4/10/24

 Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Lights out around 9:40, up at 3 a.m.  Painful, slightly swollen right side of right hand, and pain in both shoulders, despite Lidocaine patches on left shoulder applied by Geri around 9:15 last night. I'm not interested in taking note of today's weather, though it is fine.  Too difficult to type in the early hours.

Pain, etc.  I took 1,000 mg. of Tylenol at 3:30 p.m. yesterday, hoping for but not expecting relief.  Pit stops at 10:30, 1, 2, and 3 a.m.  Difficult to get up from the BL, scooting forward and bouncing.  I feel better in the afternoon, almost like just a normal old man with some normal, age-related, painful arthritis, but in the middle of the night, awake, alone, struggling to get out of the recliner for several pit stops, then trying to get back to sleep, hating the pain and immobility, doubting the prescribed treatments,  and fearing the future, it's another story.

Losing interest in the journal?  Much of the writing, and of the cutting and pasting, that I've done in this journal over the last 20 months or so, I have done, or at least started, in the morning hours.  I'm feeling so wiped out in the mornings now, and often so unable to type without some pain, that I wonder if it's worthwhile continuing to engage in this activity.  I'm pretty sure I've been experiencing some cognitive decline over the last few months with the pain challenges and the sleeping challenges.  Perhaps I should literally make a note of evidence of executive function mishaps as I notice them, but to what end?  As I said to Geri the other day, I think I, and therefore we, am/are at 'an inflection point' in life.  Perhaps I'll know better after meeting with the geriatrics folks, and with Dr. Chang at the PM&R Clinic, and with Dr. Chatt, all coming up.

Micaela was here for dinner last night and we enjoyed her company from 5:30 until 8.  Geri served some Glorioso plates of ravioli, which were very good, and a big green salad, with lemon sorbet, raspberries, and blueberries for dessert.

I'm grateful that daffodils and vinca (or periwinkle?) are in full bloom in our backyard.