Tailbone injury

[annie]

Has anyone ever injured their tailbone, as in falling and landing HARD on it, hard enough that 3, almost 4 weeks later it still hurts? Not as much as before, but still hurts.

I hate to say how I fell - too embarrassing! But fall I did, it will be 4 weeks ago on Wednesday, and it STILL hurts when I move in certain ways and when I put too much pressure on it, like when climbing hills on the bike. I am fine on the flats as long as I spin and don't hammer. But hills are tougher. I can't seem to get a strong kick into it without more pain than I want to deal with. So.......... my question is, how much longer until this thing is healed? Any idea?

Thanks!

[NW_Meg]

Speaking from my experience, I'd recommend you bite the bullet and get it x-rayed to make sure you don't have a fracture of any kind.

Bruised bones can hurt for a while, but if it's more serious and you're serious about cycling (and other movement), I think it's better to find out soon what you're dealing. Then you can get on a path to recovery that won't slow you down or - worse - find out in a really painful way it's more serious than you thought and miss the season.

[Barb]

I landed HARD a year ago and every once in a while it still hurts,usually after a long ride. I must say it hurts less frequently than it used to! Good luck.

[Irulan]

I did mine as a kid on ice and it STILL hurts sometimes.

Irulan

[kpc]

Yes, get an Xray, that's a while to still be having A LOT of pain.

[annie]

Thanks to everyone who replied! It was good to hear of others experiences with a similar problem. Thanks for the advice, too, even tho' I haven't taken it....... No x-ray, but it is finally starting to feel noticeably better. I was out riding yesterday and actually was able to push a bit. Felt wonderful to start working winter out of my legs. I figure I should be just about completely healed by the time we have decent riding weather here.

[Karen London]

I had a great fall 1 year ago. At the time I thought "if you have to fall girl you could not have fallen better" because it was onto soft gravel and did not hurt a bit. It was caused by a traffic cop walking out in front of me without looking. The traffic cop even said sorry and admitted it! I was too relieved she did not try to say it was my fault so I got out of there on my bike as quickly as I could.

However 5 weeks later I started getting excruciating pains up and down my back. All sorts of different pain ways which appeared to be in both bone and muscle from my pelvis and up most of my back at different times. After 3 weeks it got to the point where I could not even open a door without it hurting and any involuntary rotatory movement hurt me the most. One evening I was sitting on a London Underground train being jolted around and almost crying with the pain - usually I know it's a bit bumpy sometimes but that's all. I thought I wasn't showing my pain but a girl I never met before sitting opposite me offered to massage me because she was a physiotherapist, and she could just see looking at me that I was in so much pain. At that point, having been nearly in tears for a week, I thought "you silly girl now go to the doctor".

BUT I hate going to the doctor and it's really difficult for me to get time off work so I said "I'll wait just two weeks and if it's still bad, then I'll go". It took 3 weeks before it even began to improve, and then another 5 weeks. At no time was there any visible bruise or particular spot of tenderness. My boyfriend thought I must have had really deep bruises in my pelvis after the accident with the traffic cop and that through all the layers of fat (thanks boyfriend :-) ) it took those 5 weeks for the pain to come out. Looking back, I think I should have gone to a physiotherapist first. She would have advised me if I would have needed X-rays and maybe started the healing/hurting process and got me through it sooner.