Q: I am a 32 years old male. Some mine months back, I slipped on a pipe and there was direct hit around my Coccyx area. There was severe pain for a week for which I took pain killers. The pain reduced after a week and it started again while travelling in a vehicle. But from the last one week it has increased and the whole back area is aching badly. What am I suffering from? What do I do to reduce the pain?

A:From your description, it seems you have a condition called Coccygodynia. This starts quite often after trivial injury to the Coccyx (Tail Bone) but once initiated it tends to persist for a long time. Usual treatment is to give pain killers but pain comes back after the effect of pain killer goes off. Some physicians give local anaesthetic injections mixed with steroids. But this can be risky with a risk of infection and breakdown of skin. The best remedy is to avoid touching the coccyx on the ground/surface where you are sitting. Quite often doctors recommend rubber tubes of tyres for sitting so that coccyx does not touch anywhere. But these are unwieldy and you can’t walk around with this. Easier way of doing this is to sit on one buttock or sit between two cushions. If you take this precaution sufficiently long enough it settles on its own. You may need painkillers in the beginning. Occasionally there may be fractures with a mobile segment of bone, which may need an intervention surgically. This will need X-rays and other evaluation. The specialist you need to see is an Orthopaedic Surgeon.