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.

Oh, I miss baths.

Heating pads are nice. Wish I cold get one to solve my congestion issues.

eta *could. Geeesh, I really shouldn't type with a snotty brain.

Oh, baths are gooooood. Stretch, massage and hot water - best things for hips.