I just kind of ignore it until it keeps me from sleeping
Oh my sweet Christ. I can usually get it to calm down throughout the day (walking around and whatnot is fine -- causes no pain), and I'll lie on tennis balls before bed -- and now I'm going to add some stretches -- and as long as I fall asleep on my opposite side, I'm fine. Until about 2 hours before the alarm goes off, at which point I wake up, aware that my hip hurts like a mule kicked me and a circus strongman is punching me as a follow-up.
So my immediate goal is to just get it to calm the fuck down enough for me to sleep all the way through. And what's weird is that ibuprofen does not help at all.
Nope, ibuprofen doesn't do a damn thing for me either. I sleep face down with two pillows long ways under my torso and a third horizontal under my head, offset so my neck isn't at a total 90 degree. Steph, have you tried sleeping with a pillow between your thighs? Long ways, from crotch to knee. That helps keep my hips in alignment when I'm sleeping on my side.
Steph, have you tried sleeping with a pillow between your thighs? Long ways, from crotch to knee. That helps keep my hips in alignment when I'm sleeping on my side.
I do this, plus, I have a stuffed Sextopus (Get yer head outta the gutter...it's just an octopus made with 6 legs) that I hold between my forearms when I sleep on my side. It keeps my shoulders from hunching and I wake with no muscle pain at all.
I would talk about hip pain but right now I have managed to vanquish my headache...but still feel so awful that my dinner is saltines, Gatorade, and pepto. Ow.
Thanks for the suggestions. I have some generic Afrin that I've been using sparingly, but I'm going to go ahead and use it for the next few days. I've been knocking back ibuprofen, but I have some heavier duty NSAIDS. I'm just weary of it all. I feel like all I've accomplished this month is creating massive piles of wet Kleenex.
Steph, have you tried sleeping with a pillow between your thighs? Long ways, from crotch to knee.
When I had bad back pain (that was localized to what I traditionally thought of as the lower back -- which, for me, didn't include the outer hip), I would put a pillow between my thighs/knees. But it didn't occur to me to do it with my hip dealie. However, this morning when I was tossing and turning like a jitterbug trying to get comfortable, Tim suggested a pillow between my legs. Smarty-pants. And then he also massaged my hip for a while, in between falling back asleep.
I'll do the pillow thing again tonight and see if it helps (although I fully expect that I'll kick the pillow out of bed at some point in the night, because I do that).
Thanks!
I have some generic Afrin that I've been using sparingly, but I'm going to go ahead and use it for the next few days.
My doctor swears by 5-7 days of continuous use, if 3 days doesn't do it. (Only with ear involvement, though. When it's "just" a cold confined to the nose/sinuses, he's kind of a hardass about the 3-day Afrin rule.)
My mom sees the same doctor I do, and she's had great luck with using Afrin to get her ears to un-stuff.
I'll look and see if I can find a way to describe / picture my stretches. Which is fun because my hip is killing me. I torqued it a few days ago and travel is just not helping. Massive stretching and soaking in a tub is helpful. I throw Advil at it but it's not very helpful. Massage helps too. I'll see if I can find pictures. After a hot bath. Because my hip hurts.
A hot bath was in my future tonight, but then we went to do the week's grocery shopping at 9:00, and when we came home and put stuff away, we decided to flip the mattress (NOT a euphemism) and put the heated pad on it. I'm hoping sleeping on a heated pad all night might help with some of the tight muscle stuff.
Anyway, too much goings-on = no bath tonight.
And actually, it's 12:30. I gotta get my ass to bed.
Heating pads are good too. I can't really take a useful bath at home, so it's heating pads there.
Best thing about San Diego might actually be the tubs. I'm loving being able to take a bath.
