Fused and calcified coccyx
Sarah, Switzerland
Posted 2024-04-08
My coccyx pain started with a 3-hour road bike ride in the fall of 2022. The pain came on suddenly and hasn't gone away since. However, I remember that I used to feel similar pain after long car journeys as a teenager, but it always went away soon afterwards. I also had the same pain once before, after I bought my first road bike in 2018. At the time, I went to a sports orthopaedist in Zurich who did an MRI and assured me that everything was fine and that I just had to wait and wear cycling shorts with foam inserts (which of course was ridiculous, as I had been wearing those cycling specific shorts already of course). The pain from 2018 went away again after a period of rest (abstinence from cycling).
Between 2018 and 2022, I was a real cycling fanatic: it become my absolute favorite hobby and I cycled around 6000-8000 km per year with no issues. Until this day in autumn 2022, when I sat on my newly purchased racing bike and after about 1.5 hours on the bike my butt hurt so much, especially when I got out of the saddle, that I hardly got home. At home I took some painkillers for about a week and then stupidly got back on my bike, only to realize that it didn't get any better, it only got worse. Even sitting on a normal chair was unbearable. The pain radiated across my entire bottom. I went back to the same sports orthopaedist in Zurich who had already looked at this problem in 2018. I did an MRI again and everything looked perfectly fine and I got prescribed some physiotherapy to strengthen by back. Of course, the physiotherapy didn't help at all. I was discharged with the words that I should be better by now or that I would just have to wait a bit until I could cycle again.
I endured the pain for a while, but nothing improved on its own. I then went to a GP in Zurich who told me he was sure, the problem was stemming the bone and not from the muscles around the coccyx and prescribed me strong painkillers for osteoarthritis. The pain was gone with the painkillers, but it came back as soon as I stopped taking them. The GP advised me to look for an experienced chiropractor / osteopath as they have internal techniques that might help me. I went to an osteopath in Zurich who specializes in women's pelvic complaints. She gave me vaginal and rectal pressure on the muscles and tendons around the coccyx. Her theory was that I had trigger points that needed to be released. The therapy didn't help. I then even travelled to an osteopath near Frankfurt, who wrote on the internet that he had successfully helped many patients with coccyx pain. I drove to Frankfurt 3 times in total (over a 4 hours drive from Switzerland). In Frankfurt, the osteopath also pressed vaginally around my coccyx and used dry needling from the outside as well. His theory was also that all this pain comes from tense muscles that occurred from all the cycling. This therapy didn't help either. At this point I was really starting to despair.
The first osteopath I visited in Switzerland also had mentioned that an orthopaedist at their center was an expert in shock wave therapy and that it might help. I then had shockwave therapy on the coccyx 4 times until mid-2023. The doctor told me that more than 4 shockwave sessions would not be done and that if this didn't help, he would recommend a cortisone injection. He also was sure, the pain came from the bone itself and not from the muscles. However, I rejected to get a cortisone injection as I had read several times that cortisone helps for a short time, but probably doesn't fix the cause. The pain had now decreased slightly over the course of almost a year in mid-2023. However, I didn't know whether this was simply due to the normal progression or whether all these therapies and especially to avoid sitting had contributed to this. However, if I sat for too long or on a hard surface, the pain immediately got much worse again.
I realised that I can probably forget about my favorite hobby, cycling. Nobody knows whether I will ever be able to cycle again. I got to the point where I was really desperate.
Here on this site I kept reading about patients who had success at the Sayer Clinics in London Kensington. I made the decision that I would fly to London from Switzerland. In November 2023, I booked an appointment for an X-ray and a specialized coccyx session with Madalina at the Sayer Clinics (see Doctors and specialists in the UK, London). The standing x-ray showed that my coccyx had fused at the junction with the sacrum and was calcified. The experts at Sayer Clinics explained this as the cause of my severe and persistent pain. This was the first diagnosis that made sense to me! I immediately had an internal coccyx treatment. The aim is to mobilize the coccyx internally for a good hour. Madalina also massaged my entire buttock muscles and my back and hamstrings. She assured me that we would be successful, but that it would take a while and that I should travel to London about once a month if I could manage. All I can say is that after the first treatment in London I was able to sit noticeably better! I could hardly believe it.
To date (in April 2024), I have had a total of 6 treatments with Madalina and things have improved dramatically. There are even phases when I can sit pain-free for a few hours (on a soft surface). I have also found out a trick myself, namely that I can feel the exact point where the coccyx rubs against the sacrum with one finger. I can then crack these two rubbing bones apart with little pressure from the outside. The pain is then immediately gone. However, the bones keep rubbing against each other, especially after I have been sitting. Madalina said, that I could use this technique from time to time to relieve the pain. I will probably be traveling to London a few more times from now, but I really hope that I will soon get rid of the problem once and for all!
Note from Jon Miles:
I emailed more than a year after this story was posted, to ask for an update, as the long-term outcome of treatment is of great interest. In this case I did not get a reply.
