I'm back...minus one tailbone!

For those of you *****member my chronic tailbone pain here's an update...

I had every treatment under the sun and finally opted for a ****ygectomy.  That was done on 3/6/09 and I'm happy to say that I'm healing well and although the pain is not gone, it is much, much better.  I think right now its surgical pain but I've heard that it can take 6-9 months for maximum relief.  

I'm hopeful that this will put an end to my misery!  If anyone else is dealing with this you should check out www.****yx.org   It's a great website for tailbone pain!

At any rate...I'm glad to be back with the living!

Bekah

Bekah,

I'm so happy to hear that your surgery went well!  I can't imagine how terrible that pain must have been!

Michele

Thanks Michele!

I could have never imagined it and wouldn't have believed it if someone else complained about it.  But after having lived with that pain for well over a year I now realize how much it had affected my life... Chronic pain is no way to live!

Bekah

Bekah,  I too am suffering from tailbone pain.  It was a major reason for have WLS in June of 2006, so you can see how long I have suffered.  I've had ****yal (sp?) injections but they don't help much.  What all have you done and what exactly do they do for the surgery?  Can you give me the exact website, I would love to check it out.  Nancy

Let's see... I started with pillows - every different size, shape, thickness, softness, etc.  Nothing was comfortable. 

Went to the doc and had a regular x-ray which of course showed nothing. 

Tried ice, heat, combinations of the two. No help.

Tried interferential/muscle stimulation. No help.

Can't take NSAIDs so daily Tylenol use quickly became daily Vicodin use. 

Got a referral to an orthopedic spine specialist who did a corisone injection.  The shot hurt like h**l for a few days then gave partial relief for about 3 weeks.  Got a second shot with the same result.  

Tried chiropractic - no help.

Tried internal manipulation - actually helped a little but only lasted about 5 minutes.

Got a 3rd cortisone shot - same result.

Switched to a Fentanyl patch for pain - wasn't any more effective than the Vicodin but I didn't have to pop pills anymore.

Found the www.****yx.org website and learned about a dynamic sit/stand x-ray.  Asked the ortho doc to do the x-ray and he did.  It showed that my ****yx was hypermobile and unstable - so basically it was dislocating everytime I sat down!

We decided to proceed with the ****ygectomy.

It was an outpatient surgery, took about an hour, and I was home on my couch that afternoon.  He made an incision right in the crack of my butt.  It healed up really well with no problems or infection.  I was off work for 2 weeks.  I'm now 3 weeks post-op and I'm feeling pretty good.  I still use a horseshoe pillow for sitting at my desk at work and when driving.  I can sit without it, but it's much more comfortable with it right now.  Now I just have the surgical pain, but the initial pain from the tailbone appears to be gone.

Hope that helps! Chronic pain is NO way to live... a lot of people thought a ****ygectomy was an extreme solution but I was miserable and couldn't take the chronic pain any longer.

Bekah