Has anyone suffered from this type of tailbone injury?

I hurt my tailbone last summer-- I believe I cracked it, but I never went to the doctor or anything to get it checked it out. I cried, and cried, and cried!!!! This is a bit discouraging, but it took around 6 months until I was completely pain free. It hurt all of last fall, and I'd take a donut with me everywhere (driving, ouch!, sitting in class, ouch!, sitting anywhere, ouch!). I couldn't even do situps and abdominal exercises anymore. Someone suggested some gel pad you could get at the pharmacy to sit on, but I never got it. I tried ice too-- I think that helped a little, but the pain was pretty intense. Strong pain killers might help.

I guess just tough it out!

ouch. did you fall on it? or did it just start hurting?

Um, well, it's kinda embarassing what I did. I had been sitting down for a long time studying, got up real quick, got dizzy, blacked out, and fell (with my butt) hitting the wall. It was a freak accident.

did they say if it was your filum terminale? basically your spinal cord actually ends in your upper lumbar spine and eventually tapers into the filum terminale which is connective tissue that attaches to the coccyx. when the coccyx is broken this tissue can become stretched. it is also covered with pia mater (one of the layers of brain/cord protection) which is continuous with the pia mater of the cord and brain. often causes headaches actually since the pia mater is continuous with the brain. when i learned about this we were told roughly 1-2 months until pain subsided. if the pain you are feeling is actually bone pain that can take a looong time. i broke mine years ago and it took a good 6 months before pain lessened to discomfort and almost a year until i could actually sit and go from sitting to standing or vice versa pain free.

no they didn't. the pain i have is right at the tip of the tailbone. basically if i take my finger and press on it from underneath, that is where the pain is. and if i have been sitting for a long time, and get up, it feels like it grabs. it's really painful.

i guess it's a good idea to ask this as well. did you guys have to wait until the pain was completely gone before you started running again? or is it the kind of thing where, if you can handle the discomfort, it's okay to run?

I wasn't running at the time, so I don't know if it would have affected my running. I was on a long "sabbatical", so by the time I did start running, most of the pain had subsided, so I didn't have any problems. I think you'd be ok. It just hurts sitting, and like you said, when you get up.

:) jag

ok, this is NOT medical advice. i know surgery is an option if it is infact your filum terminale. you MAY want to ask your doctor about it since the pain hasn't diminished and its been a while since the injury. i wasn't running, by the way, when i broke my tailbone. i was swimming, however, and started that up right away again - so a little cross training might be an option.