Welcome to The Chaotic Mind Chronic Illness Planners!
I'm Kiarn and I began making these planners to solve a struggle I've had for many years. Making doctor appointments, finally getting there and completely forgetting the reason I made the appointment to start with. I can remember the things that have happened in the time since I made the appointment, maybe, but the most important things I need to discuss just disappear from my brain. Then when I get home, lo and behold the reasons come back to me and I feel like I've entirely wasted the appointment and now need to make another one and hope I don't do the same thing again. I'll make notes and lists, but they end up everywhere in the house with no clear indication which is the right list I need to grab before I run out the door. My house was filled with lists and notes, but I couldn't keep them straight. (ADHD for the win, eyeroll)
I've had referrals that are made for extremely important reasons (Laryngiospasm and having to be intubated in a routine procedure for example), but by the time I move up the wait list and maybe years later finally getting an appointment I get there and they ask why I'm there and I cannot for the life of me remember which issue this appointment was for.
So end of last 2025 I'd had enough. I now have a kiddo with as many issues as me, and wasting her appointments too is not something I wanted to happen. So I went for a google exploration to find a medical planner that would help me. Could I find one suitable though? One comprehensive enough to actually capture all the information I needed it to? Nope.
I didn't want to buy yet another diary that I wouldn't end up using because it just didn't fit the need right, plus I hate that there are so many pages in a standard diary I never end up using.
Sooo I decided to make one. The most important thing I needed was pages I can clearly capture all the needs during a doctor appointment. One that would prompt me to write down all the things I need from the appointment. And I tell you what. Gamechanger.
To be able to finally go to a doc appointment and reference these pages so I didn't miss a thing AND could immediately write down anything else needed after the appointment so I also don't get home and have to worry about my mind going completely blank because it did it's one thing that day and is switching off.
The doctor was impressed with what I'd made. Sharing with family and friends, they were too. I ended up on a roll of designing planner pages for all of the important things I always forget.
Support worker days, in which they send someone I don't know so as soon as that person arrives every single thing I'm meant to be doing or discussing just disappears from my mind? Sorted.
Referrals that I need to remember for up to 3 years before I get the appointment? Sorted.
E.R. visits where my FND means I completely lose functionality so need someone else to communicate for me, but I don't have that? Sorted.
Shopping days where I'm so sure I need this thing cause it's run out at home, but when I get home I find I've actually got 3 of them? Sorted.
All the name of all my symptoms, co-conditons and diagnosis' that I can't remember when it's most important? Now sorted.
The planner I've made myself has become the most comprehensive one that you can find anywhere. And I know there are many, many people out there in a similar situation to me.
Struggling on ones own, falling into the cracks in which you don't qualify for the support you actually need because your memory is useless when it most counts. Now I can keep all these things straight. It's like I've made an external memory upgrade for this chaotic af mind. I've made myself a support worker in a diary that can speak for me when it most counts. And capturing everything when it happening makes it an advocate at my bedside, because docs and nurses now act right because everything is being recorded on my side of the fence.
The response I had from other people and how it could help them too is the reason I just kept designing. Everyone who has seen it has asked for one. Feedback on pages they could use for their situation has resulted in more pages to add to your arsenal. Cancer diagnosis in the family as I was building the website means I've designed pages for that too.
You won't find a medical planner anywhere else as comprehensive as this one (8 pages for a diagnosis, conditions, and symptoms list). And if you have a design you need made for your situation, drop me a line and I'll make it. And where else are you going to find that?
So welcome to my chaotic mind. Check out my Chronic Illness Planner that can help you too. And know that it will make things easier in the critical moments you need it. It has for me.
~Kiarn