Living with an acutely bruised or broken tailbone

November 23, 2015 5:33 AM

Need advice on sitting, walking, resting, and sleeping with this pain over the next few weeks; ideas around what to expect over the next bit; ideas on preventing long-term pain. Have you got any of that?

I whacked my tailbone, hard, against a corner after standing up, at I guess a weird angle, way too fast, that's how it happened.

Almost immediately felt nauseated and dizzy (sweat lots, could only breathe quickly in shallow breaths, fought to stay conscious. I don't know if that was some kind of shock? Was it shock?). Also, a spreading feeling at the tailbone, like the feeling of water spreading, except the feeling wasn't wetness but just a funny awareness, maybe a warm numbness. What is that feeling?

(No numbness or tingling down my legs or anything, that was just right at/around the tailbone.)

Called the nurse helpline once I started breathing a bit better. They strongly recommended going to the ER, which I did. No x-ray was taken, because apparently the treatment - pain management - is the same whether it's bruised or broken, and the amount of radiation required might fry my ovaries. So I don't know what exactly is up with my coccyx, but it's one of those two.

Nothing they can do in any case, apparently (no cast, no surgery, it's like breaking your rib, you're just supposed to deal with it).

I was told that 2-3 days of rest (on my stomach) is ok, but that I should walk pretty soon after that. Healing may take up to 6 weeks. I have a few pills of percocet to get me through the week. If it still hurts a lot then, I'm to see my GP and follow up with imaging and I guess other meds at that point.

- As of today (day of injury), standing up is mostly nauseating, even on the percocet. I think it's partly because of the pain of the pressure of standing/walking. How long is that nausea dizziness with standing likely to last? Does this mean it's not a bruise (i.e. is broken)?

(I actually did wind up passing out, right after I was discharged from the hospital (went to get food across the street, where someone called an ambulance, so I was readmitted to the hospital I'd just left.)

- Is there a way I can sit, walk, and rest to a) minimize pain right now and b) prevent things healing wrong, i.e. in a way that might cause longer-term pain? Are those two aims different (please say no)?

On the meds, it is barely tolerable to lean on one side, that's the only way I can sit. So far seems like with no meds at all, the option is lie in one very specific position on my stomach. Once the initial naturally numbing feeling wore off, the pain did eventually reveal to me that what mostly hurts is the very bottom left bit of my coccyx. Also, I have a longish tailbone anyway, so that probably doesn't help.

Walking: I am leaning my torso as far forward as possible, off the meds. On the meds I am able to be more obviously bipedal. How long is it likely to be before I can walk with pain or pain meds?

- I've read about of using a donut cushion. I've had occasion to use that sort of thing for other reasons in the past, and my verdict is - it doesn't help! It's a terrible idea! Physics and biology work against it! All it does is direct pressure exactly towards and on the painful part. What else is there for sitting?

- I also read mention of a kneeling desk, any experience with that?

(There are some questions here about *chronic* pain related to bruised/broken tailbones but this is acute. Also, I reject the donut cushion, which is a common response.)

Thanks.

posted by anonymous to Health & Fitness (9 answers total)

I have a history of tailbone pain relating to a pilonidol cyst I had removed years ago. (Don't look it up. Your life will not be improved in any way by learning about those damned things.) So it's not actually a bone pain for me and my methods of coping may not be right for somebody with, possibly, an actual broken tailbone.

If you have a laptop, work in bed kind of lying on your side. You'll get used to it. You may also want to get a good speech recognition program, so you can still write emails and stuff by dictating them when you're lying down. For me it sometimes helps to put something thick (like an overstuffed wallet) in one of my back pockets, so only one butt cheek is on the chair and my tailbone is elevated off the chair. (Note that this may be putting weird stress on your bones instead of helping, I dunno. IANAD, so be careful with that one.)

To keep half my butt from resting on the chair I also might roll up a t-shirt and just sit one cheek on it, or do the stuffed wallet thing while I'm driving. Anything to keep your tailbone from bearing weight. If you have a stool around you can sit halfway off it, only resting one butt cheek. It's awkward but it gives your tailbone a rest.

Tailbone pain can be truly horrible, you have my sympathies. There's a reason why "a pain in the ass" became a generic phrase for misfortune! It's a pain in the ass!

The symptoms you're describing may be normal, but to my layperson's ears they sound extreme and alarming. Passing out and nausea are pretty hardcore for a broken bone, and it makes me wonder if there's really nothing they could do. If you're in agony 24/7, maybe you should be in traction, suspended in a hospital bed like the end of an old Three Stooges movie or something! Seriously, you shouldn't be fainting from pain, it doesn't sound right.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:58 AM on November 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

There are a bunch of nerves that run near your sacrum/coccyx. Even though you don't have tingling, given the nausea and passing out, if I were you, I'd want to get the opinion of a physician whose area of specialty includes the spine and the nerves adjacent to it.
posted by ocherdraco at 6:20 AM on November 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

Seconding ocherdraco re: getting yourself to a spine specialist. I broke my tailbone in a spectacular fall down a flight of stairs once, and it was super-painful, but definitely not the kind of pass-out painful you're describing. This sounds more serious than just a bruised/broken tailbone.
posted by okayokayigive at 7:19 AM on November 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

I don't use a donut cushion but instead use these everywhere I sit, and have noticed it helps immensely:

Coccyx cutout cushion

You can basically spend anywhere from $15 to $60 bucks on one. The more expensive ones are more firm.

If you've only used a donut, I would say get a cheap one of these and try it before you rule them out.
posted by fiercecupcake at 7:26 AM on November 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Seconding the tailbone cushion. I toted mine around everywhere with me for like 3 months.
posted by zug at 8:35 AM on November 23, 2015

Mod note: This is a followup from the asker.

Thanks all around. (Thanks especially for giving time and thought to my pain saga and looking past the typos in it.)

Ursula Hitler - these are wonderful and wonderfully invisible tactics that I'm sure to find useful in a pinch and especially in public (wallet! brilliant!). I'll be trying them for sure! Typing while lying sideways is working. Thank you for sharing your tips, and for your empathy :) (I hope your pain is relieved soon :/) xo

I do wonder, with you, whether leaning (as is most comfortable for me right now) might make things heal wrong or get wonky around there. Also whether, when lying on the stomach, it would be good to try to keep my hips level (despite the asymmetry of the pain - contracting the left gluteal muscles = pain), to try to heal things straight. And maybe with a small pillow between the knees when on the side?

fiercecupcake and zug: thank you for your recommendations. That kind of cushion, with the downward slope, is infinitely more logical to me than a donut cushion (which puts the pain right at the centre and distributes the weight around it in a stupid way). I'll get one of those for sure.

I'm frightened, though, by the fact that one of you is talking "three months" and the other is using the *present tense*. At the hospital, the doctor said it would be 6 weeks to healing, most likely; others (nurses) said this could take a long time. Online, some are talking years, decades - others say this *never* really heals. Can this actually heal??

(I'm absolutely *furious* with myself that I might have given myself a lifelong pain just because I move too fast and don't always pay 100% attention to my surroundings. Some people have pain through no fault of their own, this was completely self-inflicted…)

What can I do to make it heal better and faster? Doc said I could alternate percocet with ibuprofen. I've been reading *numerous* studies suggesting that NSAIDs might impair bone and soft tissue healing, over the long term, maybe because it messes with prostaglandin function. Also that it might not be great for repair in the short term. (Separately: some argue that inhibiting inflammation might be a bad thing for healing, since it's a natural response.) Thoughts on this? Is acetaminophen also thought to inhibit healing? What else can I use for pain?

What else can I do to optimize healing (e.g. nutrition, etc.)?

Updates:

Nausea - *much* better, very mild today, almost gone. I've since read that nausea can be a symptom of a fracture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccyx_fracture

I think initially it might have been some kind of shock… I am pretty sensitive. I think maybe passing out later was partly also due to having strong meds on an empty stomach, plus getting up and walking too fast after lying down? I hope it's that and something worse. Thank you, ocherdraco and okayokayigive, I'll see if my GP will refer me (not hopeful…) if this is still at all an issue in a week.

Walking is easier today. Sitting, well.

(What about sex… oh god, what have I done to myself.)

posted by cortex (staff) at 12:10 PM on November 23, 2015

I'm sorry to add to the chorus saying that this might be a long-term issue, but I slammed my tailbone almost 7 years ago and I continue to have ongoing but manageable lower back, hips, and sacrum issues. I think the main thing was that I got jarred out of alignment AND was walking off kilter in an attempt to minimize pain. Somewhere at the 3 week mark and after the tailbone itself felt more or less okay, I started having intense pinching pain in my hips and lower back. At one point, I actually just fell over on the sidewalk because my hip just stopped working.

Rolfing and chiropractic care got me back to functioning, and in the long term, daily stretches, yoga, using tennis balls and massage rollers as well as 1 year stretch of intensive pilates have all helped manage it. Yes, I think the things I did to manage short term pain (walking off balance) exacerbated long term issues, but I also think it's just a function of being older and less flexible in general and always having some back pain issues. Once the immediate agony is over for you, I would re-focus on strengthening your spine/sacrum/hips/back and making sure that you haven't given yourself a weird twist.
posted by spamandkimchi at 12:48 PM on November 23, 2015

I have a "it didn't take that long" anecdote but I was only 12 when I bruised mine so that's probably not very reassuring. It probably took a few weeks of walking like I'd aged 70 years. Mine wasnt asymmetrical though; I slipped off a cliff I was climbing and sat hard on my butt on a semi submerged rock and slid off that. Climbing up that cliff wet and bruised sure wasn't any easier. Ah, the fun of being an 80's free range kid (well, normal kid for those days).

I'm not a doctor but I was told to take NSAIDS for years of knee pain and they were magic... right up until they discovered bleeding from my stomach was causing my anemia and now they are omg, so bad, stay away. From my non medical perspective I think we were encouraged to use them a bit too liberally until the side effect stories started piling up. Not sure what the US equivalent is but I usually use panadeine for pain relief - it's a combo of paracetamol and codeine. It does make me dopey but I don't drive anyway.

Sending best wishes for a speedy recovery! I really feel for you because somehow admitting this injury is so awkward to saying back pain or a broken leg...but you still need lots of support!
posted by kitten magic at 3:17 PM on November 23, 2015

I broke my tailbone but good a few years ago, it basically makes a 90 degree turn to one side now. My very good Ortho Dr. told me there are two possible breaks - it breaks at a joint, or it breaks between joints. I had the between joints flavor, which he said was much better than the breaking at a joint type fracture. It took me a good 6 weeks.
Without a picture no one can know where it broke.
posted by rudd135 at 6:20 PM on November 23, 2015