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How to use the Asthma Diary

If you suffer from asthma the Asthma Diary plugin for WordPress is an alternative to the printed asthma diaries.

The Asthma Diary will save your results in a databasse, and you can monitor the progress by bars and peak flow graphs. The plugin has been developed for use with the miniWright Peak Flow Meter – but the plugin can be used by any meter measuring peak flow.

This plugin was made, because my doctor asked me to write an asthma diary by hand. Then I wondered: why don’t we do this on the internet?

The Dashboard Form

• Log in
• In the Dashboard you will see the form below:

 

• Cough: did you cough? You can evaluate the cough from 1 – 5. 1 is mild symptoms. 5 are severe symptoms. If you don’t click the radio button the value will be 0 signifying no symptoms.
• Wheeze: did your lungs wheeze? You can evaluate the wheeze from 1 – 5. 1 is mild symptoms. 5 are severe symptoms. If you don’t click the radio button the value will be 0 signifying no symptoms.
• Sleep: how did you sleep during the night? If your astma disturbed the sleep valuses  from 1 – 5. 1 is mild symptoms. 5 are severe symptoms. If you don’t click the radio button the value will be 0 signifying no symptoms.
• Activity: was asthma provoked by activity? 1 – 5. 1 is mild symptoms. 5 are severe symptoms. If you don’t click the radio button the value will be 0 signifying no symptoms.
• Peak flow: blow as hard as you can in the peakflow-meter. Repeat 3 times and write the highest value in the form.
• Note: Here you can write any note on your condition. It could be something like: “Medicine: 2xSerevent, 3x Bricanyl …” or something else.

Peak flow indications

Below the form you see a peakflow indication. It is based on your best peakflow value so far:

• 80% – 100% of the best peakflow value is the green zone.
  A peak flow reading in the green zone indicates that the asthma is under good control.
• 79% – 51% is the yellow zone.
  Indicates caution. It may mean respiratory airways are narrowing and additional medication may be required.
• 50% and below are the red zone. Indicates a medical emergency.
  Severe airway narrowing may be occurring and immediate action needs to be taken. This would usually involve contacting a doctor or hospital [Source: Wikipedia]

You have to use the Asthma Diary for a while before you can trust these indications.

How to install the plugin

First you – or your webmaster – have to install the plugin. The plugin will create a database for your observations of asthma symptoms. After the install you can enter new posts in the Dashboard – or create pages with the shortcode “asthmadiary” in sharp brackets [  ].

Professional versions
The Asthma Diary is made for personal use. If you need more elaborated versions for medical tests or research, please contact me.

Privacy
The plugin is for private use. Other users on the WordPress blog will not be able to read your personal asthma diary.

How to use the diary
If you want to discuss the asthma symptoms with your doctor – or other professionals – you can simply print the results.

Open Source Sources

This plugin was developed using the powers of:

• WordPress
• Ubuntu LAMP server
• Gnome
• Gedit
• FileZilla
• Bluefish
• Lyx
• LaTex
• … and of course the WWW

Licence

• Personal use of this plugin is free.
• Commercial use: please contact the author for a license.