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