Maybe my physical symptoms make a deceptively static picture of me. What are the limits of conventional symptom reporting? Ill-fated goats keep taking to the bridge, only to become the next snack for the troll of elusive reasons. These are the major clarifying questions my doctor never asks about life dynamics.

Monitoring my health symptoms sometimes feels like I’ve met the wolf that ate Little Red Riding Hood’s grandma. The responsibility is daunting and monstrous, and I forget why I’m doing it. One day, I figured I would track my symptoms on paper to identify patterns. I learned that this strategy is called “control journaling.”