Fibromyalgia
A fibromyalgia diary for more than the pain
Widespread pain, fatigue, fibro fog, and nights that don't restore anything. Symptoms that move together and apart from week to week, and that no single 0–10 number can hold. Flare records each of them in your own words, shows how your flares come and go, and turns the months into a report a rheumatologist can read in a minute.
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The National Institutes of Health describes fibromyalgia as a long-lasting disorder that causes pain and tenderness throughout the body, as well as fatigue and trouble sleeping. Its list goes on: problems concentrating and remembering, sometimes called fibro fog, and sensitivity to light, noise, odors, and temperature. That is several symptoms at once, and they don't always move together. A single pain score misses the day when the pain was mild and the fatigue was not.
The National Health Service (NHS) notes that there may be periods when symptoms get better or worse, depending on factors such as stress, changes in the weather, and how physically active you are, and that you may often wake up tired even after plenty of sleep. Those are exactly the things a log can line up against your days. Memory can't: by the time you're in the rheumatologist's office, last month is a blur.
If good days tend to end in a crash, the boom-bust cycle shows how to use your log to find your ceiling, and sleep belongs in the conversation covers how to describe bad nights alongside everything else.
What Flare sets up
Choose this profile during setup and Flare starts you here: the first symptom on the timeline, the rest suggested. Everything can be renamed, removed, or added to.
- Symptoms
-
- Widespread pain
- Fatigue
- Brain fog
- Stiffness
- Descriptions
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- Aching
- Burning
- Throbbing
- Stabbing
- Pressure
- Shooting
- Sleepy
- Heavy limbs
- Low energy
- Forgetful
- Hard to focus
- Activities
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- Exercise
- Nap
- Heat therapy
- Ice therapy
- Milestones
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- Fibro diagnosis
- Major flare onset
- Medication change
- Diagnosis
On the timeline from day one Suggested, one tap away
A few days in
One person's version, three days into logging, with two things Trends found in their data. Columns can be named anything, so theirs read a little differently. The name and the data are examples.
Example · Rosa Keeps it to one thing: overall pain, once or twice a day, nothing more.
Pain · one dot per day · an unrated day stays empty
Average recorded Pain ratings were higher after your shorter nights.
Pain · day after sleep
Record it
Tap a cell, pick one of five named levels: none, bearable, mild, moderate, severe. Never a number. Widespread pain, fatigue, brain fog, and stiffness each get a column, so a day that was "fine except for the fog" is recorded as exactly that, and words like heavy limbs or hard to focus say how it felt.
On the days when one tap is all you have, one tap is enough. Log a nap, a walk, or heat therapy in the columns beside it, and backfill whenever you get to it. Nothing scolds you for the gap.
Understand it
With Flare Pro, At a glance sets today against your own history: your usual level, how often flares come, how long they last, and what changed in the last 60 days. Connect Apple Health and each night's sleep is paired with the next day's ratings; turn on weather and pressure drops and damp days are compared with the rest.
Activity impact does the same for exercise, naps, or anything you add, on the same day and the two days after, and medication courses show your ratings before, during, and after. Everything is stated as what was logged, not what works, and nothing is said until there is enough data. A pattern is a lead to bring to your rheumatologist, not a verdict.
Bring it to care
Add the appointment and Flare Pro prepares a PDF covering the time since your last visit: severity over time for each symptom, flares, medications and courses, activities, and notes. It can suggest questions from your own log, and Flare keeps a record of what was discussed and what happens next.
No app yet, or a visit tomorrow? The appointment one-pager is a free printable that covers the same ground by hand.
Screens are Flare 2.1 with one example tracker’s data, the same one the homepage follows.
Private by design
Flare has no account and no server. Symptoms, notes, medications, and visits stay on your iPhone. You decide whether to keep a backup in your own iCloud Drive, whether to export a PDF or CSV, and whether to turn on weather or sleep insights. The App Store privacy label reads "Data Not Linked to You", and the privacy policy says the same thing in more words.
Get Flare free Free tracking · Pro for trends and reports
Questions
- Is Flare made for fibromyalgia?
- Fibromyalgia is one of the seven profiles Flare offers during setup. It puts widespread pain on your timeline and suggests fatigue, brain fog, and stiffness, with words for each, and exercise, naps, heat, and ice as activities. Everything can be renamed or removed.
- Can I track fatigue and fibro fog, not just pain?
- Yes. Each is its own column on the same five named levels, from none to severe, so a day with mild pain and severe fatigue is recorded as exactly that. Words like heavy limbs, low energy, forgetful, or hard to focus can go on any rating.
- Can Flare connect my sleep to my symptoms?
- With Flare Pro and Apple Health connected, each night's sleep is paired with the next day's ratings, so you can see whether days after short nights ran higher. Your sleep data stays on your iPhone. Flare says what lined up, not what caused what, and waits until there is enough data.
- What if I only have the energy to log one thing?
- Then log one thing. Flare works with a single column as well as with ten, and a rating takes a tap. You can add fatigue or brain fog back on a better day, or set a baseline for a symptom so the days you skip are filled with its usual level, marked as baseline so it never passes for a rating you made.
- What does the report show a rheumatologist?
- Flare Pro makes a PDF for the dates you choose: a summary of the period, severity over time for each symptom, flares, medications and courses, activities, and notes. Mark a diagnosis or a medication change as a milestone and the report shows what came before and after.
- Who can see what I log?
- Nobody but you. There is no account and no server. Symptoms, notes, and visits stay on your iPhone. You choose whether to keep a backup in your own iCloud Drive, whether to export a PDF or CSV, and whether to turn on weather or sleep insights.
- Is it free?
- Tracking is free with no trial clock. Flare Pro adds trend analysis, activity and course impact, visit snapshots, and PDF and CSV export, as a monthly or annual subscription with a free trial, or a one-time lifetime purchase.
Read next
- Tracking fibromyalgia flares: what to record and what patterns to look for
- Sleep belongs in the conversation: describing bad nights alongside your symptoms
- The boom-bust cycle in chronic pain: using your log to learn your activity ceiling
- Stress flares: spotting the lag between stressor and symptom
- Does weather really trigger flares? How to test it on your own data
- What counts as a flare? Defining your baseline and your flares
Sources
- Fibromyalgia Symptoms, Causes, & Risk Factors National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institutes of Health
- Symptoms - Fibromyalgia NHS
Flare - Chronic Pain Tracker is a symptom-tracking tool, not a medical device. Nothing on this page is medical advice. Fibromyalgia is diagnosed and treated by a clinician; a log helps that conversation, it does not replace it.