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Ruckmark

A veteran's symptom journal for VA claims

Carry the record.
Not the weight.

You already carry enough. Ruckmark keeps the dated record of what actually happened, where only you can read it, and sums it up plainly for the people who can help.

Start your journalTry a thirty-second log
Private
You, and only you, can open it.
No ratings
No scores and no predictions. Ever.
Honest gaps
A day with no entry shows as unknown.
Free export
Every record, any time.

The exam asks what happened. Memory is a poor witness.

Months after the fact you are asked how often, how long, how bad, and what it cost you at work. Most people answer from a bad memory of their worst day, or from a good memory of their best one. Neither is the record.

Ruckmark makes the honest version easy to keep and easy to read. It records what you type, when you typed it, and it keeps every figure tied to the entries it came from. It does not interpret, score or argue. That part belongs to you and to the clinician or accredited representative you choose.

Try it now. No account.

Thirty seconds, on the clock.

This is the real quick-log form and the real summary math, running in your browser alone. The clock starts when you touch the form and stops when you save, and nothing you type goes anywhere.

Log one episode

clock starts on first touch

Severity · nothing pre-selected

How bad it felt to you at its worst during this episode, on your own scale. 1 is barely noticeable; 10 is the worst you can imagine.

How long

How long the episode lasted from when it started to when it ended.

Work · blank means not sure

What this episode did to your work that day. Work means a job, school or training, or an active job search.

What do these mean?
No change
You worked as usual.
Modified
You kept working but had to change how: lighter duties, extra breaks, left early, started late, worked from home.
Stopped
You could not work, had to stop, or did not go in because of it.
Not applicable
You were not due to work that day: a day off, retired, between jobs, or not working.
Not sure
You cannot say. Leaving it blank means the same thing.
Daily life · blank means not sure

The same question for everything outside work: chores, driving, errands, meals, caring for family, sleep, social plans.

What do these mean?
No change
Your day went as it normally would.
Modified
You got through the day by changing, shortening or skipping some things.
Stopped
You could not do your normal day; for example you stayed in bed or cancelled everything.
Not applicable
Nothing was planned that this could affect.
Not sure
You cannot say. Leaving it blank means the same thing.
Nothing leaves this tab. Reload and it is gone.

The record so far

No entries yet.

0 of 30 days with an entry · 30 unknown, not symptom-free

Recorded episodes
0
Severity mean
n/a (n = 0)
Duration mean
n/a (known n = 0; ongoing 0; not sure 0)
Work
No change 0 · Modified 0 · Stopped 0 · Not applicable 0 · Not sure 0

Every figure is among recorded entries. An ongoing or not-sure duration is never averaged as zero. This is the same code that writes the real report.

Three steps. Nothing clever in between.

You write down what happened. The record keeps the dates and the gaps. The report repeats it plainly for someone who can help.

Illustration: a veteran's hands holding a phone at a kitchen table beside a mug of coffee and a closed notebook.
The first page of a Ruckmark report: condition and covered dates, the missing-data warning, figures among recorded entries, every calendar month, and the start of the chronological entries.
A page from the demo report, built from synthetic entries. Not a real person's record.

One page that says where every number came from.

  • The missing-data warning comes first: how many days have no entry, and that those days are unknown, not symptom-free.
  • Counts and means are among recorded entries only, with the number behind each one shown.
  • Every calendar month in the range is listed, including the ones with nothing recorded.
  • Each entry carries the time you wrote it, and says if it was added later or edited.
  • The notices close it: personal recordkeeping, not advice, not affiliated with the VA.

Print it, download the formatted PDF, or copy the plain text. The free export always holds the same facts.

An older veteran and his adult daughter laughing together at a kitchen table in morning light, a small notebook and coffee between them.
Most entries happen at a kitchen table, not in an office.

This is for the kitchen table, the porch, the waiting room.

Thirty seconds on a hard day, a quiet minute the morning after, and a report your clinician or representative can read in the time it takes to sit down. Nobody is grading you here.

A veteran on a porch step at dawn resting a hand on a service dog, looking out at the yard.
A quiet minute is enough to log a bad night.
A veteran handing a printed report across a desk to a clinician who is reading it with attention.
The report is written for the person across the desk.
A veteran using a wheelchair laughing with a partner and a child on a tree-lined path in late afternoon.
The record is for the life around the claim, too.

Six fields. Each one says what we will not do with it.

A made-up entry. Choose a line.

When

What you enter

The time it happened. It defaults to now, and you can change it for a past episode.

What we never do

We never move it, and a late entry is marked as one.

Prompts from the regulation, not around it.

Six presets carry optional questions traced to the rating-schedule sections that mention them, plus a custom condition with the common fields. The questions record. They never conclude.

Migraine

Source: 38 CFR §4.124a (DC 8100)

Optional questions. Skip any of them.

  • Did you have to stop what you were doing?
  • If you needed to lie down or rest, for about how long?
  • What could you not do?
  • Was work missed or changed? Describe in your words.

This app never labels an attack “prostrating”; it records what you say happened.

What Ruckmark will never do.

  • No AI advice, symptom suggestions or rating predictions.
  • No combined-rating calculator and no percentages anywhere.
  • No words like “prostrating” or “incapacitating” applied for you.
  • No connection to VA systems, no submission, no affiliation.
  • No advertising, no session replay, no sale of data, no model training.
  • No request for your SSN, VA password, claim number or medical records.

Your journal. Your copy. Your call.

Database rules deny every other account. Photos sit in a private store reachable only through links that expire in a minute. Export is free and complete. Deletion is verified, not assumed.

Said plainly

  • Encrypted in transit and at rest by our providers. Not end-to-end encrypted.
  • No HIPAA claim. No one reads your entries, and no one monitors them either.
  • Deleting your account cannot recall files you already downloaded.
  • Provider backups are deleted automatically within 7 days.

Free. All of it, for every veteran.

The journal, photos, reports, the formatted PDF and the full export cost nothing. There is no paid plan and no trial that runs out.

  • Everything included

    $0

    Conditions, entries, photos, reminders, history, the plain-text report, the formatted PDF and the full export.

  • No ads, no data sales

    No advertising, no session recording and no selling or sharing of your journal. Your record is not used to train AI.

  • No claim fees

    Ruckmark never charges for help with a VA claim. For claim help, accredited veterans service officers help for free.

The questions we get, answered straight.

Where the honest answer is “we cannot promise that,” that is the answer here too.

  • Will the VA accept this?

    We cannot promise that, and no app honestly can. A claim can include your own written account of your symptoms, and how much weight any statement carries is decided case by case. Ruckmark gives you a dated record to draw on and a report you can hand to your clinician or accredited representative. They are the right people to ask how to use it.

  • Is it evidence?

    It is your personal record: written by you, editable by you, and the report says so on its face. It is not a medical record, not tamper-proof and not an official form. Its value is that it was written down close to the time, in your own words, with the gaps left visible.

  • Can my representative or doctor see it?

    Only when you hand it over. There is no shared login, no portal and no way for anyone else to open your journal. You choose a date range, build the report, and give them the print, the PDF or the plain text.

  • What if I miss days?

    Missed days show as unknown in every report, never as symptom-free. When you remember something later you can add a past entry, and it is marked as one, with the time you actually wrote it. A gap is more honest than a day filled in from a guess.

  • Is my data safe? Is this HIPAA?

    Entries are stored under your account only, encrypted in transit and at rest by our providers, and nobody at Ruckmark reads or monitors them. It is not end-to-end encrypted and we make no HIPAA claim. The full position is in Privacy and control, above.

  • What happens if Ruckmark shuts down?

    Your export is the guarantee: every record as JSON and CSV plus your photos, free, any time, in a documented format. Before launch we will publish the notice you would get and how long export would stay open after it.

  • Is Ruckmark really free?

    Yes. Every feature, including the formatted PDF, is free. There is no paid plan. Ruckmark does not take any fee for help with a VA claim. If you want help with a claim, accredited veterans service officers help for free; VA's accreditation search lists them.

  • Does it work on my phone?

    Yes, in the phone's browser today, and an iPhone app on the same account is being built. Nothing you log is tied to one device.

Built by a veteran, tested on his own claim first.

Ruckmark is being built by one veteran who needed it, and the first account in real use will be his own increase claim. He cannot promise you an outcome, and will not pretend to. He can promise a record that tells the truth about itself, and a tool that treats you like an adult.

Start your journalDefinitions and sources

Set in Archivo and Instrument Sans, served from this site. The terrain is drawn live from noise; it is not a photograph of anywhere. The people pictured are generated illustrations, not real veterans, patients or users. The How-it-works pictures are generated illustrations too, and the sample report page is built from synthetic entries. No analytics, no trackers, no cookies beyond your sign-in.

Personal recordkeeping only. Not medical or legal advice. No guarantee of VA acceptance or benefits. Review this report with your clinician or accredited representative.

Independent. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.