages of notes.
And then I started looking at it differently.
I pulled out a calendar and started marking bad days. Not just "high symptoms" days—days where I felt genuinely awful. Where everything was harder. Where I wanted to give up.
Then I added another layer: sleep. How many hours? How many times did I wake up?
Then: stress events. Big meetings. Deadlines. Conflicts. Travel.
Then: energy. Did I pace myself or push through? Did I crash by 3pm or maintain?
And suddenly, for the first time in years, I could see it.
Poor sleep → high stress → pushing too hard → symptom spike 24-48 hours later.
It wasn't random. It had never been random. I just hadn't been tracking the right things to see the connection.
That pattern—the sleep-stress-push-crash cycle—became the foundation of my treatment plan. My doctor could finally see what was happening. We could actually do something about it.
But god, it took so much work to piece together. And by the time I figured it out, I was on a bathroom floor in Abu Dhabi having a panic attack.
There had to be a better way.
What Penny's Wellness Check-Ins Actually Do
Wellness Check-Ins are the feature I didn't know I needed until I built it.
Here's the idea: quick, repeatable snapshots of how you're actually doing—not just your symptoms, but the context around them.
The Four Core Check-Ins
Every check-in captures four things on simple 0-5 scales:
- Physical Discomfort: Not just bladder—your whole body. Are you in pain? How much?
- Emotional State: How's your mood? Overwhelmed? Peaceful? Somewhere in between?
- Energy Level: Do you have capacity right now, or are you running on fumes?
- Stress Level: What's the mental load today? High pressure or manageable?
Each one is a simple tap. No typing. No mental math. Just: "Right now, where am I?"
The whole thing takes maybe 10 seconds. You can do it multiple times a day if you want—or just morning and evening. However often makes sense for you.
The Bonus Questions
Depending on when you check in, Penny asks one extra question:
- Morning: How was your sleep? Because we both know that sets the tone for everything.
- Evening: Did you pace yourself today, or did you push through? Because that determines tomorrow.
These aren't random—they're the two factors I found most connected to symptom patterns in my own tracking. Sleep quality going in, pacing behavior throughout. The bookends of the day.
Why This Matters for Patterns
Here's where it gets powerful.
When you combine Wellness Check-Ins with your bathroom diary and your Episode logs, patterns start to emerge that you literally cannot see any other way.
Like:
- Your urgency spikes the day after poor sleep (not the same day—the next one)
- Your discomfort is consistently higher on days when stress tops 4 out of 5
- You crash two days after a "push through" day, not one
- Your best weeks all share one thing: you paced yourself every single day
This is the data that changes conversations with providers.
It's not just "I feel bad when I'm stressed." It's "Here's three months of data showing the specific relationship between my stress levels and my symptom severity, with a 24-48 hour lag time."
That's actionable. That's something a doctor can work with.
The Answer I Finally Have
These days, when someone asks "How are you feeling?"—I actually know.
Not because I suddenly have perfect self-awareness. But because I've been tracking. I have data. I can look back at the last week and say: "My average physical discomfort was 2.8. My energy was lower than usual. My stress spiked mid-week but came down by Friday."
That's a real answer. Not a guess. Not "fine" when I'm actually struggling.
Penny doesn't just help me communicate with my doctors. It helps me understand myself.
And honestly? That might be the more important part.