Happy news, my dear friend has come through the surgery that removed his lung, with flying colours. The doctor thinks they got all of the bad stuff out with it. My friend is in high spirits and doing well.
Bex’s Paul had a fall recently, and suffered a concussion, and is now under medical care for bleeding in the brain. I hope all is well for them both!
I escaped serious injury when I slipped, fell on my back, and went down the front porch steps last Sunday morning. I didn’t think anything was broken, but I was wrong. Last night I noticed that the pain from my fall was increasing. I decided better safe than sorry, so at 9 p.m. I headed for the hospital emergency department. They ignored the soft tissue injury, incredible bruising, and focused entirely on my bones. I guess soft tissue injury isn’t considered much of an emergency issue. Anyway, x-rays were taken, and revealed that I have fractured my tailbone. All my other bones were intact, which is great.
My tailbone was badly mangled during the birth of my oldest child, so I’ve been here before. I have severe arthritis in my tailbone as a result of that long ago experience. Sitting has been an issue for forty years. The doctor was apologetic, because there is no effective medical intervention, time and rubber donut to sit on were the only treatments he could recommend. I turned down the pain medication that was offered to me, I don’t take that unless I am desperate. The pain levels for a fractured tailbone, and serious bruising, are not in the desperate category, thank goodness. However, when I got home after midnight last night, my tailbone tailbone was throbbing from all the poking and prodding during the examination and x-rays, so I did take two regular strength Tylenol, and slept like a baby.
And that is my tale/tail of woe!
For anyone who has experienced issues with the coccyx, I will share a tip that changed my world. A surgeon who was consulted about my back, and indirectly about my coccyx, many years ago, suggested the Obus seat rather than a rubber donut, because is redistributes weight correctly. At that point the way I was sitting to avoid severe pain in the arthritic tailbone, was damaging other parts of my back, causing significant back pain issues, which is why the surgeon was consulted. I took his advice and bought an Obus seat. I am sitting on that first seat right now. After a few months my back pain began to recede, eventually becoming manageable without medication. All because of the Obus seat. If I sit without it, after twenty minutes my back pain returns, full blast, with debilitating muscle spasms. I carry an Obus seat with me at all times.
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Worldly Distractions
Weather
16°C
Date: 7:00 AM EDT Thursday 25 June 2015
Condition: Partly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.8 kPa
Tendency: rising
Visibility: 24 km
Temperature: 16.4°C
Dewpoint: 13.9°C
Humidity: 85%
Wind: NE 12 km/h
Quote
“Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It’s already tomorrow in Australia.”
Charles M. Schulz
1922 – 2000
Oh, Maggie, I am so sorry about the back issues. I’ve never had a tail bone injury, but I’ve been told that it’s quite painful. So sorry! I’m glad you went to Emergency for a definitive diagnosis. You’re braver than me. I would’ve been bellowing for meds.
About 9 years ago when I moved to the mountain, I herniated some discs. Living alone made it difficult. Even moving a fraction of an inch sent charges of pain through my body. One evening I flopped onto my bed, smack dab in the middle. I was on my back looking at the ceiling – my cell phone was out of reach and I couldn’t move without causing excruciating pain. There was some humor to it all for me… I stared at the ceiling and was certain it was the end. I knew no one on the mountain yet and I was stranded in the middle of my bed.
All of the is to also say that I’m sorry Attila isn’t there with you to assist. Sending healing thought your way. Love.
Thanks for the tips on the Obus seat! My Paul may be coming home later today… don’t want to jinx it… I’ll celebrate when he is here!
Deeply sorry to hear about your tailbone, Maggie. After having horseback riding lessons when I was 16 I had extreme pain in my tailbone for many years and often couldn’t sit comfortably. It was a knifing, shooting pain. Very bad. Strangely, many years later it went away. Maybe I finally found a way to sit that moved the tailbone back into place? I don’t know. But after many years of pain it no longer bothers me.
Thanks so much for the recommendation of the Obus seat. I wonder if it would help DH. After all that back surgery 4 years ago he now has another slipped disk and has shooting pains down his legs, sometimes.
Bex, very glad to hear that Paul might be coming home, today! I hope it works out that way.
Hi Maggie,
That is good news about your friend. Glad his spirits are high.
I am sorry you fractured your tailbone. I hope it heals quickly. My sister broke hers years ago falling from a horse and it took awhile to heal but is good now. Time did heal it.
Thank you for the info on the Obus seat. I could no doubt use this. The Kiwi has its plus points but one very negative one is you can feel every bump you drive over.
Erm. I posted a little while ago a link to the Obus website, to ask which of the 4 seats you were talking about, Maggie. The post isn’t here…
Teri, I could not find your post, could be some security feature on my server software, I will try to track down the problem. In the meantime though, I found a picture of my Obus seat and added to this entry, I hope that helps!
Thanks Reenie! I am feeling rather empowered by handling the whole shebang without physical assistance from anyone. Of course, I have lots of emotional support, which helps take the edge off the experience. I am feeling a bit “superwomanish”, if you know what I mean.
I do miss Attila though, and I know he would spoil me if he were here, and now I know that I don’t need to be spoiled like that, but I sure as hades want to be spoiled like that. 🙂
Hey Bex, I see that Paul is home, yahoo! Hope you both have a calm day and evening and that your health takes an upswing and things stay that way!
Teri, when my tailbone was injured during the birth of my daughter, it took a relentless battering from the inside out, for many, many hours. That injury took almost a year to calm down, and it never really healed to the point where I could sit properly. The damage led to severe arthritis, which is what I’ve dealt with now for almost forty years.
This new injury is from the inside out, one big impact, big! It can’t of done the severe arthritis any good, so I am not optimistic on a complete recovery to the point where I can sit the way I did before my daughter was born. BUT at some point I just might be able to sit the way I did last week, and if it heals that much I will be grateful.
The surgeon was particularly addressing my arthritic ass, I love that phrase arthritic ass, as in “oh yeah, my arthritic ass it it!”. I digress. I am curious and wonder if it would bring some relief to you DH, it is certainly worth a try.
Thanks Nora! I had a preexisting condition in my tailbone, arthritis, so I really can’t expect to heal completely, and getting back to the comfort levels I had last week before the fall seems like a reasonable goal. I am glad you sister healed, it is a miserable thing to be unable to sit comfortably.
I will be interested to hear if the Obus seat helps in Kiwi! I always use it when I sit down, so I can’t compare the car ride with or without it, because I am always with it. 🙂
I hope your tailbone soon feels as good as it can feel. A strange thing, the notify email sent me to a November entry in which you were talking about insulating your windows with packing envelopes. I kept wondering, “why, is it STILL that cold there, won’t you want the windows open?” Then I saw the date.
I wonder if the Obus seat would help my back and hips? I am glad you are ok, and that the tailbone will heal. Take care of yourself!
Thanks Joan for your good wishes!
And thanks for letting me know about the incorrect link. I have a text autofill that needs to be edited before sending the notification email out, and it was setup when the post about insulating the windows was created. I didn’t edit for the last email, missed that one! So, I have edited the autofill to go straight to the home page instead, where the latest entry will display at the top of the page, so if I forget again the link will take you to a direct link to the correct entry.
Thanks Lee Ann! The Obus seat is comfortable, at least for me it is, it forces me to sit properly, and distributes my weight properly when I do sit. Might be worth a try, to see if it helps your issues.
Maggie, glad it’s no worse than it is–especially since what it is is bad enough! I’ve been to that tailbone party once, years ago, and it was not fun. Here’s hoping the fracture heals as quickly as possible and you end up no worse than you started.
BTW, love your Charles Schultz quote! 😀
Oh, I had forgotten, I have been getting a really old blog entry on your notifies too… I got it like that twice, but after the first time when I went and read it as if it was current, then figured it out, the second time it happened I went right to your “home” but forgot to tell you!!! Sorry! My brain is mush.
Thanks Wendy. The doctor was astounded that I didn’t want pain meds for the fractured tailbone. Because I have severe arthritis in my tailbone, which means chronic pain, I have learned to deal with that kind of pain, and the fracture didn’t increase the pain levels. The fracture did increase the sensitivity of the area, making sitting a bit trickier than usual, but I am getting used to it. The new pain is the severe bruising, and swelling. I leaned against the counter tonight, as is my habit, and it brought tears to my eyes. The bruise is going to take a long time to heal, and I suspect I will have a “lump” in the area for the rest of my days. I expect the pain will gradually subside in the bruised area though. The bruise will heal completely.
Thanks Bex, I am glad you figured it out. I think it is resolved now because the default, when I forget to edit it, will take you to the “home” page. Glad to hear Paul is home again!