I tried. It's less than the "standard deduction" so it doesn't count. Neither did the medical bills for hernia surgery. Seems to me that "standard deduction" is newspeak for "You can't deduct things that the rich do".
The other way to look at it is that without the standard deduction, your expenses were pretty minimal and you would have itemized far less. So your taxes would have been much higher.
Honestly, what you need to do is to learn tax planning. Suppose itemized deductions are going to be $11,600 for the next 2 years. Suppose you have $8000 in itemized deductions for the next 2 years. You have three options.
1) Take the itemized deduction each year. $8000 + $8000 = $16,000 in deductions. Pretty stupid move to take this route.
2) Take the standard deduction each year. $11,600 + $11,600 = $23,200 in deductions. This is what most people in your situation do.
3) Move your expenses around, take the standard deduction one year and the itemized deduction the next year. For example, if you move your expenses to be $3000 and $13000 (same total amount), you can take the $11,600 deduction one year and a $13,000 deduction the next year. Total $24,600.
In the 30% tax bracket (25% federal + 5% state), you'd save $420 every other year by doing #3.
Medical bills can't often be moved (like an emergency hernia operation), but often they can be (many hernia operations can be delayed for years if you choose). Taxes and interest can often be prepaid. Charity can be saved up for multiple years and donated in the year when you have high medical bills and you prepaid your taxes/interest.
You can deduct things the rich do, but first you need to be as smart about taxes as they are.