stump in the spine

  • Thread starter Thread starter montos
  • Start date Start date
M

montos

Guest
A question about an injury I had last august. I wiped out on my bike and landed on a narrow (2" diameter) stump right in the small of my back. This involved a trip to the emergency room and X-rays. Aside from a fair bit of pain I was examined and deemed to be "OK".

I followed up with my family Dr who prescribed anti inflamatories and rest. Now the pain got better after about 3 weeks or so but I've had a problem ever since where if I run or do any compession type activites with my spine it feels like someone is digging their knuckle on to the top of my tail-bone. My MD says this is a tailbone injury resulting form a contussion to the spine and it may take up to a year to heal.

What do you guys think? Does this sound reasonable or should I be going for more tests. Lately I seem to be experiancing pain again in the region and I think i'm altering my posture to compensate which is leading to muscle pain.

Thanks
 
Hello and welcome, montos...In my opinion, I think it sounRAB like you at least need a MRI of your lurabar spine, in order to rule out abnormalities, due to the accident (trauma). Do you think you could contact your family doctor, tell him that you are still experiencing pain, and ask for a MRI? I pray that you will soon find "pain relief." Tam
 
I tend to agree you need an MRI and a complete work up done by a spine surgeon. Just because you see a spine surgeon does not mean that you need to have surgery. They can review all of your tests - you want someone with lots of expertise in this area - and make a rehabilitation plan of attack for you.

Good luck and I pray that you find some relief soon.
 
"They can review all of your tests - you want someone with lots of expertise in this area - and make a rehabilitation plan of attack for you."

See this is my problem, I'm not one to sit around but my doctor has a wait-and-see attitude and so because it is still getting better, albeit slowly, he says that I should do nothing, no physio or anything.

This just doesn't seem right to me
 
I agree 100% but seek a second opinion and make sure that there is nothing you can do to help with your rehabilitation. Don't put all your faith in one doctor - doctors are not always right. Many of us have had second, third, and more opinions. Someone on this board even had eight opinions.
 
I would agree that you don't need physio at this point, but it would be helpful to have an MRI and a proper diagnosis. X-Rays don't show the soft tissues and nerves, so you only get part of the "picture" when you've only had an X-ray.

Keep in mind that regardless of what is wrong, any injury of the back takes a long time to heal. Patience is a real virtue in this case. :(
 
Montos,
about 25 years ago i fall badly and hit my tale-bone on a ice. The pain was so bad that i couldn't get from the chair if I would seat for more than 10 minutes. And this was for years and years.
I had MRI done, Ex-rays, nothing showed what is really going on in there. Dr said to take anti-flammotory meRAB.
I would go through pain ups and downs for years.
In 2003 I had car accident and had to have spinal fusion which i agreed to have only in 2006. They had to fuse L-4, L-5 S-1. Surgery was suppose to be about 6 hours.
After the surgery (it was 9 1/2 hours instead) DR was shocked. He said that he did not expect I had so much damage in tail bone area. He asked me if i ever fall and after I told him how many years ago he couldn't believe how did i leave all this years with such an extensive damages.
He said that i practically did not have a bone there anymore, it was crushed and bone chips got into soft tissue all around that area.
While surgery he had to clean and fuse that area, plus because of this he had to use metal plate in my pelvic and metal clips in SIJ. Otherwise it wouldn't work.
This is my experiense with damaging my tail bone area. Unfortunatelly i had so many MRI's and Ct done nothing ever showed any damages, only during surgery he discovered how bad it was.
Best of luck to you!
 
Back
Top