[DoreenMichele]

This story in specific is being told by the medical specialist who resolved the issue and I was not really trying to give advice for extreme cases where you should pretty obviously be speaking to a medical specialist.

But I've journaled for years and my experience suggests that if you do it regularly, you do get better at noticing things over longer time frames. So, no, it's not useless to journal in such cases.

As with anything, more education and experience with it will get you better at it and how useful it is to you will depend on a lot of factors.