Why it matters
The Symptom screen opens with an odd instruction.
Pick the number that matches the words beside it, not the number you think you should be.
If you have ever answered "how bad is it?" with the number you hoped was true, you already know why it is there.
A rating helps most when you can compare it. A 5 in March should mean what a 5 means in October. Otherwise a month of entries turns into a pile of moods. So GI Studio pins words to every number. On my screen the words beside Bloating at 5 call it moderate and uncomfortable. Choose Pain at 4 and the screen calls it mild discomfort.
You find the words that fit and the number comes with them.
What the screen asks
You open the screen to two sliders. Bloating covers the full, tight or swollen feeling in your belly. It uses the same words here as on the bathroom screen, so a 5 means one thing wherever you log it. Pain runs from no pain at all up through hard to function.
Any slider you leave alone records nothing, because GI Studio would rather keep a blank than invent a zero you never chose.
When something else matters to you, ADD YOUR OWN SYMPTOM puts a row of your own on the screen. You can track nausea on a 0 to 10 scale or mark heartburn as a plain yes or no.
Why it has its own button
Symptoms do not wait for a meal or a bathroom trip. A cramp at your desk at three in the afternoon belongs in the record at three in the afternoon. So the Symptom screen gets its own button on the home screen, right under PEE and POOP.
Over a few weeks those entries line up with your meals. Say bloating reached 6 or higher on five afternoons this month. If four of them followed the same breakfast, that is a question worth testing. If they followed short nights instead, you have learned something a food log alone could not show you.
When it is more than discomfort
Slide Pain to 9 or 10 and the screen changes. A red banner reads "SEVERE PAIN: 9 or 10 out of 10" and tells you to call 911 or go to your nearest ER if this is an emergency. A button beside it places the call.
The next time your gut speaks up between meals, the entry takes a few seconds and the words do the measuring.
See a doctor when something about your gut worries you or changes in a way that is not normal for you. GI Studio keeps a record of what happened and never stands in for that visit.