How to use it
Print the page and write on it. The lines and boxes on the sheet are drawn, not typed in: there is no field on this page, nothing is saved, and nothing you write is sent anywhere. Printing it sends nothing either.
It prints as one side of one sheet, with the whole of before in the left column and the rest in the right. Fill in what you can before you go and leave the rest blank. A half-filled sheet is still a sheet.
Where each line comes from
- Top three questions. AHRQ asks for exactly three, and the National Institute on Aging says to put your concerns in order and raise the most important ones first.
- Medicines and supplements. AHRQ lists prescription medicines, non-prescription medicines, vitamins and dietary or herbal supplements. The NIA says to bring a list of everything you take and the dose, or the containers themselves, and its page on what to tell the doctor adds telling the doctor how often you take each one.
- Symptoms, briefly. The NIA lists what a doctor usually asks: when a symptom started, how often it happens, how long it lasts, whether it is getting better or worse, and whether it stops you doing your usual activities.
- What to take. The NIA says to take records the doctor does not already have, and that a family member or close friend can come with you to listen and take notes.
- Before you leave. AHRQ says to find out what to do next and ask for written instructions, to ask questions until the answers are clear, and to find out how you will get any test results and what to do about them.
The guide to preparing for an appointment says the same things at length, with the sources beside each one.
What this sheet can and cannot tell you
It can give you an order to work in and somewhere to write things down. That is the whole of it.
- Not what to ask for. It names no test, scan, referral, treatment, medicine or supplement.
- Not an interpretation. Nothing on it reads what you write or tells you what it means.
- Not fibromyalgia-specific. Its three sources are general appointment guidance. None of them is about fibromyalgia.
- Not a judgement about urgency. It does not say whether anything you write on it is urgent.
Sources and corrections
Every line on the sheet paraphrases one of these three pages, each checked on September 17, 2026. Citing them does not mean the National Institute on Aging or the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reviewed or endorsed this sheet, Tend, or Off Script Foundry, Inc..
- National Institute on Aging, How To Prepare for a Doctor’s Appointment. Content reviewed February 3, 2020.
- National Institute on Aging, What Do I Need to Tell the Doctor? Content reviewed February 3, 2020.
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Be More Engaged in Your Healthcare. Page last reviewed November 2024.
No clinician has reviewed this sheet. To report a mistake on it, email contact@offscriptfoundry.com, and the editorial policy says what happens next.