Diagnose me - broken vs. bruised tailbone

RubyTue

Can you tell without an x-ray?

I feel down the stairs and on my tail on Saturday.  It was very painful, and I laid on the floor for about 10 minutes before I could get up.  Ended up taking half a percocet so I could sleep (didn't make my tail stop hurting, but I couldn't feel my face lol).  Its still really hurting Monday morning.  Sitting hurts, moving from a sitting to standing position hurts, basically it hurts unless I am standing.  Blah.

Yesterday was easy to deal with, I just did a bunch of stuff that I could do standing (craft projects, mostly),.  But now the week is here and I need to sit to work.  And except for today, I have about 2 hours in the car every day.  *sigh*

Advice?

WinesNot Whines

I went through this a few years ago and it sucked.   I'm sorry you're in pain. You could go see your doctor, but mine said they wouldn't really treat a fractured tail bone any differently than a bruised one, unless there were extreme factors involved, like if you need surgery to repair it. You could ask for an x-ray, but I just kind of sucked it up until the pain went away (which took months, I'm sorry to say).

aswartzw

Go to the doctor.  You can't tell if you broke it without an x-ray. 

I didn't go when I hurt mine because I could deal with the pain and all I did was fall onto my tailbone out of crow position (yoga).  I couldn't see how I broke it with such a small fall.  (I could've been wrong though). 

Bruised and broken can hurt just as much though.  It can take forever to heal (took me 1 year  almost to the day).  You can get special pillows to sit on to alleviate the pain when you are sitting which can make your work more manageable though.

wise_rita

I don't know about broken vs. bruised, but you sound pretty mobile, even if you have pain.  My story:  

In college I landed all my weight from quite a height directly on my tailbone (I was....not sober) and I could not physically get off the couch without assistance for weeks.  And when I mean assistance, I mean being hoisted up by someone else.  When I was up I could only take steps a few inches at a time.  Laughing or sneezing resulted in unbearable pain.  

I didn't go to the doctor because I knew all they'd do was give me a donut (a hemorrhoid donut), so I don't know if it was broken.

If I were you I'd hold off on the doctor, at least a few days, if the pain isn't unbearable.  I don't think there's much they could do, regardless. 

MixedBerryJam

I agree it wouldn't hurt (oops, no pun intended) to go to the doctor, but don't expect them to do anything except maybe prescribe something for pain, if even that.

I slammed down onto my tailbone a few years ago iceskating, and I was sure it was broken. It was just bruised, but honestly, it was painful for weeks. The pain was easily controlled with ... well, I don't remember if it was acetominophen or ibuprofen, but it was otc around-the-clock.

 

I think tailbones are like toes, though, in that even if it is broken, there's not really much they can do except wait it out. Good luck!

gmginny

The treatment is the same.  I had a bruised one and physical therapy helped a lot.  Go see a doctor (orthopedic).  Also go to a medical supply store and get one of those special pillows.  Makes a HUGE difference!

RubyTue

Yeah, I realize there isn't much they can do even if it is broken.  And yes, I'm pretty mobile.  But Dr. Google says that even broken, the pain can be on the milder side (and all the way up to unable to move).   Its pretty bad, but tolerable.  I just use my arms to get up and down out of a sitting position (so my arms, not my core, are doing most of the lifting).

I don't think its broken.  Just really painful.  But I can't decide if its worth finding out, especially when there is nothing they can do except give me a donut to sit on and maybe more pain killers.  But really, I don't like the hard core pain killers.  They make me woozy, and sometimes they don't even take away the pain, just make you not care. 

Months?  Even just bruised?!  Arg!

Side note - I'm kind of glad our staircase is 3 levels with two landings.  I only can fall down 4 stairs at a time.  

HRP22

Took mine forever to heal.  I would get some muscle relaxers, because that helps the pain, and seemed to speed up the healing once I got them.

 

Sitting too long hurts, standing too long hurts.. it just sucks.

Hope you have a speedy recovery. 

aswartzw

RubyTue:

Months?  Even just bruised?!  Arg!

Yeah.  It was awful.  For me, the pain I had changed.  I went from pain when I sat and while transitioning to standing/sitting for a few months to only pain when transitioning which lessened to just flare-ups.  It took a year before the flare-ups went away and stayed away.

ChileRellanos

And unfortunately, 10 yrs later, I still have flare ups and spasms. Maybe like once or twice a year. They did PT for me which did help. I haven't had a flare up in awhile. They told me they could do surgery, but there's no way to tell how it's going to heal and it could end up worse off. I reinjured mine 5 years ago, which made things so much worse. It sucked.

Mego04

I had a bruised one, same fall as you, bounced down the stairs on my bottom. Heck yes it hurts, mine hurt for atleast a month. I got an x-ray but there is nothing they could do if it was broken anyways.

Edit: at least a month of a lot of pain, after that I could still feel it when I moved in certain ways for a couple months.

RubyTue

Ok, contrary to nest advice, after reading these I'm leaning to just sucking it up.  It seems like an x-ray isn't going to do any real good other than help me justify my inability to move.  I really try to limit my radiation exposure.  Not b/c I'm afraid of it, but because I get so much with my scheduled CTs.

ch ch ch chia

I had a similar problem a few years ago. 

They checked mine without an x-ray... unfortunately, it involved a rubber glove.

Jaylea

There's not anything they can do to treat a broken tailbone differently than a bruised tailbone, I believe.

I did this a couple of years ago. It took several months to heal - things were very tender for a while. But eventually it got better.

Sorry, it sucks!

CCinLove

I'd get it checked out simply so that you can decide if you want to do physical therapy.  I broke my tailbone as a child, and I was fine for years.  Then, I ended up having terrible back and pelvic floor pain that it turns out was related to the fact that my tailbone was crooked and twisted, and it was pulling a ton of muscles out of position.  That broken tailbone has cost me a ton of money in physical therapy, but that wasn't an issue until about 10 years after I broke it.

madladybride

Honestly, I have bruised my tailbone 3 x and *possibly* cracked it. (The brusing came from falling down the stairs and the crack came from slipping off the ski lift when I was trying to learn to snowboard. It hurt so bad that I blacked out for several seconds. They even shut the chair lift off ) My point is the treatment is the same and there is not a damn thing a visit to a Dr. is going to be able to change unless they prescribe prescription strength pain meds. I used a heating pad/ice pack and a pillow for several weeks.

annael415

I hurt mine about 4 years ago in an embarrassing way I won't reveal, but it hurt every time I sat down for 2 years to the day.  I never went to the doctor, just complained to my then bf about the pain.  It still hurts when I sit down sometimes.

 Hopefully yours isn't as bad!

MrsAngel2008

It's been 5 months since I fell down the steps in my backyard, and my tailbone still hurts...but not nearly as much as it used to. Unlike others above, it didn't hurt at the time--the fall kind of stunned me, but I got up & stretched and I felt fine, so I went about my day. The next morning though was agonizing. It's gotten better over the months, but there are some things that set it off--I can't sit in a reclined position on a hard surface at all.

 

Hope you're starting to feel a little better. Try one of those donut pillows....I wish I had gotten one! I fashioned my own by coiling a sweater in a circle (didn't want to carry a donut pillow around the office!) and it helped quite a bit.

FinchleyLu

All I know is that even a bruised tailbone hurts like a mofo. I bruised mine when I was about 12 playing a game where you sit on a balloon to pop it.... I put all my weight into it and my butt came smack down on the very hard wood floor. Hurt for weeks and weeks. 

UDShoeGal92306

I think there's something wrong with mine as well.   The problem being I have no idea where it came from.  It hurts when sitting in certain positions although it feels much better now than it did a few months ago.

fourplusfive

Ouch. I don't know if mine was bruised or broken, but I fell on my tailbone and it took a year before I didn't need to sit on a donut. D'ya wanna know what made it better? I fell down the stairs. As soon as I fell, it was as if something *popped* back into place. I really should have seen a doctor, though. Good luck!

melodyPMX

Same here. Fell hard while snowboarding and very likely cracked it. That was 5 yrs ago and I still have issues and have to do serious stretching and rolling with a hard roller to keep the knots out. Did it again recently to my left side..yay for balancing out the damage (total sarcasm).