Surgery is scheduled after 5 years of pain

Haley, Washington, USA - haleyhaggerty1@gmail.com

Posted 2021-05-02

In 2016 at the age of 22 I jumped into water from a 15-20 foot rock. I landed weird and managed to dislocate/fracture my coccyx. After the initial injury, I waited months thinking it would go away, and everyone told me that it was just bruised. Going from sitting to standing was EXCRUCIATING and I was in pain every day.

I eventually found someone to take me seriously and had x-rays confirming I had fractured/dislocated it. I tried steroid injections 3 times, physical therapy, and internal manipulation but she told me that my coccyx was completely unstable. After all of that failed and I moved away from the doctor I loved, I kind of gave up and figured that I would just be in pain the rest of my life and wouldn't get to ride a bike, horseback ride, enjoying sitting in a kayak, go to the movie theater or dinner with friends without being in excruciating pain.

About 6 months ago out of nowhere the pain got worse, and it felt like when I had first injured it. I couldn't even roll over in bed, it hurt so much. That was my breaking point, so I finally found a surgeon on this website about 3 hours away from me, and made an appointment. The x-rays revealed that my tailbone had gotten MUCH worse over the last 5 years. I had developed arthritis spreading into my sacrum, my tailbone was actually fusing to my sacrum from all the inflammation, one of the segments of my coccyx was behind another one, and there was scoliosis present in my tailbone which he said was pretty rare to see.

He told me that things would continue to get worse, and my pain would never get better. So I made the decision to get surgery and I'm scheduled for May 14th! I'm very nervous but also filled with hope that one day I will be pain free and able to live my life to the fullest! I will update after the procedure is complete.

Update, 2022-06-19

My surgery went amazingly well actually. The first two weeks were rough, but I was back to work as an ER nurse within a month. I had a lot of aching in my sacrum where they shaved away the arthritis, but naproxen helped a lot. I had no infection issues or opening of the wound.

It's been over a year and I occasionally have some discomfort with long car rides or prolonged sitting but I'd say it's only 10% of what I used to experience. I'm struggling with sciatica issues but I don't believe it's related to my surgery as I had it before the surgery, and it's probably a herniated disc from the initial injury.

I would recommend my surgeon, Scott Price, to anyone!!