babs:

 Maybe you could ask a neighbor to carry the water upstairs for you. Babs

I would feel ackward asking. 

I was able to get a 2 liter of coke for 79 cents... will give it a shot tonight.

Thanks for the suggestions!

 LL, dont feel awkward asking. You might be giving that person a blessing of helping you. Would you want a neighvor or friend to have a need and not ask you?........love and hugs, Babs

Luvd_Lioness:

Considering it's upstairs, I don't want to risk the stairs and handling boiling water (the weight of the water even 2 steps to the sink in the kitchen from the stove can trigger the wrist pain).

Maybe you can score a electric teakettel/water boiler at a garage sale or on freecycle.  That way you can fill it up and plug it in right at the bathroom outlet, no carrying heavy pots of hot stuff!

Since water boils around 210 degrees, it'll be much hotter than even your hottest tap water so it'll really help to release that build up.  My mom does the baking soda/vinegar/boiling water thing once every two weeks or so in her bathroom and they almost never get a back up.  Since there are eight of them to one bathroom, that is no small feat!

Update: using 1 liter of coke didn't work. I will try doing the rest of it tonight because I think it may have loosened up.

If that doesn't work, I will risk the boiling water and try that. (No Tide in the house but will use the dish detergent that I just bought that has bleach in it). And of course I'll be boiling water when it's almost 90 outside.

 Just a quick caution here.  I know you said it was in a shower drain so you should be ok dumping boiling water down the drain. But NEVER dump boiling water in a porceline sink, or toliet.

Also on a side note, I can't see why any frugal household would not have an electric teakettle.  They use about a 3rd of the electricity to boil water than an electric range.  Of course if you have a gas range I have no idea which is cheaper.

 I have a gas range. I'll get out my large kettle for the task and for easier carrying (handles). An electric teakettle would take up space for me, I wouldn't use it much. (considering my 4 cup coffee maker is mainly used for the burner in melting butter for popcorn, the glass carafe gets dusty)

 LL , plug your coffee maker in upstairs then you dont have to carry it as far. It isnt boiling but hotter than the tap water. Babs

have you cleaned the drain of hair?  dh has to do this when it starts running slow in the shower emptying.  nothing else works.  too much hair

 I keep a little coffee pot upstairs in the bathroom.  The kids say it is like a hotel.  LOL.  Every so often I will run vinegar water through and dump it down the sink. 

MarthaMFI:

have you cleaned the drain of hair? 

I have taken off, awhile back, the drain cover that would catch hair. I could dig out what's down there with a coat hanger but I value moving my hands (the manuvering  would trigger a bad fibro flare and living alone, wouldn't help ... that was a word of advice from a friend who had the same issue but she has others in her house so she could do hers that way). I even now have a razor head that went down it.... which I know isn't helping things.

The coke treatments didn't work. 

Going to wait until it cools down before doing the boiling water thing.

My coffee pot is only 4 cups. Would it make that much of a difference? I was thinking of doing about 5 quarts of boiling water and detergent...