I hope you're feeling better riverflows?
I can see you have been doing lots of mental work to learn to address the pain in a more constructive and transformative way.

It's not as if my pain in my hips wasn't real, and that it doesn't continue to be real, but my brain might also be capable of learning that I'm actually safe in day-to-day movement as well.

This paragraph you wrote particularly stood out to me as the mental side is effectively half the battle.

Have you ever heard of amanita muscaria, also called fly agaric mushrooms (I know it doesn't really grow on ur side of the world)? But if I';m remembering right aren't you originally from the UK?

Anyway, I have recently discovered that an alcohol tincture made from it and applied topically is an extremely powerful pain relief medicine. I doesn't fix the root problems, but there are no nasty side effects or risk of addiction/dependence like opioids, and for me it has been miraculous.

I recently wrote an article about it.

I have developed v bad knee pain (I suspect arteritis as physio hasn't helped at all) and without the tincture I'm in agony climbing the 6 flights of stairs to my apartment, but with 4-5 drops on each knee I can climb hills, get out doors and generally live a more normal life... plus I can climb my stairs 😂 Another strange thing is that the pain relieving qualities seem to last 24-48 hours.

It is a truly magical plant medicine from a famously magic mushroom.

Here's a pic I took this weekend half way up a big hill in the north of the UK. First time I've climbed a hill in nearly a decade. I almost made me want to cry having that feeling of getting fully out into nature where all I could see was the sheep, hear the cry of the buzzard and listen to my fiends foraging stories.