Hi, I am 36 year old healthy - ish female. Last year I developed pain in my bottom when sitting and when going from sitting to rising...very painful in fact. A few months later I started to get pain in my lower back during the night. It got progressively worse so that I was awake half the night in pain. I went to the doctor who was not so concerned about my tailbone pain thinking it was maybe just bruised from something, even though I hadnt banged it. He initially diagnosed gallbladder pain and sent me for a scan to check for stones...it wasnt though, and I knew it wasnt. On pain meds, the pain got worse, it now wasnt just during the night it was affecting me during the day...towards the end of the evening I was struggling with my job (childminder) as the pressure built up I would feel like I was lurching from one place to another if I had to pick up a child because it was so painful.
Taking ibuprofen and tramadol before bed helped, and if I took it again at 5 in the morning it was possible to get up and function when my alarm went off. The pain now a general smashing in my hips kind of feeling, lying on one side to sleep until the pain reached a crescendo, and then hauling myself onto the other side to get a little more sleep until it becomes too much to bear. Back to gp who decided to prescribe citrolapram(sp?!) to help me sleep?!He said the pain would be worse if I wasn't sleeping well. To be honest, I dont think I was being taken too seriously. I talked about stopping taking tramadol as dependency on the drug has set in...he dismissed it saying he didn't see how I could as I was in too much pain. I insisted that there was something wrong so he allowed me to go for an mri. the mri revealed a prolapsed disc that is not sitting on a nerve so does not require treatment but special exercises would help. Not knowing what these exercises were I went back to gp to ask, who said...'just walking, the disc will shrink back....will take 18 months'.
So now I have had this pain for about 9 months...maybe longer, it feels like forever! I am on tramadol and ibuprofen twice/three times a day to control the pain. (citralopram no good) I have terrible pain in the night...feels like hip smashes, plus sciatica, plus lower back pain, plus generally feeling beaten up and like I've done too many sit ups. In the morning I cannot straighten my back properly, when I go to the toilet I am now at the point where I can barely reach to wipe my bottom because its just not possible. ... my back wont turn. I have put on about 1 and a half stone, and I am feeling the effects of the medication I take.
I continue to eat very healthily, I refuse to stop moving and walk a lot. I am still working but am getting increasingly worried that at some point I am going to have to stop...this honestly scares the crap out of me as I don't know how we would manage financially. I just do not know what to do. I'm very worried as it just seems to be getting worse, I can't imagine life how it was now and this makes me so frustrated. I want to get back to running, playing normally with my kids etc. Has anyone got some experience of something similar and what they did? Please tell me I'm going to get better!