[annapurna]

Maria,

I seem to be like you in that sitting and standing are painful, while walking and (for me) vigorous exercise can actually relieve or at least not cause pain. I've summarized my typical pain level vs. activity and duration as of right now:

driving a car: < 1 hour = 3-5, > 1 hour - 5-7
sitting at my desk: < 1hour = 2-4, > 1 hour 3-4
walking: < 1 hour 2-3, > 1 hour 0-2
standing: < 1/2 hour 2-3, > 1/2 hour 3-4
fast hiking on flat ground or downhill: < 1 hour 2-3, > 1 hour 0-2
vigorous uphill hiking with a pack: < 1 hour 0-2, > 1 hour 0-1

Unfortunately, in our automobile-intensive, automated world, we do lots of sitting and standing and very little walking. Because of this, I have lots of "functional" limitations in that I can't drive for much more than an hour, and have trouble sitting at my desk or standing around observing a process at work. On the flip side, crawling around under a piece of machinery at work, running up the side of a mountain, and spriting through the airport with all of my luggage on my back (in a properly-fitted pack of course) typically relieves at leat some of my pain.

Guess I'd do better as a "hunter-gathered" than an engineer.

Hope this gives you another point of reference in asessing your own situation. Maybe we're more similar than we are different.

Best,
Laura