the good news is...

... my hip isn't hurting as much as it was. last night, i crawled into bed without any paralysing pangs for the first time in a month, and was able to roll over with barely a twinge.

of course, i was still awake most of the night. rolling over at three o'clock in the morning, my thoughts went quickly from "yay, that didn't hurt a bit!" to "okay then, so why am i awake?" and stayed there for a long time - until i got up about an hour ago. really, i wasn't coughing, my hip wasn't bugging me much, i didn't have to go to the loo, there was no reason at all for me to be awake all night last night!