Three years ago, in the weeks following my stroke, I sat in yet another doctor's office, my third specialist that month. I'd brought my usual mental checklist: the fatigue that caused me to nap for 5+ hours every afternoon, the brain fog that turned simple emails into hour-long ordeals, the lingering effects that doctors couldn't quite see on their scans. But when the doctor asked how I was feeling, my mind went blank.

It's 2pm on a Tuesday. You’re trying to read an email, but your brain feels hazy, your joints ache in that familiar way that means a flare-up is coming, and the last thing you want to do is open another health app to check boxes about your pain level on a scale of 1-10. Sound familiar?

You probably know this story all too well. You’re sitting in the doctor’s office, and they candidly ask, “So what’s been going on; how can I help you?”

When you’re navigating chronic illness, every moment counts, and so does every symptom. But traditional symptom trackers ask you to reduce your experience to a handful of checkboxes, dropdowns or sliders. Tap here for fatigue. Select severity. Check duration. Repeat.

But your body isn’t a checklist. Your pain is not a multiple-choice answer.

If you've ever felt like it took way too long to get diagnosed (or you're still frustratingly waiting for answers), you're not alone. Millions of people, especially women and people of color, face years of misdiagnosis, dismissal, and disbelief before finally getting the care they need.

This isn't just frustrating. It's dangerous.

The Reality of How Long It Actually Takes To Get Diagnosed

Let's be honest about what patients are facing across different conditions…

The traditional healthcare system was built for acute care: you get sick, you get treated, you get better. But chronic illness doesn't follow that script. It's ongoing, unpredictable, and deeply personal. And our healthcare system is struggling to keep up.

If you've lived with chronic illness, especially as a woman, person of color, or someone with an invisible condition, you've likely heard these phrases.

I didn’t initially set out to start a health tech company.

I just wanted to feel better. I was desperate to make sense of my health and take some control of it back.

Symptom tracking isn’t new. But the way most do it is outdated.

Most symptom tracking tools weren’t built for the people who actually need them.

They assume you have the energy to scroll. The clarity to type. The hands to tap. The mental bandwidth to remember how you felt three hours ago.

You know the feeling.

You open your phone to log how you’re feeling... and then forget why you opened it.

When your body is already running on empty, even opening an app can feel almost impossible.