Taking out the garbage Monday night I slipped on a wet patch in the parking lot and landed square on my tailbone. Mary Sweet Mother of Jesus does that shit hurt!
I’ve been in bed on and off ever since. I seriously considered calling 911 at one point but I have no insurance. I really thought it might have been broken but I feel a lot better now.
TMI
Taking a dump was like pass-out painful the first 2 days
I went to the grocery store today so I’m on the road to recovery!
Thank you for your concern!
Nope.
State’s got nothing to do with it. Even though I’m out of work and can’t afford insurance I made too much last year to qualify for a discount.
I can’t move for reasons not really important here.
Don’t sweat not going to the ER. I broke my tailbone some years ago while on a river tubing trip
I hit the rapids, pitched out of my tube, and collided hard with a submerged rock ass-first. My sunglasses literally went flying forward off my head because I’d stopped so fast. Damn near drowned from the stun effect and pain; and I’m a former competitive swimmer, so I’m definitely a strong swimmer and at home in the water.
Anyway, long story short, I ended up in the ER later that night due to a spell of light-headedness while out to dinner, and I asked the ER doc about my ass, and his comment was “Well, I guess we could x-ray it to confirm, but there’s nothing I can do about it other than tell you to go by the drugstore and get one of those inflatable donuts to sit on.”
Wow, scary stuff I know- I took a tumble 2 weeks ago (after having dislocated a shoulder last month, I’m on a roll!) and of course landed full on my bad shoulder and bruised my ass (which still hurts) and tore up the skin on my leg. My mother helpfully advised me to make sure I pick my feet up high enough when I walk- I don’t know how I went 44 years having never heard that advice, but I’m going to heed it and I’ll pass it along to you!
Really, even if you did break it, there’s not all that much a doctor can do for a broken tailbone. Idiom aside, it doesn’t do much good to put your ass in a sling. At best, they can prescribe some painkillers and advise you to sit forward on your thighs and on the softest cushions you can arrange. After the first few days, it doesn’t hurt much except when you inadvertently put pressure on the area (usually in the process of standing up or sitting down), and when it does, no painkiller that leaves you capable of such action is going to stop it from hurting. Only sit upright when you must, and when you do, sit as still as you can.
Yeah, voice of experience here. I slipped on a snowy staircase and came down hard with just my tailbone catching on the step above me. Best part? It was only about a day before I was due to return home–a journey that involved traveling by bus, train, plane, and taxi for many hours. If you already think airplane seats are uncomfortable, imagine what they’re like in contact with a broken bone.
Of course, the broken tailbone was only one part (or, I suppose, two) of that saga, which has caused people to collapse on the floor, tears of laughter rolling down their cheeks, when told in full.
Zoid - You mentioned in the thread about getting older how you’ve been falling a lot. You’re not even 50. Really, you need to have this checked out. Not your present injuries (or at least not mostly) but your balance issues.
I busted my tailbone when I was a teenager. Nothing they could do for it. Sitting in school on those hard chairs was a nightmare. In hindsight, I probably could have asked for an accommodation to sit on something softer, but this was some time ago when the thought of accommodation wasn’t forefront.
Anyway, it took about a month for the pain to go down to tolerable. And it took about a year for the pain to be gone.
An older person might take a little longer to heal.
It healed slightly crooked but no long term harm done. I asked a doctor once if it could pose any danger in childbirth, and the doctor said the way it healed was not very risky.
Seconded…I replied to you in that other thread, but it was a couple of pages along, so you may not have seen it. Anyway, StGermain is right. Someone in their 40’s should not be having repeated falls. You should be evaluated for that, and if nothing is wrong, then seriously think about some core and balance training exercises. Falling is an annoyance now, it can be deadly when you get older.
I’ve frankly always been a bit of a klutz.
And unfortunately I will not be seeing any doctors any time soon (unless I really do have a serious accident, fingers crossed).
When you become blind enough to start thinking about using a white cane, only then do you realize how many booby traps have been laid across our urban landscape. Curbs are Satainc instruments of torture.
My wife fell down in our kitchen last night while I was at work. For some reason, she decided to wait nearly an hour and a half to call me, and then just to tell me to come straight home from work and refuse any overtime.
Seems, in addition to opening a 1/2" gash over her left eyebrow, she hurt her left arm pretty badly. She says that the worst of the pain is in her shoulder, but she’s holding the arm like a chicken wing, and has no strength to the grip of her left hand. I’m concerned that it might be broken, or possibly a dislocated shoulder.
Right now, I’m waiting for the insurance company’s office to open so I can call and find out if an urgent care is going to be more or less of an out-of-pocket expense than an ER. She’s certainly going to have to have an X-ray, but the urgent cares around here can do that on site.
Welp, I’m no radiologist but I got a look at the X-ray, and it’s definitely dislocated. Waiting for the urgent care doc to come in and tell us he can’t put it back and we have to see an ortho guy at the ER.
