Positive FIC (feline idiopathic cystitis) stories?

I'm really going through it, and would love to hear your success stories about having cats with persistent, anxiety-induced FIC. Background:

My male cat (5 years old) has been diagnosed with FIC for two years now. (Sort of longer: it was mentioned once when he was a kitten, when he peed on his bed after my roommate and I had to isolate during covid and he hated that the doors were closed.) I'm an academic and have had to move a lot; the first blockage happened after I left him in an apartment he hated with a loud A/C a week after I'd moved — I had to go clear out my father's house because he'd died a few months prior. I had someone visiting but that was not enough; he blocked a week after I came back. So I started getting sitters to stay the whole time with him. That helped, and I've tried hard to reduce his stressors, with not a ton of success. I try playing with him, he's bored of his toys, I'm constantly trying to create new ones that bore him again. I got a bird feeder for the window. Our apartment is very small right now — it's free with my job. I'll be moving to a larger house which I've basically secured just for him, but it's going to take a bit longer for us to get in there. There are some things about my life I can't change: I have a stressful job with irregular hours; it stresses me out and believe me if I could change that I would; I have to travel sometimes for work (also, I live in the UK and I'm from the USA, so I want to see family sometimes). I'm not a very tidy person, and again, my work has intense periods.

He's blocked three times in the last year. Pilling him is difficult and terrible, though I'm beginning to wonder if that's what I just need to start doing; liquid medicine is easier. Gabapentin makes him sleep but doesn't seem to do much else. Meloxicam has helped sometimes but doesn't seem to be able to save him always, and I know it shouldn't be a long term thing. The emergency vet gave us buprenorphine for another issue, and xanax, but in limited quantities. One of the vets we see proposed a lot of supplements — Cystaid, Zylkene. He hates them, and I have to wrestle him to get them to take them, so I have't given them very consistently. I can try harder, but I did it for about a week and didn't notice any improvement. Maybe it needs more time. Have tried Feliway and PetRemedy — both don't seem to do anything. He has a water fountain and he's on prescription food. He doesn't have stones or sediment in his urine anymore, hasn't for two years.

I want to believe that our new home could be a game changer — he was happy in our second flat we lived in (we've lived in four), which had really nice views and space to run around. (The third was larger but the views were abysmal, this one has maybe okay views but is extremely cramped.) This one will have a yard and I'll get him a catio, and it will be on a street that's quieter than where I live now, and it will be two stories and have space for him to run around. I'll get him a cat tree and things too so he has more cat-only spaces. It's a lovely house. We had a bad health scare last week — he has to see a cardiologist — and I thought to myself, I don't want this lovely house if my cat can't share it with me.

I feel like I'm being held hostage to this problem — my fear, every time I'm waiting for him to pee, every time I see him obsessively grooming his penis, is overwhelming; it ruins my days and nights. I'm trying so hard, but I also have to do my job, meet deadlines, etc. I know it's facile but please — if you've been here before and things are better now, please share your story.