Sinusitis Diary: Track Symptoms, Treatments & Triggers

When sinus pain keeps coming back, a short daily diary can change everything. A sinusitis diary helps you spot patterns, test treatments, and give your doctor clear details — not guesses. You don’t need fancy tools: a notebook, phone notes, or a simple spreadsheet will do.

What to record each day

Date and time — start every entry with these. It makes it easy to see how long a flare lasts.

Symptom score — rate pain, congestion, and pressure from 0 to 10. Quick numbers show trends faster than long notes.

Mucus details — color (clear, yellow, green), thickness, and amount. This helps tell infection from allergy.

Other signs — fever, headaches, tooth pain, bad breath, smell changes. Note anything new or worse than usual.

Medications and doses — list what you took, when, and whether it helped. Include over-the-counter sprays, pills, nasal rinses, and prescription meds.

Home measures — steam, warm compress, saline rinse, humidifier use, sleep position. Small fixes can add up but only if you track them.

Possible triggers — pollen, smoke, pets, recent travel, swimming, or a cold. If a trigger shows up repeatedly, it’s worth tackling directly.

Sleep and energy — poor sleep often makes symptoms worse. Note nights you sleep poorly and how you felt the next day.

How to use your diary effectively

Be brief and consistent. A one-line entry with the key points is better than a long, vague paragraph. Try this format: "2025-08-15 — Pain 6/10, green mucus, took amoxicillin 9am, steam at night, slept 4h."

Look for patterns every week. Do flare-ups start after being outdoors? Does a certain spray help for two days then stop? Patterns tell you what to try next.

Share the diary with your doctor or ENT. A week or two of clear records helps them decide if you need antibiotics, imaging, allergy testing, or a referral for sinus surgery.

Use photos when useful. A quick photo of the back of the throat or mucus can be surprisingly helpful for your clinician.

Try small changes one at a time. If you add a nasal rinse and symptoms improve, keep that in the diary. If you change two things at once, you won’t know which one worked.

Apps can help but don’t overcomplicate. A simple note app with the date and short bullets works as well as any fancy tracker.

When to call a doctor: high fever (>38°C/100.4°F), severe facial swelling or pain, vision issues, blood in mucus, or symptoms that get much worse after initial improvement. Add these warnings as flags in your diary so you don’t miss them.

A sinusitis diary turns vague memories into actionable data. Give it two weeks and you’ll start seeing clues that point to better treatment choices and fewer surprises.