St. Louis winters arrive in stages. One morning the air is sharp enough to make you pull your collar up, and a week later the wind off the river has settled in for good. If you are recovering from a crash or a hard knock to the head, those changes in temperature can feel like more than weather. Some people notice their head aches more on cold walks, in drafty rooms, or after stepping from a warm car into a freezing parking lot. Others notice nothing at all. This piece is about keeping a plain record so you can tell which kind of person you are, and so you have something concrete to bring to your appointment.
This is educational writing, not a diagnosis. A log cannot tell you why your head hurts. What it can do is show patterns in your own days, in your own words, so a clinician has more to work with than a general sense that things feel worse at times.
What to write down each day
Pick a notebook or a note on your phone and write one short entry each day. Keep the format the same every time so the pattern is easy to read later. Start with the date and the outdoor conditions you actually met: how long you were outside, roughly how cold it felt, and whether you wore a hat or scarf. Then note the indoor air. Was the room cool, was a vent blowing on you, and did you sit near a door that kept opening? Small details like these are easy to forget by evening, so write them down while they are fresh.
Next, write how your head felt, using the same scale every day if you can. A simple zero to ten works. Mark the time you first noticed a change, not only the time it peaked. Cold air can cause a slow build over hours, so the start time is often the most useful number in the entry.
Walks, drafts and the car
Short trips are where many people see the clearest pattern. Note the walk from the house to the car, the wait at a bus stop, and the drive with the heater on high. Heat blasting from a car vent can dry the air and warm your face quickly, and then the cold returns when you step out. Write down which of those moments came right before a change in how you felt, and whether the change came during the trip or after you arrived.
Drafts deserve their own line. Window seats, the spot under a ceiling fan, a back door in a small shop, and the cold section of a grocery store can all be steady sources of chill. If you sit in one spot for hours at work or at home, write the spot down. A fixed location can make a pattern easier to spot than a single bad afternoon, and it gives your examiner a clear picture of your daily environment.
Clothing and the head
Write down what you wore on your head and face. A knit hat, a hood, a wrapped scarf, or bare ears can all change how the cold reaches you. This is also a good place to note whether a hood or hat felt tight or pressed on a particular spot on your head. That detail matters to an examiner. Do not change your clothing habits just to test a theory, though. Keep a normal week of records first so you have a baseline to compare against.
What does not belong in the log
Keep the entries short and factual. Skip guesses about cause and skip anything you read online about cold and head injuries, since those claims can crowd out what you actually observed. A line such as 'cold walk, 20 minutes, no hat, head pressure rose by afternoon, score 5' is more useful than a long story. If you took anything for the headache, note the name, the dose, and the time, because a clinician will ask about it.
Bringing the log to your visit
Print the log or bring it on your phone. Put the worst days at the top and the calmer days after, so the most important entries are seen first. Add two or three plain questions you want answered, such as whether the cold could be a trigger for you or whether you should change how you dress on walks. Ask the examiner what they want you to track next, and for how long.
If your head pain suddenly gets much worse, or you feel confused or weak, or you have trouble speaking or seeing, do not wait to fill in your log. Those signs call for prompt medical care right away, whatever the weather is doing.
Cold weather is not a reason to stay indoors all winter. It is a reason to write down what the air is doing to you, so your next visit starts with facts instead of guesses.