What to write down before a parent's doctor appointment

October 4, 2026

From Centis, a free care notebook you talk to. Everything in this guide works with pen and paper too.

Most appointments are short. You walk in with weeks of things you’ve noticed, the doctor asks “so how have things been?”, and you say “up and down”. The thing you most wanted to mention comes back to you in the parking lot.

It isn’t that you forgot. Nobody can recall three weeks of small changes on the spot, in order, with dates, while someone waits.

The fix is a short, dated page you bring with you. It covers what changed, what happened with medications, and the questions you want answered. This guide covers what to put on it, how to write it so the doctor can actually use it, and a template you can copy.

What should you include in notes for the doctor?

You don’t need everything. You need what has changed since the last visit, and anything you’re unsure about.

What’s different. Anything new or out of the ordinary since last time: more tired, less steady, a new pain, a cough that hasn’t cleared. Note roughly when it started.
Medication changes. Anything started, stopped or changed, and when. Note doses that were missed or refused, and anything you noticed after a change, written as what you saw.
Falls and near-falls. When, where, what they were doing, and whether they were hurt. A near-fall is worth writing down too.
Eating, drinking and sleep. Changes from their usual: skipping meals, not finishing them, drinking less, up in the night, sleeping through the day.
Memory, mood and behaviour. Specific moments rather than summaries. “Asked what day it was three times on Tuesday” tells a doctor far more than “confused”.
Measurements, if you take them. Blood pressure, weight, blood sugar or temperature, each with the date and time.
Your questions. Everything you’ve wondered about, including the ones that feel too small to ask.

Bring their current medications too: a list, or the bottles and boxes themselves. It gives the doctor an accurate picture of what’s actually being taken.

How to write it so the doctor can use it

Put a date on every line. “Dizzy when standing, Sep 12 and Sep 19” is something a clinician can work with. “Dizzy sometimes” isn’t.

Use your own words. You don’t need medical terms. “Barely touched her lunch” is clearer than a guess at the clinical phrase, and the doctor will translate it.

Write what you saw, not what you think it means. If a new tablet started on a Saturday and the dizziness on a Tuesday, write both, each with its date. Don’t write “dizzy since the new tablet”. The two might be connected or they might not, and working that out is the doctor’s job. Writing the link in can steer the conversation before it starts.

Newest first, and one page. The doctor reads from the top. Put the most recent things there, and whatever you most want them to know.

Keep your questions separate. What happened goes in one section, and what you want to ask goes in another. Write the questions the way you’d say them: “I wasn’t sure whether the near-fall was something to worry about.”

A template you can copy

Copy this into your phone’s notes app or onto paper, and fill it in over the week before the appointment, not the night before.

Appointment: [date] with [doctor or nurse]

WHAT CHANGED (newest first)
- [date] — [what you noticed, in your words]
- [date] —

MEDICATION CHANGES
- [date] — started / stopped / changed [name], [dose if you know it]
- Missed or refused:

FALLS OR NEAR-FALLS
- [date] — [where, what they were doing, any injury]

EATING, SLEEP, MOOD, MEMORY
- [date] — [a specific example]

MEASUREMENTS (if you take them)
- [date, time] — [reading]

MY QUESTIONS
- I wasn't sure whether…
- I'd like to know…

If a section has nothing in it, leave it out. A short page gets read; a long one gets skimmed.

During the appointment

Hand the page over, or read from it. A written list is quick to read, and nothing on it gets forgotten in the moment. If you’d rather read it aloud, start with what you most want them to hear.
Ask your questions early. Leave them to the end and time can run out before you get to them.
Write down what you’re told. Note any new medication, dose or instruction, and what to watch for. If a name or a number goes by too fast, ask for it to be repeated or written down.
Ask who to contact if things change, and when you should expect to hear about any tests.
Include your parent where you can. Even if you’re doing the talking, let them add to it or correct it. It’s their appointment.

Keeping notes between appointments

The page is easy to write if the notes already exist. The hard part is noticing something on a Tuesday and still having it written down three weeks later.

What helps is writing a line or two right after a visit or a phone call, while it’s fresh, rather than trying to reconstruct the month the night before. A note on your phone, a notebook by the door, a running message to yourself: any of them works if you actually use it.

If typing is what stops you, Centis lets you say it out loud instead. You talk for thirty seconds after a visit and it keeps a dated record in your own words. Before an appointment, it lays that record out like the page above: newest first, every line dated, with the questions you said you had. It’s free, and you can use it on your own without an account.