2/28/24

 Wednesday, February 28, 2024

In bed around 9, unable to stay awake during season 1, episode 1 of the English Wallander with Kenneth Branagh, awake around 3, and up at 3:15 without serious pain for the first time since ???.  Let Lilly out into wind-driven, wet snow after yesterday's record temperature of 73°.  30°, high of 44°.  The wind is NW at 21 mph, 13-23/37. Sunrise at 6:30 at 100°E, sunset at 5:39 at 260°W, 11+9.  Solar noon at 12:04, altitude 39°.

Treadmill; pain.  After receiving the lidocaine/cortisone injection yesterday, my left shoulder is better but still with some stiffness, limited ROM, and dull aching pain, rather than sharp pain.  My right hand made it through the night without substantial pain.  My first journal entry about waking with noticeable shoulder pain was on Christmas Day, 66 days ago.  The first entry about awakening with hand pain was on January 13, 46 days ago.  It's been a rough start to 2024.  It really started weeks before November 22, 2022, when I had an "urgent care" visit to my VA Gold Clinic with "sharp perineal pain" which I had been experiencing for "the past few weeks to months," so for the past 16 months.  Dr. Kenkel, the attending physician wrote "Of note, [the patient] was in significant pain during the office visit."  Also, 2 trips to the VA Emergency Room with intense, severe pain, the last on 11/25/2023, the first on ???, the last for a "flare" of my interstitial cystitis, the one before for a UTI that we thought was a kidney stone. On top of the challenges with perineal, bladder, shoulder, hand & wrist pain, there has also been the "Mild to moderate degenerative disc disease with severe L4-L5 and L5-S1 facet arthropathy" (as confirmed on October 13, 2023, by x-ray/CT scan) in my lumbar and sacral spine.   In 6 days, I have the surgery to fugurate more Hunner's lesions.  What then?

I'm grateful for the medical care I receive from the VA.  I need to remember to call Ed Felsenthal today to thank him again for urging me to enroll.  On reflection, I'm also grateful that since I became enrolled in the VA HealthCare program and have relied entirely on VA healthcare providers, all my medical records for the past several years are available in one place.  Otherwise, I would have some records in my primary care doctor's system, others in my urologist's system, others in an urgent care provider's system, others in an ER provider's system, others in an ophthalmologist's, dermatologist's, neurologist's, or physical therapist's system, etc.

Supreme Court has taken Trump's Immunity Case.  What this surely means: at least one justice disagrees with the decision of the D.C. Circuit Court on the immunity issue.  What it probably also means: the case won't be tried before the November general election.  Trump wins again, showing what political power and the ability to spend tens of millions of dollars on high-priced legal help means.  Equal Justice Under Law. (snicker, snicker)

Historic temperature drop:  4 p.m. yesterday 74℉, 9 a.m. this morning 16°, -58° in 18 hours.