[Maria]

I had episodes of bad coccyx pain prior to my first back surgery but then I had horrible coccyx pain after my 2nd discectomy failed (L4) though for some reason a few months after this surgery an MRI showed I had scar tissue at the S1 nerve root besides rebulging discs at L5 and L4.

Anyway for years I couldn't sit at all hardly. Besides having horrible coccyx pain I also had a deep burning pain in my glutes, my thighs, my calves and in the soles of my feet for years post failed surgery. I went on Elavil in '93 to help take the edge off the neuropathies and then in '98 I started taking Neurontin for the neuropathies.

The coccyx pain finally calmed down somewhere around 2001/02 when I started epidural steroid injections and started taking Methadone.

Now I rarely have that pain unless I sit too long but at least now I can sit an hour and sometimes 2 but still must move around a bit. But that certainly beats hardly being able to stand to sit to drive the street a short distance and feeling that pain every waking second.

I never considered a pain pump or scs because when I finally did start taking an oral opioid medication I have gotten by on a 10mg dose/day but I truly think the ESIs helped me a great deal (got them over a 10 year period of time about 3- 4x/year). Because the low dose opioid medication helped me SCS or a Pain Pump was not considered (per Pain Management protocol). I would not even trust a physician that would consider something more invasive without exhausting the more conservative routes first.

I know that pain must be pretty brutal. Good luck with whatever you do to alleviate although I'd try the conservative routes first before considering an implant. Maria