Coccyx displacement and thigh pain

by Natasha
(Curepipe, Mauritius)

Dear Doctor,

I'm Natasha from Mauritius.
I would like to seek help from you in treating my pain.
I fell down the stairs at my work place on 16th May 2016 & landed heavily on my bum. Xray showed coccyx displacement; to date I don't have pain neither in my lower back nor in tailbone area but I have this really nagging pain in my thighs (back side of thighs) especially when sitting.
Kindly advise if this thigh pain is caused by the dislocated coccyx.

I have also done a lumbar spine MRI which shows no abnormality, no disc prolapse.

Hope you can give me some advice and what can be done to get relief. If you could also advise if only thigh pain is related to coccydynia or should I undergo other tests?
Many thanks in anticipation,
Warm regards,
Natasha.





Hello Natasha,
Most likely that x-ray is what we call an incidental finding; true, your coccyx has been displaced but is irrelevant. It probably occurred years ago. A newly displaced coccyx is extremely painful and tender to the touch.

So, are the coccyx displacement and thigh pain related? Probably not.

More likely is that fall on the buttocks disturbed one of the sacroiliac joints or the pubic symphysis, or even the hip joint.

If there is anything that you can do that will provoke the thigh pain then that will help make the diagnosis. If you slowly bend forwards, then backwards, and after that to the side does it do anything interesting? Prod and press around and see if you can find any tender places. Using the search function at chiropractic help, type in Slump test for sciatica. Does it reproduce your pain.
What's needed is a careful and thorough examination at this stage, rather than more tests.

I hope this contributes; let me know if any of the above makes sense. Any pubic bone pain?

Dr Barrie Lewis


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