Guides
Practical, referenced guides to keeping a record you can actually use: what to track with ankylosing spondylitis and chronic pain, how BASDAI works, how to log flares and sleep, and how to turn months of entries into a ten-minute appointment. Written by someone living with AS, cited to the NHS, NICE, NASS and the literature, and not medical advice.
Ankylosing spondylitis
How HAVYT approaches this →Tracking AS and axial spondyloarthritis: symptoms, stiffness, flares, BASDAI and what to bring to rheumatology.
- What to track with ankylosing spondylitisNot everything is worth writing down. The handful of signals that make an AS record useful, and the level of detail that keeps you doing it.
- How to track ankylosing spondylitis symptoms between appointmentsReviews can be months apart. A routine for the time in between — what to record, when, and how to condense it before you walk in.
- Ankylosing spondylitis symptom diary: how to keep one that you will actually read backA symptom diary fails when it asks too much. The structure that keeps an AS diary short, and how to read it back months later.
- Ankylosing spondylitis flare tracker: recording flares so they mean something laterA flare is easier to describe while it is happening than to reconstruct afterwards. What to note, when, and how to look back at flares honestly.
- Morning stiffness tracker: how to measure it and why it matters in ASMorning stiffness is one of the defining features of inflammatory back pain, and two of the six BASDAI questions. How to measure it consistently.
- Understanding BASDAI: what the score measures, how it is calculated and how it is usedThe Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index explained: the six questions, the arithmetic, the thresholds used in guidance, and its limits.
- Sleep and ankylosing spondylitis: what the research shows and what is worth trackingPoor sleep is one of the most common complaints in axSpA, and one of the most useful things to record next to stiffness and pain.
- Pain tracking for ankylosing spondylitis: separating spinal pain, joint pain and stiffnessOne pain number hides too much in AS. How to record spinal pain, peripheral joint pain and stiffness as separate signals, and why location matters.
- Axial spondyloarthritis vs ankylosing spondylitis: what the terms meanAS, axSpA, nr-axSpA, r-axSpA: the terminology explained plainly, and why the same person may see more than one of these names in their letters.
Chronic pain
How HAVYT approaches this →Pain diaries, pattern tracking, medication, sleep and activity — keeping a record you can actually read back.
- How to keep a pain diary that is worth reading backA pain diary fails when it asks for too much or records only a number. The structure that keeps one short, honest and readable months later.
- How to track pain patterns — and what a pattern can and cannot tell youPatterns are why people keep records, and where records most often mislead. How to look for them honestly and what to do with one when you find it.
- Sleep and chronic pain: what the evidence says and what to recordPoor sleep and pain feed each other. The research in brief, and the few sleep signals worth recording beside pain.
- Medication tracking for chronic conditions: what to record and why timing mattersA medication record is most useful when it sits next to the symptom record. What to note, what to leave out, and the one thing not to do with it.
Appointments and reports
How HAVYT approaches this →Preparing for a short appointment: what to record, what to bring and how to summarise months in a page.
Training and recovery
How HAVYT approaches this →Exercising with a condition that changes day to day, and reading sleep and recovery alongside training.
- Exercise during an AS flare: adapting, not abandoningMovement is part of AS management, and a flare is when it is hardest. How people scale sessions, what the guidance says, and where the judgement stays clinical.
- Exercise and chronic pain: what the evidence supports and how to track itThe evidence for exercise in chronic pain is encouraging and modest. What it does and does not say, and how to record training so you can see it against your own pain.