A calendar is one of the first things that quietly changes after a knock to the head. You may still know what day it is, but the reminders you set for yourself stop lining up with what you actually do. This note is about keeping that calendar honest, because an examiner in the St. Louis metro will want a clear record of what your week looked like, not a guess rebuilt from memory.
What the calendar shows
Most people already keep some kind of schedule: a phone calendar, a paper planner, a wall calendar by the kitchen door. After a fall, a crash, or any blow to the head, that schedule can become useful evidence. Look at it without judging yourself. Did you book an appointment on the wrong day? Did a standing meeting slip? Did you show up an hour early or miss a pickup entirely? These are simple observations, and they are worth writing down before the details blur.
Noting the misses plainly
Start with a short list for each day after the event. Write the appointment or task, whether you completed it, and whether it took longer than usual. Keep the entries flat. "Left the grocery list at home, went back twice" is more useful than a long story about why. The goal is a record that someone can read in a minute and understand without you explaining every line.
Pay attention to reminders. If you rely on alerts, note how many arrived and whether you acted on them. Some people find that a reminder pops up in the middle of something else, and the context is gone by the time they respond. Others stop trusting their memory of what they committed to, and they double-check things they used to handle without thinking. Both patterns are worth a line each.
Time and sequence
Dazed days often make time feel slippery. You may lose track of whether something happened this morning or yesterday, or you may underestimate how long a task took. For each entry, write the rough time it started and ended, even if the numbers are approximate. Write "about 10 to 11" rather than leaving the field blank. An estimate marked as an estimate is more helpful than nothing.
Sequence matters too. If you planned three errands and finished only one, write down which one came first and what happened next. Order can reveal how your attention moved through the day, and that is the kind of detail that is hard to reconstruct later.
Keep it on paper, not in your head
Choose one place for the notes. A single notebook or one note on your phone works better than scraps spread across several apps. Date every entry. If you photograph a calendar page, keep the original file untouched and record the date you took the photo. Avoid rewriting old entries to make them neater. If you realize later that you got a day wrong, add a new line with the correction and the date you wrote it.
Involve someone you trust
A household member, friend, or coworker may notice things you miss, such as repeating a question or forgetting a plan you made together. You can ask them to add a short line when they notice a change, with their name and the date. Keep their notes separate from yours so the examiner can see which observations came from whom.
Bringing the calendar to your visit
When you arrive for an exam in the St. Louis metro, bring the calendar pages or a printout of your notes. Keep it to a few pages. Put the most recent week first and mark any entries that felt significant. You do not need to explain every item. The examiner can ask questions about what matters for your situation.
This piece is general education about keeping records, not a diagnosis, and it does not replace advice from a clinician who can examine you. If your symptoms are getting worse, or you have sudden confusion, weakness, trouble speaking, or a severe headache, seek urgent care right away rather than finishing a log first.