I’m 77 and it’s hard to sort out what’s fibro and what’s age related stuff anymore. I was diagnosed in the 1980s and what worked then was low-dose Elavil for stage 4 sleep, prescription Naprosyn for inflammation, and Parafon Forte as a muscle relaxer (Flexeril did nothing for me). Rest helps my legs when they give out, which they do if I get less than 8 hrs sleep. My legs become stiff like cardboard and all I can do is shuffle my feet.

I’ve just recovered from a UTI - first symptom was annoying left side flank pain, which I tried to dismiss because I had a regularly scheduled dr app’t coming up. When I started having mild chills one Friday evening and the ER was the only thing open, I went there and got diagnosed. The antibiotic worked, infection is no longer, but I’m entering the third month with left flank pain which gets worse near the end of the day when I’m tired. Thinking it was a kidney stone or whatever, I got a CT scan. Incidental finding was a very small kidney lesion, so seeing a urologist and getting more imaging. Could be a benign cyst, but if it’s a solid tumor, they’ll just monitor it with imaging because they’re very slow-growing. With fibro & at my age, poor healing from is a possible complication to consider.

The flank pain was ruled musculoskeletal. Interesting, because my first UTI about three years ago was preceded by two weeks with a charly-horse clenching of muscles in my left hip - which initially left me barely able to walk and took about 3 months to resolve. I’m thinking fibro hyper-activates the nerve pathways at the first sign of an infection and nearby muscle fibers react with painful tightness.

The left flank pain continues, but is improving . I finally went back to exercising - I’d stopped for a month. My legs were getting weaker without exercise and balance was getting hard to maintain (I use a cane - have bone-on-bone OA in one knee, exercise strengthens the supportive thigh muscles, so knee replacement not required).

Well, two days into exercising, I had extreme pain - yesterday - from a muscle pull in the left hip, just inches below the flank pain. Everything’s going haywire!

This morning the hip pain has greatly improved, though not entirely gone.

Here’s what I did for the hip yesterday: took one arthritis Tylenol. Didn’t help. Waited till it wore off and took one extra-strength Excedrin. I can no longer take anti-inflammatories with aspirin in them as I’ve had a “spontaneous bleed” (in my ankle, thankfully - not in my stomach, brain, etc). So one Excedrin maybe once a month for inflammation is my limit because it’s risky.

The Excedrin didn’t help. I went to bed with a neoprene back support around the hip area of my body - neoprene helps retain moist body heat. I have lots of neoprene support aids when muscles get stiff or tight.

Finally, in the middle of the night - after the Excedrin wore off - I took my Parafon Forte muscle relaxer (I take as needed, they make me really drowsy) and this morning I have enough relief that the pain in the hip muscles is bearable. I’m just sitting around resting and still groggy. I put the neoprene belt back on around my hip area.

I no longer take Elavil - started to hallucinate on it after 5 years, haven’t taken Naprosyn in years and can’t take any anti-inflammatories now. I’m pretty much on my own when my muscles tighten up. Rest really helps.

The one exercise that I can do that doesn’t produce flu-like post-exertion malaise is the SciFit Recumbent Stepper (google it for YouTube video). My PT folks had one of these machines, our YMCA has three, and the senior center in my town has two. They put zero stress on knee joints, work arms and legs (arms are optional), are easily adapted for use by those in a wheelchair, raise your heart rate a bit but aren’t strenuous or tiring. The machine counts your steps. I try to use it about thirty minutes daily - really strengthens my thighs so I can keep walking. My legs work, but tire easily, so I walk about 6,000 steps a day between the recumbent stepper and just walking around Target, Walmart, or the grocery store.

As I write this, it occurred to me this sudden hip pain is just a few weeks out from the Cipro I took for the UTI. Cipro can have the side effect of pulled tendons, muscle strains. Maybe it’s a combination of Cipro side effects and fibro. Who knows?

So, anyway, just resting and hoping I’ll be more mobile by tomorrow.