What is this tailbone pain all about? Help please?

OK, what the heck is this?  I have much pain in my tailbone area?  Is this from loosing 70 lbs?  I am so confused.  I did not hurt myself or anything like that.  I have seen other people say they have tailbone pain, but why do we get this after surgery, I just don't understand?

What does anyone else do for this pain and does it go away? 

Because you don't have much padding on your butt anymore.

Mine doesn't hurt all the time, just if I sit on something hard.  So mostly I try to avoid hard seats.  I use a cushion to sit on in the bathtub.

I have a tailbone? lol

Hello! I'm probably one of the tailbone-gurus of this forum!

First and foremost, relax, MOST people who have weight loss do have a period of soreness and for most it goes away

My suggestion is that you go and order a ****yx pillow from Amazon (not a donut pillow)

Use it where you sit most.... I have one at home, one in the car, and one at my computer chair at work.

Likely, you'll eventually get over it without anything more than the ****yx pillow

For SOME folks, it doesn't seem to get worse. Often for these folks the reason for this is that the muscle responsible for pulling the tailbone up when you sit is weak. It hasn't had to do much work when you had a fat butt and now that it's slimming down, your tailbone is sore. Likely your muscle is working, but you've inflamed the bone, and it wll take time to heal. For some folks this needs a bit of help since we don't take NSAIDS (the most recommended line of healing)... if it doesn't get better, you might see an orthopedic pain specialist who may recommend a course of one, two, or even three cortisone injections. This reduces the inflammation of the tailbone, and allows it to heal while the tailbone muscle gains strength. MOST people who have WLS have sore butts, very few need to get cortisone injections. Of those who get the cortisone injections, MOST only need one or two. For me, the first one helped, the second one seriously eliminated my pain for almsot a year.

In MY case, I'd had a "big butt" since I was kindergarten. My ortho pain doc speculated that my tailbone muscle was utterly atrophied through a lifetime of disuse. My big butt disappeared, and whiel the cortisone shot helped (shots three and four did NOT help at all).... ultimately in MY case the MRI showed that I was traumatizing the bone every time I sat down. The pain doc did NOT believe in ****yx removal, but in my extreme case, there was nothing he could do to alleviate pain if I was goign to truamatize the bone repeatedly day after day after day. So last March I had mine removed and have eliminated about 85% of the pain.

I'd say less than one tenth of one percent of people who have WLS even get shots, and a much tinier percentage need their tailbone removed (radical surgery)

So.....get yourself a ****yx pillow, expect some discomfort, and know it will likely go away! (the pain, not the tailbone)

Oh thank you so very much.  I was so worried my mind racing with many thoughts.  I will most definately get the pillow and see if that helps!  I am glad to know it can get better with time! 

The ****yx pillow I bought is by a company called Wagan I bought it through Amazon and it has been priced from $11 to $13 the times I've purchased it. I think I've bought five total. One I left in a movie theater, I still have four. One for my home, one for my car, and two for my work chair (I double up there)

seriously, MOST folks do not go through the odyssey of pain I've been through. But even so I feel like am expert since I've been to teh extremes. It's those good solid German genes, giving me a large posterior (up until WLS.... I never thought I'd lose my "butt shelf")

I think I was in your category - I was heavy since 5th grade always with a big butt and then when I lost the weight, I had no butt at all.  This is the first time I have heard this explained this way it explains my excrutiating pain fo over  2 years. I would say the pain probably started at around 6 or 8 months but was controlable.   I started out with the ****yx pillow and I was fine, things were good - I had 3 of them - one in the car, one in my apartment for my computer and one that I used when I went down to my communities room to play cards or out to play bingo - I was never without one.  Everyone knew me by my pillow with the hole in the butt but I didnt care because it worked.  Then my 2 year anniversary came and I was in the hospital for 2 months flat on my ass due to complications and after 4 surgeries that almost took my life - you know most of the story - the pain was unbearable.  I woke up from ICU with and the pain in my butt was as bad as the pain in my abdomen which is hard to compare.  I was lying in one position 24 hours per day since I couldn't turn myself so the tailbone just got more painful by the minute.  I would try to shift to the side on my own but I couldn't. I would finally get a nurse to turn me one once in awhile and finally they put a pillow one side to keep me on my side for awhile which helped.  Then I finally went home after 2 months but had the iliostomy, so I couldnt really turn on my side or it would leak so I came up with an idea to sleep with the ****yx pillow under me.  So, I used the pillow 24 hours per day but after awhile, it didnt' help anymore - no matter where I layed down, it hurt - the entire area was so inflamed I would cry myself to sleep and this lasted for a few months until I could finally sleep on my side.  I would say finally at about 2 years 9 months out, the pain finally went away and I can say that I can sit comforably without my ****yx pillow. I still use regular pillows due to spinal problems but not due to ****yx problems.

Your situation was very bad, and I tell ya, if I lie on my back for too long in bed, I still have major tailbone pain even though my tailbone is gone completely. My spinal surgeon was astonished when I came out of surgery that I was in agony. In addition to literally flooding the region with local anaesthetic, AND giving me an epidural that was supposed to last 72 hours, I woke up in screaming agony. The epidural failed, and the local might not have happened. I still have pain 24/7.... but I've become used to it. Perhaps part of this is that I have at least four herniated disks that I know of, two cervical, two lumbar, and I've never had any MRI of my thoracic spine, or I'd probably have more (a lot of my back pain is thoracic). That plus degenerative disk disease and moderate to severe arthritis... and I'm doomed!

I'm glad to hear that in your case you improved, and I'm sure it was inflammation due to the constant pressure when you almost died. As you got better and were able to alleviate the pressure, the natural healing of the body took over.

I've taken a LOT of time to think about the tailbone -- of course -- and I think it has helped. I'm on a yahoo group for those with ****yx issues. Understanding gives a dimension to chronic issues, helps me to know what I can work to fight, and what fights aren't goign to result in a win. I'd rather spend my energy on fights with the chance of winning!

Mine hurt for a while around 3 months out... now only when I sit on something hard.  Bathtub doesn't bother me though.

 I am only three weeks out from surgery and 40 pounds lost and my tailbone is killing me. It is almost worse than the surgery pain. I thought it was just from laying down so much since I have had a few complications. Is three weeks to soon for it to be associated with weightless?