Anyone making a Kratom journal?

[Kelleytoons]

Since over the year I've been using Kratom I've bought from seven different vendors (actually eight, but one of their strains poisoned me so I dumped them and all I bought from them) and dozens of different strains from each, I've ended up with close to one hundred different strains and I wanted to understand what was what so for the last three months or so I've been journaling my experience. I keep track of the vendor, strain, dose and how it affected me.

This has been invaluable in tracking what works and what doesn't. I've made a spreadsheet and can easily check it each time I dose. If something doesn't hit I move it into a "wait a few weeks and try again" section and then if it has two complete misses in a row I can check it off and not use it again. If something is "good" but not great I can increase the dose the next time and see (sometimes it makes it great, other times it's never going to be any better and I can go back down again). And, of course, my "great" stuff moves to a permanent place in my rotation (currently 22 different strains with others rotated in as I try new stuff and find winners).

I wondered if anyone else is doing something similar and has any tips/tricks they might have found? I don't, as a very general rule, mix strains but that would be something else I could write down although it might get REALLY confusing then. And in a few weeks I'll be adding my tinctures to the journal - those will be a separate section but I will compare it to the normal usage just to see.

[NiqueKristan]

Yes, I keep it in my notes app! It helps me remember when I last took a strain and what effects it gave me

[Kelleytoons]

Like on your phone? If you have an iPhone I'd be interested to know the actual app and how you use it precisely - do you just make annotations for each line? For all my strains it would be difficult to read through a hundred lines each time so I'm looking for a good organization. Right now in my spreadsheet it's first by type of strain (red, white, green, yellow) and then by vendor and name. I guess I should look to see what kinds of spreadsheet type apps there are on my phone, as that would be a lot more convenient than looking at my computer (in my old days I'd write a database app for this so I could just scroll down the vendor and strain name easily, but my programming days are long since past).

[Jking]

No I don’t but it might be useful for vendors who restock the same strains often. Though to me personally it would seem like more trouble then it’s worth but I think it’s a great idea. Kratom is like weed strains but even weed strains grown from seed with the same genetics can have different phenotypes. Unless you clone it you can never perfectly replicate a weed strain. I think of kratom the same way. Even if they restock the same strains they are likely to have differences if they are from a different year but they could be similar so it should be worth doing I think. I think just trying to talk to the vendors for recommendations is best with small batch vendors because their stock is constantly changing. If you like slow, fast, or mid spec leaf ask the vendor what they would recommend at the moment. Though with vendors like Liza’s, tfh, or smiley just to name a few would be perfect for keeping a journal of the strains you like I think especially Liza’s because she has so many strains. My collection is much smaller than yours though as I try to use what i have before buying to much. I have noticed though as my collection gets bigger I have build a preference toward certain strains but have generally liked everything small batch I have gotten. Also yes notes is an app on iPhone/iPad.

[onespeedstop]

I sort of tried to early on, but since kratom often hits differently - even the same exact batch, I abandoned the idea. I don't get very different results from various colors/strains/etc. though, so it's probably just my body chemistry or whatever that made it a worthless endeavor ha-ha.

It could still be a useful exercise when trying a new vendor though, to compare/contrast the first 3-4 times with other more familiar ones you have been using for a while.

[NiqueKristan]

Like on your phone? If you have an iPhone I'd be interested to know the actual app and how you use it precisely - do you just make annotations for each line? For all my strains it would be difficult to read through a hundred lines each time so I'm looking for a good organization. Right now in my spreadsheet it's first by type of strain (red, white, green, yellow) and then by vendor and name. I guess I should look to see what kinds of spreadsheet type apps there are on my phone, as that would be a lot more convenient than looking at my computer (in my old days I'd write a database app for this so I could just scroll down the vendor and strain name easily, but my programming days are long since past).

Yes, on my phone. I do have an iPhone and I just use the notes app. It looks something like this:
4/18 1035 pm Dragonleaf Red MD 5.5g- euphoric and mid slow
4/19 322 pm Lonestar PRV 4g- slow, warm blanket feel
4/19 700 pm Heavenleaf Royal Gold 4.5 g- xyz
It’s not fancy or like a spreadsheet by any means, but it works for me!

[Kelleytoons]

Yeah, I need something a little more organized.

I probably have too much Kratom - as I've written often, I'm a Kratom whore who will spread his wallet open for almost any vendor. And it wasn't until the last three or four months I found the really GOOD vendors (the smaller ones) by which time I had already built up huge stockpiles of other, lesser, stuff. So I just tend to buy more and more - heck, it's a LOT cheaper than alcohol (and I used to buy a lot of that - not so much since I discovered Kratom).

Plus for me I want to have a healthy rotation so I don't get "used" to anything too much - I don't take the same strain more than once every three weeks and as a result it hits me almost exactly the same way every time. I'm guessing that for those of you who take the same strain more often the experience might "wear off". I've never found that yet to be the case, that if I have a strain I marked as "great" it's that way each and every time (every time being once every three weeks).

(And I'm still not done with accumulating stuff - even with nearly 100 strains I want to get more stuff from Lucky's now that I'm a member. And perhaps, some day, I'll get some of the elusive and rare and mysterious TFH stuff. Hey, an old man can dream, can't he?)

[Lokey]

In the beginning I started organizing by vendor name alphabetically and then strain, because I wanted a reference for purchases and inventory, and printed the pages out for a kratom binder, but I didn't keep it up. Work got too busy and it felt like more work. Wish I kept with it. I have most of my bags organized the same way by vendor name except for the past few months, I let organization go. I tend to remember if something works good and gravitate back to it knowing I have to rotate as well as re-try ones I can't remember or weren't so good. I'd like to know who you felt poisoned you!

[Kelleytoons]

Well, not sure if "poisoned" was the right word but...

I ordered from this vendor (whose site mentions nothing about testing their batches or processing them in any way) and after taking one dose I ended up with EXTREME diarrhea (without being too graphic - I could have gotten a colonoscopy at any point for two or three weeks) that did not end until my doctor prescribed antibiotics. Stupid me made NO connection between the Kratom and this illness (I thought it was food poisoning or even some flu) and after taking some OTHER Kratom from other vendors this came back into my rotation and... same exact thing (this time I already had the antibiotic so at least I didn't suffer for three weeks). Threw that batch and the other two strains I ordered from that vendor and vowed to never order from them again.

Could have been just "one batch unlucky" but with that kind of illness I did not want to take a chance (and I've never had the experience in my life. Certainly with no other vendor or strains, and I've tried nearly a hundred). The vendor's name is Organic Kratom and I don't even like mentioning their name as I don't think anyone should pay them ANY attention.

[Lokey]

Thanks and so sorry that happened, a name like that makes it sound healthy. It happened to me once too but not as bad and I think I tried it again a few weeks later and didn't have as noticeable of a bad reaction but still not wanting to take it but it also didn't wow me otherwise.

[Detuned]

@kelleytoons
Would you mind sharig your template?

[Kelleytoons]

Well, it's not exactly rocket science, but if you want it here it is:

[Detuned]

Thx kelleytoons

[HEPAMan]

I use a diary app on my android phone. Very handy, in that you can search it like a database. Put in a keyword and see all the past times a strain was taken and the effects.

[Kelleytoons]

That's really stellar - I'll have to see if I can find something similar for iOS.

[deathwithafi]

O absolutely. I have a 2-year-long journal, strain, time, effect.

[Sanbutsushin]

When I first started I was keeping a very detailed journal of every dose, what I took it with (OJ, in coffee, etc), what time of day, how long it took for me to notice an effect, when I had last eaten prior, etc etc... every variable you could think of. At some point it just started to feel like a chore. Now I just keep a little stenography pad - I prep several doses of tea at a time, so I write down what batch is in what cup, the dosage, and then when I eventually use it I'll come back to the pad and put a little symbol next to it before I cross it out: a check mark is decent, middle-of-the-road, not bad but not special; a happy face is good; a heart is what people would call 'fire'. Very rarely something won't seem to hit at all and I put a little question mark down so I know to revisit it later on a low-pain day and see if it hits any better then. Usually it does!

I'm sure in those situations it would probably be beneficial to have every little variable written down like I used to, but... I'mma be real, I'm too lazy.

[Kelleytoons]

My journal is basically just the vendor/strain, dose, and then a few words (like "Great, good, made me sleepy, good tennis, meh"). For those that get a "meh" I increase the dose next time and two "mehs" in a row takes it out of my rotation (but I will revisit it in a few months - right now my rotation is a strain every three weeks but I also shake up the lineup every few weeks).