Ask your doctor about lower torso muscle strengthing exercises, I need to start back into those before the next episode happens.
I don't use any pain meds, I'm loopy enough without them, by-product of a careless youth.
As far as daily pain, I just suck it up and bare it, and try not to let it affect how I am interacting with others. But sometimes it turns me into a short tempered mean Old Bastard.