Coccyxt pain/tailbone pain back again

[mrrossi]

Hi all

Back in December 2012 I appeared to have bruised or dislocated my coccyx, possible from a small fall I had. Sitting down for long periods became uncomfortable, and standing up after 2 hours sat driving was extremely painful.

After some googling I realised it was coccyx pain, and got myself a coccyx cushion which helped a bit, and went to see the doctor. He had a check around and couldn't see any damage and thought I had just bruised it, and suggested taking ibuprofen for 2 weeks and coming back if it still hurt.

After a fair bit of research I decided against the use of ibuprofen as it can mask the source of the pain, and I decided to just reduce my gym exercise (rowing machine, bike and certain sit-ups seemed to aggravate it) and use the cushion and see how it would go.

3 weeks later it wasn't really any better so I saw the GP again. He had a bit of a go at me about not taking his previous advice and suggested I take the ibuprofen for 2 weeks as it would help reduce inflammation. So I did, and although it helped a little with the discomfort, 3 weeks later there was no change.

This went on for a little while; it was decided it wasn't broken so no X-ray was done. Eventually, I was referred to a Pain Management specialist. After several visits over a couple of months, I was finally booked in for a steroid injection into my coccyx in July 2013.

During this the doc kept asking exactly where it hurt and would inject where it hurt the most, and move a little, and repeat again. The problem was that I've never been able to identify exactly where it hurts. It's a general throb in a general area, deep inside... difficult to locate. So it was a bit of guess work, although certain places he poked did seem to hurt a little more than others and after many painful injections, we stopped.

Now the relief was supposed to start in a day or two... but 2 weeks later I felt no different. So I booked in to the doctors... however, by the time I went, it DID start to feel better... I'd been using the cushion for 2 hour car journeys and I'd still 'felt' it when I'd got up; a dull throb for a few minutes. Now I was feeling nothing.

Cured?

I hoped so... the doctor had a theory that the sensitivity of my tailbone nerves had been 're-activated' by me falling on it, and that it wasn't really bruised/dislocated etc, and that the steroids had 'switched them off' again. But why did that take 2 weeks?

I took it easy for another 6 weeks or so, still using the coccyx cushion when driving and also in the office. I hadn't noticed any discomfort though recently so stopped using the cushion at my work desk, and eventually in the car.

No probs! I would only noticed a *slight* ache after a really long (4 hour) car journey and that wasn't using the cushion any more, so I could live with that.

I started doing some bike/rowing etc exercises again at the gym. It seemed fine. Then I did a particular type of sit-up I'd avoided for the last 9 months and OUCH - felt it pretty sharp. So stopped them.

The next few weeks seemed fine, but I noticed I was feeling the dull ache again after a 2 hour drive (without coccyx). It was minor so I pretty much ignored it. This went on for a month or so; I would say I could 'feel it' every now and then, but it didn't really bother me.

I felt like I'd put on a little excess weight, so started going to the gym a bit more often. I was feeling a slight coccyx ache so avoided those sit ups/rowing/bike etc and did what I'd been doing the last few months without probs, however, the ache started to become more of a pain, more regular.

Could the jogging be irritating it? I.e. the jarring motion...

Anyway, in the last week, it's become as irritating as it was right at the beginning, and hurting from me just sitting down on it for half an hour - I'm having to lean forward again or sit on one side; I woke up a couple of days ago and it hurt getting up out of bed. Yesterday it was bothering me constantly sat on the sofa and today I've had to dig out the coccyx cushion again - but even sat on it right now it's hurting me.

Obviously I'd stopped exercising for now. I've also taken some ibuprofen.

For background info, I'm a 35 year old male, otherwise fit and healthy. Although I work in IT and I'm sat at a desk all day, I exercise regularly and try and get up from my desk and walk about regularly.

Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions? Had perhaps the injections just worn off again after the 5 months or so/me having irritated it a couple of months ago with the sit-ups and then having not used the coccyx cushion resulted in me coming back to square one?

It's really annoying me today... would a local anaesthetic gel help/be advisable?

Thanks

Ross

[John Galt]

Hi, have you looked into Prolotherapy? It may help you.
Check out this youtube,
Tailbone Pain - YouTube

I've had Prolotherapy (Prolo) done to my lumbar and neck and it has helped a
lot.

If you decide to seek more info on it then write back and I will help.

John Galt

[mmglobal]

Ross, thanks for the detailed write up. We don't see many coccyx patients in the spine boards. In the more than 1,000 cases I've handled, off the top of my head, I can only recall 4 clients with serious Coccyx issues. The outcomes are not positive.

One of the clients had the nerves going to the coccyx ablated following a successful diagnostic injection. The ablation made him much worse. There is a possibility that a partial ablation is worse than no ablation. The doctor discussed redoing it, but the patient was gunshy and elected not to try another ablation.

It seems very positive that you had such significant relief. Did the doctor say it is common to have the relief follow the injection by more than 2 weeks. You asked that in your write up, but didn't mention how the doctor answered it.

Please keep us posted here. Yours is an interesting case and the detail you provide is great.

Good luck!

Mark

[Maria]

When I had this and I had it a good long time from when I was in my late 20's with flare ups from low back injury to a chronic condition after 2nd failed back surgery... (it was gone for about a year after my L5S1 discectomy) anyway it was one of the worst pains I experienced because it so limited my sitting to nothing and seemed like all movements aggravated it! I felt like my tailbone was severely bruised, sometimes broken or just terribly horribly sore. It was never broken.. never bruised...

I went to a number of consultations regarding this pain and for the most part was told I had nothing explainable or it was part of arachnoiditis post my 2nd failed discectomy at L4 however the explanation that made the most sense to me although I don't know if it is actually accurate or not was:

I had scar tissue on a either a left or right sacral nerve root.. all sacral nerves exit the same way and are clumped together so pain signals just sort of went crazy in that area and hence the explanation for this pain.

Eventually after 12 years of taking Neurontin, 10 years of getting lumbar ESIs, 5years of low dose opioid medication, some earlier excellent PT for about a year or two (early 2000s).. this pain sort of went away. I eventually was able to stop taking Neurontin, haven't had an ESI for about 3 years now (not authorized anymore) and I can sit a fair amount longer though still have probs with L4 so not that long...

I hope you will find a way to get relief much quicker than I did. It seemed like back when I had this going on any diagnosis or treatment was still in the dark ages. I hope there's been significant improvement in both in the last 14 years! Good luck! Maria

[John Galt]

Maria, out of curiosity did your coccyx pain begin after giving birth?

[Maria]

I didn't have kids so no.. started sometime after my first back injury but didn't become chronic until after my 2nd failed back surgery and stuck around for a number of years afterwards.

[pyrotalk]

Hi Ross

I had a bad fall where a hematoma was found on sacrum. Since then i had nerve pain, hip, piriformis, groin spasms.. The worst is my foot numbness. I cant run for too long without noticing.. i hope my nerve heals, I hear it takes 2 yrs..so far the nerve pain has subsided but whenever i am on a plane/car for too long, it really painful. i had to stand up or lay down for a few..

I wonder did you land on your buttocks? is the only way to hurt the coccyx

[mmglobal]

Pyro, try a private message. If the poster doesn't frequent the site, they'll never see your question. A PM will sent them an email letting them know they have a message.

Mark

[henry4956]

Ross, I sympathize with you because I know how it feels. Mine started with that bad fall on the ice in 2001. Coincidently I ruptured my L4-5 disc from that same fall. I'm not 100% the coccyx pain is from the fall or not but it has inhibited me all these years. I can only drive with the aid of cushions w/ cutouts for about 20 minutes, but I've even stopped driving at all now with my back woes. I had a specialist from NJ (Patrick Foye aka Dr Tailbone) diagnose me with a severely dislocated coccyx in 2009. Prior to that for 8 years I had numerous orthopedic surgeons basically tell me it was in my head. Even with Foye's diagnosis I had no real options, I was not going to entertain a coccygectomy. Recently, I figured since I am having lumbar surgery with Dr Zeegers I had him take a look at my xrays etc of the coccyx and even he is not sure what the actual pain source is. One thing he did say though is that he strongly disagreed with the dislocation diagnosis by Foye. All I can say is and I know this won't help you, that I have just learned to live with it and my true friends understand that - and I no longer feel embarrassed about it during social get togethers etc. I used to think it was the worst thing in the world but my lumbar pain really put things in perspective. With the grace of God, perhaps it will somehow be fixed with my lumbar surgery with Dr Zeegers.

“I cried because I had no shoes. Then I met a man who had no feet.”

Hang in there