Is a baseline blood test really necessary before starting something like this?

Worth asking what specifically was measured. Pain scores move with mood and function does not.

Sleep first. Bad night, bad day, more symptoms. Fix that before changing anything else.

You have two changes at once here. You cannot attribute anything until one of them moves. Tolerance was my main issue with an urgent care visit too.

Half of what people describe as tolerance is a change in the underlying condition, and the two need different answers.

Most of the popular protocol is borrowed from a clinical population and applied to healthy people without comment.