It's so bad... never had anything quite like this. Scaring the shit out of me to be honest...

and I was so embarrassed that I'd rather crawl the 3 miles to the hospital.

Neighbors looking out their windows like a bunch of vultures.

Yeah! That's what happened!

Excuse me sir, what did you do?

OWWWWWW just go onto DU at look for the axe thread , lady!!!!

FUUUUUUUUUUCCCCKKKK!!!

Calm down sir, or I'll have to call security....

You're the fourth patient today that cut his junk off with a wooden-headed axe.

Have a seat in the waiting room....the doctor will see you in 9 hours.

It can be like hitting a wall sometimes. But you might also have an infection or flu of some sort that is knocking you down like that.

Very tender to the touch right above my butt crack. But I don't know why everything else is hurting...

I've been posting like an idiot trying to distract myself.

I'll have to go to the ER if this doesn't resolve.

(It's that little projection of the spine below the pelvis that used to serve the purpose of supporting a tail, even for those of us who don't have one. Now, it's an anchor point for various muscles in the back, hips, and possibly legs. I turned to the side too quickly while I was bending over and my body's own momentum exerted the stress that pulled the ligament.)

I told the doctor I was worried I might have gotten a hairline fracture. She shook her head sadly and informed my she had once fractured her coccyx and said it hurt a Hell of a lot more than what I was going through. Prescribed cure was HUGE doses of acetominophen (Tylenol); at low dosages, it's an analgesic, at higher doses it's a powerful anti-inflammatory. My Rx called for six 1000mg tablets (Rx only) four times a day. Not something to try without doctor's recommendation, but you might try checking your OTC Tylenol for the maximum daily dose, and giving that a shot, if it's consistent with your other conditions/Rx's.

If you already have a donut cushion, see if it helps.

There's actually a medical condition known as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccydynia -- lots of info at the Wiki (amazing how much there is to know about a part of our anatomy we're usually scarcely aware exists). Hopefully you won't have to have a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccygectomy.

It's a bit to the right.

The past few weeks, I've been getting large-gauge needle steroid injections directly into a skin condition that just happened to break out in the area this particular flare up. But I don't think the pain is from that, because the injections were far enough away from where the pain is.

Jesus...6 grams of Tylenol in one day? Did your doc monitor your liver function????

The label on the bottle gives a much smaller max dosage (legal CYA) but the doc assured me they sometimes need to do this with a Rx.

YIKES!!!

And you're right, some of that is CYA, but holy crap, that's 6 times the recommended maximum dose.

I'm really curious....did they monitor your liver functions while you were taking this?

They happen suddenly and are very painful. My neighbor had one in her 80s, in the early 2000s and she said it was worse than childbirth. I can't remember the treatment she got, but it took her some time to get better. Around 2012, my husband's elderly uncle had some trouble with his vertebrae, and got some kind of gooey liquid injected that stabilized the problem area. He got the treatment as out-patient, and did pretty well. He was in his 80s as well.
Whatever is causing your pain, hope you can get it diagnosed and fixed.


I wish you well.

But just about every lumbar and thoracic disc is blown out.

I've done a lot of heavy work in the past decade that was made for a younger man, but not me.

I'm paying the piper now for it.

It ALWAYS resolves, eventually. But this one feels different. It's my back, hips, knees, arms.

Sounds horrible :/

how quickly some of these ailments will overtake us when we get older. I often feel betrayed by own body.

I hope you can take it REALLY easy this week. Sounds like you can use it!

Because if so, that would be the cause

If I have to take opioids I just pop a stool softener with the first one. Works a treat to avoid the constipation. I just mean, if pain gets too bad, that's an option. Also, even if there's some APAP in the opioid formulation, it's not typically a problem to also add some NSAIDs (like aspirin, naproxen, or ibuprofen) and they work noticeably better in combination, for me at least.

Sorry you're hurting today buddy, get better soon!

I try not to take opiates at home. Last time Ii had opiates was via IV a few months ago in the hospital for an unrelated issue.

I can't take NSAIDS...kidney disease.

The opiates that I have are the ones with Tylenol in them.

I know how difficult it can be to do something to fix this new foreign pain. But when it's this bad, someone needs to have a good look at you.

Pain is a message from your body. Heed it.

what you're experiencing doesn't sound normal and calling an ambulance is perfectly reasonable under the circumstances.

I hope you are feeling better soon! 💗🙏🏼💐

Please get yourself to the ER, or at least Urgent Care if you have one still open.

I had an episode of low back muscle spasms last December that was so severe I could hardly stand up. Had to get the walker from past joint replacements out to be able to walk to the car. My son took me to Urgent Care. Got a shot and within an hour I could walk without the walker. They also gave me muscle relaxants and suggested pain patches.

Get yourself some help!

Please do not be embarrassed to use an ambulance if necessary. You are dear to us, and we want you properly cared for. Don't make me come up there!!!

I really hope it's nothing serious. God Speed

I'm getting about 3 CT scans a year on my hips and back the past few years.

But it calms down sometimes, so I'm hoping this is just a flare up.

The Clinic that serves the Olympic Training Center says apply ice, never heat. When it's whole body, that's a neat trick.

I get the best results with a TENS but that's also a neat trick with whole-body. The unit I have can only supply at most four pads at a time. You have to use an even number, and they don't need to be near each other - as long as both or all are securelt touching the body, they will conduct.

But seeing a doctor is really the best idea. There are so many things we don't know about our bodies because we never needed to. When we don't know what we're sealing with, we are probably doing it wrong, whatever we are doing.

No statins, right?

Generally, it’s less likely you will get stuck in the ER waiting room if you arrive by ambulance. Walk-ins tend to go to the back of the line.

I hope you feel better as fast as this came on, but also urge you to have this checked out. Meanwhile, an ice pack on the base of your spine might help calm things down. (I am no expert, just an old person with some experience caring for even older persons. Please see someone and get better advice!)

Last edited Mon Oct 6, 2025, 11:56 PM - Edit history (1)

.. I went through almost a year where I had various pains/limited mobility. Hip flexor one week. A couple weeks later, rotator cuff. The next week, a knee. Then wrist pain.

I was a pretty active person and just wrote off as "I pulled something." Or "I'm getting older, I should be more careful."

Then it was less and less time between episodes of this or that. Then multiple joints at once, and then, it seemed like overnight, I was rolling myself to the bathroom on my office chair because walking was too painful and the aching in my wrists was unbearable. I couldn't sleep. I remember just crying at times in the middle of the night. I couldn't even open my own door or reach a kitchen cabinet.

Fortunately, I was rapidly referred to an excellent Rheumatologist. I had all the Rheumatoid indicators*, which usually translates to severe disease. I was put on Enbel (weekly injection) 15 mg Methotrexate weekly, and 400 mg Hydroxychloroquine daily. The pain resolved completely in a few weeks. I've generally been in remission now for about 15 years, albeit, with a few flare ups and medication changes. And when I do have a flare up and the pain is back, I can't believe how bad it is. It's strange. We are very good at forgetting pain until we re-experience it.

* Anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA), Anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin (anti-MCV), C-reactive protein (CRP), Rheumatoid Factor (RF), high Erythrocyte sed rate... and I think other indicators I don't recall.

Since you're being affected in alot of areas.

GOOD Luck!

Dear Mr. Lucky Charms, could you possibly have been bitten by a tick? Some decades ago, I got a tick bite when I was visiting Half-Moon Bay, California. Weeks later I experienced extreme pain all over my body so much so I could barely walk. I went to the doctor, and he tested my blood. The blood test revealed high levels of inflammation. When I suggested that I could have Lyme disease he said it didn't exist in Washington state. The pain was so awful I truly wanted to die. My daughter who was in nursing school at the time and had some Celebrex around from a previous kidney stone treatment gave me one of her left-over pills. The pain went away but I did have Lyme disease and had to take an antibiotic for four weeks.

It’s pretty effective. I hope you feel better soon.

My journey was painful and immediate from one moment to the next, as you describe, and the problem was that parts of my back were broken, and the diagnosis took time. I then had injections of glue in the broken area. Did not help much. Then a massive steroid injection into the lower part of the spine. Finally ended up with lumbar surgery to open regions of the spine that did not allow my nerves to travel freely.
That surgery was 3 weeks ago. I am pain-free today, and off all meds. My 84-year-old surgeon, who operated to classical music, I heard it as I went under, promised an 80 percent success. It was 100 percent.
I had no summer this year, but I am mending, and my life has been returned to me.

Bottom line: get immediate attention, get immediate diagnosis, get in line, be a squeaky wheel, the waiting times for the procedures can be weeks.

We may not have the same problems, but the pain sounds identical. I also could not set down a dog dish for weeks.
I hired a neighbor who is young and unemployed to come in a few hours every day to do the things I could not. I tapped into a bit of money I saved for emergencies, put it in an envelope, and still have a bit left.

I wish you great help, immediately, and if I wrote too much, I am sorry; it was a bit cathartic.

I hope this passes soon.

Is it worse in some areas, like, is there a center it radiates out from? When you say bone pain, are you talking about your joints? Sudden onset is pretty weird. Could it be an allergic reaction, or did you get stung by some nasty? Either of those can do some pretty weird things to a body.

I have a great orthopedic surgeon that patches me up and keeps me going over the past 11 years. Can you ask your GP to recommend one where you can get in quickly? Some things that have helped me previously are icing, a massage gun, a portable TENS unit, and my prescription for diclofenac.

Please keep us posted. Hope you're feeling chipper again very soon.

back pain is the same.

My legs are starting to look like a body builder's because I use my legs entirely, to take the strain off my back. I feel like I'm doing repetitive squats all day.

I was in a panic last night because of the non-back joint pain. That never happened to me before. That pain was showing me no mercy last night.

I didn't take any pain pills. I took a Xanax and a pot gummy and they knocked me out for a good sleep.

Fingers crosses for a better day today, I hope. If that joint pain flares up again today, I'll go to the ER.

Thanks for your kind words.

Acetaminophen Extended Release Tablets 650mg. My doctor recommended this when he took me off my prescription arthritis medication.

and hurt your back even worse replacing a large microwave, in addition to the list of things you mentioned doing recent days, including replacing your computer. After all of that just blowing your nose can land you in the hospital, ''sudden onset''.

"Take half, Lucky. Half a shovel'' still the best advice.

and that's what scared me. It just came on out of the blue...knees, ankles, elbows, pelvis, etc. That pain immobilized me.

Back pain is chronic, so I expect it and it doesn't panic me.

But last night? Oh boy...it was the strangest thing ever. I'm still not sure what happened.

Doing a bit better today, I hope. We'll see.

You brought a smile to my face when you mentioned "take half a shovel".

''The joints in the spine are called “facets.” Each vertebra in the spine has two sets.''

...get a referral to a Rheumatologist for screening. Although gradual onset is common, there are cases of "explosive" onset in "non-traditional" larger joints that can come on fast and resolve fast.

AI summary of various Rheumatoid presentations and mimics.