If You Are Suffering... From Tailbone Pain

Tailbone pain can be quite debilitating (as I can attest) and can impact focus at work and sleep, which can further impact your ability to function.  Click here to read my experience with tailbone pain.  Effectively dealing with tailbone pain requires knowledge that many physician's do not have and may not suspect.  So first things first... 

FIRST THINGS FIRST, TRY SELF REHAB

Some obvious ailments can cause tailbone pain - such as a fall that bruises the tailbone or a temporary muscle sprain.  The Mayo Clinic suggest several causes and treatments for tailbone pain prior to consulting a doctor.  Click here to read what the Mayo Clinic has to say on dealing with tailbone pain.  However, the Mayo Clinic's self rehab list omits several prominent causes for tailbone pain that should be included in your search for relief.

OTHER CAUSES OF TAILBONE PAIN

Two additional causes that I have come across (both defined by western medicine) are misaligned joints and referred pain.  The specific misaligned joint is the sacrum, which is the section of spine directly adjacent to the tailbone.  Referred pain in the tailbone can come through two different locations that I am aware of.  Location number one is in the spine itself and is caused when bulging discs impinge the nerve that connects to the tailbone.  Location number two is from a trigger point in the gluteus maximus. 

RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES

The following alternative therapies can likely help with tailbone pain.

1. Trigger Point Therapy - One trigger point in the gluteus maximus (Trigger Point 3) is known to cause tailbone pain.  Trigger Point Therapy can help eliminate the muscle tension in the gluteus maximus that is causing the referred pain.  Check out Clair Davies book, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook. 
2. Stretching - Stretching may help loosen joints or muscles that are contributing to misaligned joints or other mechanical issues that lead to tailbone pain. 
3. Strength Training - Imbalanced muscles (when opposing muscle groups are not equally strong) can cause stress on joints or muscle attachments, which can lead to tailbone pain.  Strengthening the weak muscles can correct this imbalance and eliminate the offending stress.
4. Chiropractics - Tailbone pain can be caused by a misaligned sacrum or bulging disks. 
5. Inversion Therapy - Inversion therapy involves the use of an inversion table, which allows one to flip upside down.  This therapy will help relieve pressure on bulging discs in the spine.  If the cause of tailbone pain is related to these discs, inversion should help
6. Acupuncture -  Acupuncture promotes blood flow, which can help reduce inflammation in muscles that may be leading to the tailbone pain. 
7. Vitamins, Minerals, & Other Supplements - If you have muscle tension or increased inflammation due to vitamin, mineral, or other deficiencies, identifying these deficiencies and correcting them through supplements can augment efforts to eliminate tailbone pain.

WHAT WORKED FOR ME

While conventional stretching, strengthening, and chiropractics temporarily relieved my tailbone pain, I found a long-term solution in unconventional stretching and trigger point therapy.  The unconventional stretching that I eventually stumbled on was sustained daily squatting.  I'm assuming the reason this helped was that is provided long term relief was due to the lengthening of the spine and stretching of my hip muscles.  To assist with these efforts, trigger point therapy helped identify several trigger points in my hips that facilitated tight muscles and one specific trigger point (identified above) in my gluteus maximus that required loosening.

The Depths of Illness - Tailbone Pain

I can't remember when the pain started only that it was excruciating.  My tailbone felt as if a red hot clamp was slowly being tightened around it by some invisible force.  The pain fluctuated throughout the day - usually better in the morning than at night

It did not help that I had a desk job and spent eight plus hours a day sitting.  I tried sitting on a wedge pillow, to no effect.  I got rid of my usual work chair in favor of a large exercise ball, to no effect.  The pain limited my focus, caused anxiety, and by the end of the day I constantly shifted in my chair, sweaty, weary.  I talked work into buying me a stand-up desk.  Standing all day helped a little, but my knees began to ache, then my lower back.  I returned to sitting.

While the days remained difficult, the nights became restless.  As the pain got worse, I lay in bed, awake, unable to sleep due to the pain.  Shifting positions did not help.  Heat did not help.  Ice helped, numbed the nerves, but fixed nothing and did not help with sleep.  I finally figured out that if I laid on a tennis ball in exactly the right spot on my tailbone, the pain would relent to a mildly more tolerable pressure, allowing me to fall asleep before utter exhaustion was required to finish the job.    

During this time, I regularly visited an osteopath for manipulations and advice.  The manipulations did not help.  Eventually, he ordered an MRI of my back, which showed bulging discs.  Could be referred pain from the bulging disc, he said.  He ordered a second MRI of my pelvis for concurrent pain in my right hip.  That MRI was inconclusive.  He suggested stretching and jacuzzi therapy. Stretching and jacuzzi therapy didn't help. He also referred me to a back specialist.   Could be referred pain from the bulging disc, the back specialist said and offered a steroid injection.  But the injection only helps in 50% of cases and is only temporary, he added.  My take away - the pain only comes from the bulging disc in about 50% of the cases.  I refused the injection at the time, preferring to find and fix the actual cause of the pain.

            

Tailbone Pain - In Real Time

I have had on and off tailbone pain for about 9 months (despite rounds of professionally monitored physical therapy and osteopathic manipulations and individually monitored stretching and strengthening). This week, the pain was unbearable. It felt (and feels) like a vice is slowly crushing my tailbone (vertically). And almost nothing I do helps. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't sit comfortably, I couldn't focus at work. I am beginning to wonder if my tailbone isn't broken.