Tailbone Pain Story – George's Story

George, USA - gsthomas3@verizon.net

Posted 2021-11-14

I am 67 years old, my tailbone pain started 2½ years ago (March 2019). It may be useful to know I am an engineer, and worked as a paramedic and RN in the ER for ten years. I could identify no known cause for the pain, no trauma of any sort. The pain increased to the point I could barely sit and when I stood up there would be a surge of sharp pain for a few seconds. The first visit to my primary care doctor resulted in a recommendation to use ibuprofen and wait it out, give it some time to heal.

My chiropractor at the time told me 'area' ie tailbone, was a very difficult area to diagnose or help via chiropractic. She did recommend using a donut pillow to sit on, which I did and it helped.

In September 2019 I saw a generally very experienced orthopedic surgeon. Keep in mind that finding doctors with experience diagnosing or treating tailbone pain are hard to find. He did an examination and said it was impossible to know the root cause of the pain. He also, suggested pain medication.

From October 2019 - March 2020 I underwent physical therapy based on a recommendation from a new primary care doctor I switched to after the first one wasn' useful. I had never had PT before and learned what I already knew from my medical career, all providers are not equally knowledgeable, trained or skilled. After a couple months with one therapist I was redirected to another one certified in pelvic floor PT. The new therapist worked hard to help me, but in the end PT didn't work.

In May 2020 I found another orthopedic surgeon on this web site, Dr. Mark Coggins (see Doctors and specialists in the USA, Virginia), who had experience with tailbone pain and removal. He did a good examine and ordered an MRI. The MRI showed no fractures or lesions. He suggested steroid injections as the next step to both confirm the pain was originating in the coccyx and to see if it reduced my pain. I had two steroid injections over the next 6 months and was virtually pain free.

Dr. Coggins moved away from my area at this point and I started seeing a new pain management doctor for further injections. The first injection (Jan 2021) by the new doctor went well and provided great relief for 7 months. The second injection (Sept 2021) was done slightly differently where he used ultrasound to place the injection. The three prior ones were done using fluoroscopy. This last injection did not work at all. I feel the use of ultrasound was not effective in the placement of the injection and would not permit it that way again.

The pain management doctor said the steroids may not work for me any longer and to consider either trying prolotherapy (an injection of dextrose in the tailbone area) or surgery. Ultimately I tried prolotherapy. It did not work for me.

Over the last month (Nov 2021) I have been trying acupuncture done by my new chiropractor. So far it has provided little relief after 3 sessions.

The very best thing I did last week was purchase a copy of 'Pain Relief Now!' by Patrick M. Foye, MD (see Doctors and specialists in the USA, New Jersey). His web site is tailbonedoctor.com. Dr. Foye is clearly a true expert on tailbone pain. The book is excellent and very informative. At this point it is clear to me that none of the providers I'd seen so far knew how to examine and diagnose the root cause of tailbone pain. After reading the book I feel my problem is likely an unstable tailbone joint. Every person with tailbone pain needs to read this book.

I feel my experience with this aliment is very typical of many others. I saw two primary care providers, two orthopedic surgeons, two chiropractors, two physical therapists and two pain management doctors over the course of trying to get a definitive diagnosis and options about treatments. None of these providers were particularly well versed in dealing with tailbone pain and each had different treatment ideas.

In any event my plan is to make an appointment with Dr. Foye in the near future and get an informed, expert diagnosis and treatment plan. My goal is to ensure I'd tried everything before resorting to removal of the tailbone. I will provide an update subsequent to that appointment. Please feel free to email me if I can be of assistance in answering questions about my experience.

Update, 2022-02-13

On February 8, 2022 I had my appointment with Dr. Foye at Rutgers in Newark, NJ. Below is a summary of my visit, feel free to email me with any questions.

At 8:00 am I went directly to have the standing, sitting, laying x-rays done. It took about 15 minutes.

At 9:00 I started my appointment in Dr. Foyes office, The primary objective of the appointment was to make a definitive diagnosis of the cause of the pain and decide on a treatment approach. First his assistant reviewed my current pain situation (3 all the time, up to 5 sitting back) and verified my qualifications for injections. He showed me a 15 minute video by Dr. Foye reviewing all the basic information about tailbone diagnosis and treatments, while I waited for Dr. Foye.

Doctor Foye loaded the X-rays onto his computer and he went through them with me. He pointed out the changes in the tailbone between standing and sitting. In my case the problems were obvious. I ended up having three issues. First was dynamic instability with luxation, second was a distal bone spur. He said it was very common both these occurred together. Lastly was a minor issue having some osteoarthritis in the joints.

After inspecting and palpating the tailbone area he noted that the assessment match the X-ray findings. So now I had a definitive diagnosis of the case, which is a huge step forward in dealing with the pain. He suggest the injections, and these would be very targeted, unlike the others I had prior.

He did the injections using the fluoroscopic, One injection was a nerve block to the Ganglion Impar sympathetic nerve. The second was a steroid injection around the distal tailbone joints. Immediately after the injections were complete my pain was 0 and is still 0 the next day.

The trip to see him was very valuable in getting a diagnosis and effective treatment. He's the man to see if you want expert help.