Ouch in Another Open Diary refugee

Tried going without pain medication again to see if I'd improved as much as it felt like I had since I had the two weeks of steroids. They made a HUGE difference to my walking and my pain level, so that I was carrying my cane around and thinking 'this is a bit silly' instead of leaning on it... Nope. By lunchtime I could see that progress was an illusion. I hurt too much to sleep last night - the only joints that DIDN'T hurt were my right hip and my left shoulder. Everything else was singing to me loudly and in symphony, and every one of my previous pain complaints instantly re-emerged to join the chorus, including my rib cage and my lower back. I stuck it out today and spent probably half the day lying on the bed watching Game of Thrones. Not looking forward to another night of misery, so I gave up and took my pills... it's not feasible for me to go without meloxicam at a minimum. If the doctor says 'you can't take meds any more, they're trashing your liver' I'll have to stop and then I'll just curl up and die... until then, I'd rather be functional.