Tailbone pain and insomia

[JCKOCH]

First I would like to tell you all how happy I am to find this place! A little info: my husband was diagnosed with rectal cancer in March 2013. The doctors we WERE seeing did not give us the correct scans to properly stage him so he underwent 6 weeks of chemo/radiation for his tumor. We switched to the Cancer Institute, found a wonderful surgeon, and luckily my husband had total response to treatment and the tumor disappeared. Nine inches was removed and it tested "cancer free." Also all lymph nodes were clear. Since he was not staged correctly in the beginning they have decided to go ahead with 4 months of chemo just to be safe. During the last couple of weeks of radiation hubby got a soreness in his tailbone. It didn't keep him up at night but was annoying. It went away a few weeks after radiation stopped and all was good. On August 3rd, we had the surgery to remove the 9 inches and afterwards his tailbone has flared up again. And this time it is HORRIBLE! It hurts non stop and nothing will help. No narcotic seems to touch it and it doesn't seem to matter what we do, nothing helps. Insomnia has been an issue also and I'm sure is partly caused by the pain. We had a complication after surgery so he cannot take any kind of blood thinning medicine as of now. Hopefully that will change soon. Has anyone else experienced this and does anyone have any kind of advice for him? Rest is so important to healing properly and he is literally up all night. Tylenol PM and other sleep aids work for about 1.5 hours and then he's up, wide awake again. We eat healthy ( virtually no sugar), no caffeine and he is exercising (walking) as much as he can. He returned to work and we had hoped being in a regular routine would help but it hasn't. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[kmv]

I experienced very bad tailbone pain when I was severely constipated postpartum, before I was diagnosed.

[skypup]

Y'know, those operating room tables are really cold and hard, and they put our bodies in unfortunate positions during surgery. I've worked on many people (as a massage therapist) who had spine and/or nerve problems after surgery. Is it possible this might be the case for your husband? I personally had pain that the docs couldn't explain for several months after my resection, although it wasn't in the tailbone. Eventually it went away.

As for insomnia, I finally went with ambien. I've never been happy taking medications, but the time came when I just had to get more sleep. It works well for me. I have never had any of the weird symptoms one hears about.

[CrazyHarry]

Extreme tailbone pain that is exacerbated by sitting. I can go 20-25 minutes where I just can't sit anymore. On major pain meds. Tried acupuncture with no improvement. Getting very discouraged that this pain in my as will never go away.

I have my reconnect coming up soon and chemo ending in 3 weeks. Maybe some miracle will ease my discomfort.

I would be happy to keep in touch with you. Let me know.

Harry.

[jacekica]

When I started to feel tailbone pain year and a half before it was thoguht it is back pain (it was a year after CR surgery. Now I hve mets aroud aorta in abundance and they pressure nerves. He is on chemo and radiation, so maybe treatments are to blame, but you have to speak with your doc about it. They just don't understand that this pain i shorrible. My max time in bed laying down is hour and half, usually much less. What it helps - wwalking and sitting on the medicine/excersise ball. And take another painkiller and after a while I can go to bed for an hour.
Push and insist in diagnostic, don't let it go because it is inconvenient, if I was pushy I will not be in this stage now.