PPCGeeks - Please help! My Touch has lost its way!

Ok so here's the skinny. I spent about 3.5 hours up in the mountains and left my phone in my vehicle. Well there was no service up there, so naturally I came back to a pretty low battery as it was searching for service the whole time I presume. It says I have 2 new text messages so I push the text button and the button lights up like I've touched it but takes FOREVER to load the messaging screen. I read them eventually but it's displaying I still have 2 unread messages. I soft reset, and that takes FOREVER to get back up and running and also a long time to find service in a place I know has service just fine. I've soft reset a few more times, but it's still being incredibly slow. After one reset, the touch screen didn't even work. It's working again, but everything is super slow, almost like I've just exhausted it to the point of no return or something.

Is there anything I can do BESIDES do a hard reset? I really don't want to, I've got it set up exactly the way I like it...

Thanks in advance