The Shoulder
The Shoulder
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Recovery & winsdaring-finch-375

Built a recovery journal app while stuck in bed for 6 weeks — here's what I learned

So I rear-ended someone on the highway back in the spring — totally my fault, I was distracted, not gonna sugarcoat it. Walked away thinking I was fine, but two days later I could barely turn my head. Ended up with a soft tissue injury in my upper back and a cervical sprain that my doctor said would take "weeks to months" to resolve. Cool, cool, cool.

Weeks two through five were genuinely the lowest I've felt in years. I was sleeping in a recliner because lying flat was too painful, burning through sick leave, and my brain just... rotted. I couldn't concentrate on TV. Reading made my neck ache. I felt completely useless.

So I started doing the one thing I could do with minimal movement: typing on my phone with voice dictation. I built a simple daily journal just for accident recovery — symptom tracking, PT exercise logs, mood check-ins, insurance call notes (you forget SO much when you're medicated and stressed), and a spot to dump your questions before doctor appointments.

I'm not a developer, I just used some no-code tools and a lot of free time I didn't ask for.

Sharing it here because honestly, the people in spaces like this are the only ones who'd actually get why it exists. If you're mid-recovery and drowning in paperwork and pain and brain fog, maybe it helps.

Anyone else find weird silver linings in their recovery downtime? Or am I the only one who accidentally started a project?

11replies

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11 replies

  • 20
    keen-heron-504

    Just a heads up for anyone using a tool like this — be thoughtful about what you share with your insurance company directly. Adjusters can be surprisingly creative about using your own documented statements against you. Log everything for yourself and your attorney, but don't hand that diary over to the other side's insurer without knowing what's in it.

  • 19
    keen-wren-301

    The insurance call log feature sounds like something people genuinely undervalue until it's too late. If a case ever goes further — demand letters, negotiations, anything — having a dated record of every conversation with every adjuster is really useful. Names, times, what was said, any commitments made. Most people are scrambling to reconstruct that stuff from memory months later and it's a nightmare. Anything that makes that automatic is a win.

  • 17
    bright-newt-477

    Curious — is this something you're planning to actually release publicly or is it more of a personal project? And how are you handling any health data privacy stuff if other people start using it? Not trying to poke holes, genuinely curious because the concept is solid but those questions would come up.

  • 16
    tidy-kestrel-554

    Forget the app for a sec — are you still in PT? A cervical sprain that's still symptomatic after more than a couple months needs to stay documented medically. Don't let the project distract you from making sure your treatment is fully on record. That paper trail matters if anything comes up down the road with your claim.

    • 8
      honest-commuter467

      That lines up with what my adjuster told me too.

  • 16
    sharp-raven-649

    Not legal advice, but — the concept of contemporaneous documentation is something attorneys genuinely rely on. A journal that logs pain levels, missed activities, work absences, and emotional impact over time can be meaningful in illustrating how an injury affected your daily life. Just make sure anything you create is accurate and consistent, because it could theoretically be reviewed later. Good instinct building this.

    • 2
      kind-optimist775

      That lines up with what my adjuster told me too.

  • 13
    daring-beaver-223

    Okay this is actually kind of beautiful? I was out for almost two months after a T-bone and I swear the boredom was almost worse than the pain some days. I wish I'd had something like a structured journal — I was just texting myself notes like a maniac and half of them made no sense when I reread them later. Keeping track of insurance calls especially is SO important and nobody tells you that at the beginning.

    • 12
      silent-marmot-002

      The symptom and mood tracking piece is genuinely useful from a medical standpoint. A lot of my patients come in and can't accurately describe how their pain has changed over time because they just don't remember. Doctors and PTs love when someone can say 'my pain was a 7 in week one, dropped to a 4 by week three, but spikes back to a 6 after I sleep wrong.' That kind of detail actually influences your treatment plan. Keep logging consistently, not just on bad days.

    • 5
      hopeful-walker366

      Really glad you posted an update — gives the rest of us some hope.

  • 13
    daring-lynx-103

    This is genuinely one of the more wholesome things I've seen posted here. You turned a horrible stretch of your life into something that might actually help other people going through the same thing. That's not nothing. Hope your neck is doing better.