Many players in the St. Louis metro keep a rough mental list of what they took before a game. Ask them for the product name, the time, and whether they had a second cup of coffee, and the answers tend to blur. When an examiner asks about medicines, supplements, or energy drinks, a vague answer can leave a gap that matters later. This entry is about writing those details down while they are still easy to recall.
What counts as an entry
An entry here means any substance you swallowed, rubbed on, or injected in the 24 hours before a session, plus anything you took during or after. That includes over-the-counter pain relievers, prescription medicines, vitamins, protein powders, pre-workout products, caffeine in drinks and gels, and herbal teas. Write the product name exactly as the label reads, the amount, and the clock time. If you do not know the exact product, write what the bottle or packet looked like.
Keep this list separate from your injury notes. The injury entry records where it hurts and what happened. The medicine line records what was in your system that day. Mixing the two makes both harder to read later.
Why the time matters
A dose written as this morning is hard to place against a 7 p.m. practice. Use clock times. If you took something at 6:40 a.m. and the drill started at 6:30 p.m., those are separate facts that belong on separate lines. Note when the session started, when it stopped, and any dose taken in between. Entries like these show the order of events without anyone having to guess.
Log when you stopped, too. If you paused a daily product for a week, write the stop date. If you started a new supplement in the week before an injury, write the start date beside it.
Writing it down without judgment
The goal is accuracy, not explanation. Nobody needs to justify why they took something. Write what it was, how much, and when. Skip words like a lot or just a little, because they mean different things to different people. Copy numbers straight from the label. If you took two tablets, write two tablets.
Track drinks as well. Write down the caffeine source, such as a cup of coffee, a can of energy drink, or a sports gel, along with the approximate time. A label that states the caffeine content is more useful than a memory of how the drink tasted.
Where this fits in the record
Place the medicine line at the top of each dated page, above the training notes, and keep that format across the whole log. If you start a new product mid-season, add it as a new line with its own date rather than editing an older line. Earlier lines should stay as they were first written, so the log shows what you knew at each point.
When you go in for an exam, bring the page or a photo of it. Bring the containers too if you can. Your examiner can then compare your notes with the labels. This habit supports a conversation about your medicines. It does not replace one. Tell your provider about every product on your list, including the ones you think are harmless.
A short weekly check
On Sunday evening, read the week's medicine lines against the training lines. Look for any day where something new appeared, a dose changed, or a product was skipped. Circle those days. They are the ones worth raising at a visit, whether that visit is this week or later.
The check takes about five minutes. That is far less work than rebuilding a month of habits from memory after a fall or a sprain.
If you have chest pain, trouble breathing, numbness, weakness, or confusion after a hit to the head or body, do not finish a log first. Seek emergency care right away. The record can be completed afterward.