Wow, thank you everyone, I love reading these posts! I'm in the early stages of "giving up things I don't want to give up," but I've been dealing with this pain for 7 years. Vertigo and balance, too, but I think they're unrelated (I get a rare kind of migraine and my neurologist says the vertigo I get is a type of migraine or are migraine-related, but when I get a "vertigo spate," it lasts for days). Right now I am struggling with a family wedding in Sri Lanka my sister desperately wants me to attend. I am in the US. That'd be over 22 hours of travel minimum, with 2 flights (18 hours of flying time). My pain is localized to the backs of my thighs--sitting and especially standing up is excruciating for about 2 minutes each time I do it, especially if I've been sitting for a while. I have been struggling with how to make that trip... maybe if I fly first class and can lie down I can be comfortable, but that's $20K. My son has been home with me this weekend (I'm 62, he's 35) and he has convinced me that it is 100% unreasonable to consider attending that wedding, and maybe I needed someone's absolution or something, but now I feel more comfortable telling my sister "no." It's not marathon shopping, but honestly... when I back up to 30,000 feet and look at it, it's a completely insane thing to consider.

It has been very helpful reading everyone's comments about things they've had to sacrifice in the name of frustrating idiopathic undiagnosable crippling damn pain.

Also, FWIW, I've seen a neurologist, a pain specialist, a physical therapist, and have been on a course of pregabalin (Lyrica) up to 800 mg/day (divided dose), with nothing but side effects to show for it. I also tried numbing cream, LOL. This sucks, but it's nice to know I have a tribe. Thank you, everyone.