After a knock to the head, many people reach for whatever is already in the house. A bottle of pain reliever from the back of the cabinet, a tube of cream, a patch left over from a sore back, a sleep aid taken on a bad night. None of it is unusual, and none of it is a secret. But by the time someone sits down in a St. Louis exam room, the list is often a blur. This note is about getting that list onto paper before the visit, so the examiner can see what was taken, how often, and what seemed to help or did nothing.
This is educational writing, not medical advice. Nothing here tells you to start, stop or change any medicine. Your prescriber or a pharmacist is the right person for those questions, and the examiner is the right person to decide what your symptoms mean.
Start with the shelf
Set aside ten minutes and walk through the house. Check the kitchen drawer, the bathroom cabinet, your purse, the car glove box, the gym bag and the nightstand. Write down every product you took, rubbed on or applied to your head, neck, jaw or face since the knock. Include the ones you tried only once. Include the ones a friend suggested. Include anything from a vitamin or herbal shelf, because those count too.
For each item, write the name exactly as the label shows it, the strength printed on the package, and the form it came in, such as tablet, capsule, liquid, cream or patch. If the label is gone, write what you remember and mark it as a guess. A guess marked as a guess is more useful than a blank line.
Ice packs, heating pads and cold compresses belong on the list as well, since they are part of what you tried. Write how long each one stayed on and where it sat, such as the back of the neck or the temple.
Log the dose and the day
Next to each item, write how much you took in one dose and how often. Then write the first day you used it and the last day you used it, even if the last day is today. Note whether you used it on a schedule or only when a headache got bad. Those two patterns mean different things to an examiner, and they are easy to lose by the time a week has passed.
Keep a simple tally for the days you took any pain reliever at all. A plain mark on a calendar is enough. Some people find they reached for a pill on most days without quite noticing it, and seeing the marks together can make that obvious. Write down the count, not a judgment about it.
Note what happened after
For each item, add one line about the result in your own words. Did the headache ease within the hour, or not at all? Did it come back the next morning? Did it make you drowsy, sick to your stomach, jittery or unable to think clearly? Did you have to lie down in a dark room after taking it? Write the plain facts. 'Eased, back by supper' tells an examiner more than 'helped a little.'
If a product helped you sleep through a stretch you would normally have spent awake, note the hours. Write the bedtime, the time you took the product and the time you woke. Sleep is part of the record, and a bad night and a good night often look different on paper.
Also note what you did not take. If you went several days with nothing at all, write that down. An empty stretch is part of the record too.
Bring it to the visit
Put the list on a single sheet, with the newest entries at the bottom. Add a line at the top with the date of your knock, then bring the sheet to your St. Louis appointment in a folder or plastic sleeve. Hand it over before the examiner asks, so the conversation starts from facts rather than memory. If you take a prescription, bring the bottle or a photo of the label too, since the exact name and strength matter. Keep a copy for yourself so you can keep adding to it.
If you are unsure whether a product belongs on the list, put it on the list. Leaving something off because you think it is too minor is the most common way these notes go wrong. The examiner can sort out what matters.
When to get seen this week
A medicine log is not a reason to wait. If your headache is getting worse, or if you have new confusion, trouble speaking, weakness, vomiting that keeps coming back, or a headache that feels like the worst of your life, do not wait for a scheduled appointment. Call emergency services or go to the nearest emergency department. If you are in the St. Louis metro and you have been putting off a visit after a knock to the head, this week is a good time to book it, and the list you write tonight will make that visit go faster.