I have often thought I should do this. In the past it would not have helped because of my cycles - I would be a totally different person from one day to the next -- for instance, one day susceptible to MSGtoxicity, the next not (I was crying inside many times for sheer frustration of never knowing what each day would bring).
Do you have a form you use to determine how you feel to put it into perspective with every other day? I have thought I should make a form where I can just check thinsg off or rate things on some scale...but it would have to list a boatload of symtoms so I could check yes/no if I had them that day.
I find that a very good way to record the benefits that a drug or supplement may be providing is to observe and write down when you do something a little out of the ordinary, over and above your normal capabilities.
For example, if you find that you are suddenly able to do 12 hours concentration a day on a task, when normally you would only be able to do 6 or 8 hours a day, then write that down in your journal. Write something short and simple like "
Was able to spend the whole day online, researching into xyz without feeling at all mentally exhausted. This is very unusual for me".
Then when you come back to look at your notes in your journal, in a few months time, you will say to yourself "wow", what on Earth was I taking at that time to give me that much brain power?! And then you start to look back at the medications you took on that day, or on the day before, or throughout the week before, in order to figure out what it was that gave you this boost in concentration abilities. It is usually fairly easy to spot what supplement or drug was producing the benefits, as that will usually be the one you had just started taking at that point.
The trouble I find with ME/CFS is that when you do start feeling better, you often just take this for granted, and you never really ask why. It's crazy, but I find you just accept feeling better like you accept good the weather: if a nice sunny day arrives, you just enjoy it, and that's it, with no further ado. That attitude is fine for the weather, but can be a disastrous attitude for ME/CFS, as you can miss the benefits of some very good medications, if you just take feeling better for granted.
Keeping a simple daily medications journal is I think vitally important for ME/CFS for three reasons: (1) because as just explained, we tend to take feeling better for granted and don't analyze why; (2) we have very bad memories due to ME/CFS, so we will quickly forget or put out of mind drugs or supplements that have been of benefit; (3) there can be significant day to day variations in ME/CFS symptoms anyway, which can confuse the issue, but if your journal shows that on days you took supplement X, you nearly always had an improvement in some symptom, then eventually you will see the pattern.
Everyone has their own particular problematic ME/CFS symptoms they want to address. In my case, for example, I have particular problems with brain fog and mental stamina, sound sensitivities, anxiety disorder, ADHD-like symptoms, and IBS-D, and so I am always on the lookout for any improvements in any of these symptoms when I experiment with any drug or supplement.
I find I often start to look back historically in my medications journal when I have taken a turn for the worse for a few weeks, and then reading my written record of times of better heath not only raises my morale, but often usually gives me some very useful clues as to what supplements or drugs I need to take in order to get back to that state of better health.
I originally started writing my notes on paper (in a large diary with half a page per day), as I thought this would be the simplest and easiest approach. But later I switched to using a simple word processor document to record each day's supplements, because I found most of the time, I would be taking roughly the same medications each day, so I realized that with a word processor, it was very easy to just copy the previous day's set of medications, and paste this same set into the current day's entry.
I can upload an example page of my word processor document journal if you like.
