Monday 25 October 2021

Tailbone tale

Many, many moons ago, actually when I was about fifteen I took up horse riding. There was a riding school near where I lived and I used to go there for lessons.

My instructor was a former cavalry officer and his teaching method was somewhat unorthodox, to say the least. Instead of deportment I learned how to somersault off a horse and how to rise to a standing position on the saddle while the horse was walking. I can still remember the movements necessary to rise to your feet on a moving horse while using the metal hoops on a special saddle. Not knowing any better I just followed instructions thinking this was a normal riding lesson. 

I also started to learn show jumping and it was here I came unstuck. One day my horse refused the jump and I went over the bars on my own. I landed on my bottom and this was the beginning of a long saga of pain and the end of my riding.

Sitting down was very uncomfortable and I would get a painful spasm when I stood up again. I ended up having to carry a doughnut-shaped cushion around with me to sit on for months. Eventually the pain lessened but never really went away.My parents ignored the whole episode and I never saw a doctor!

When I left home and went to England to study nursing I eventually saw a doctor about the pain and it turned out I had broken my coccyx (tailbone) and it had twisted round and re-set itself curving out instead of in, which was what was causing the pain. I had to have surgery to have it removed. Amputation of the coccyx was unusual enough that my case was used for teaching purposes and more than once while in hospital I had groups of medical students crowding round my bed and admiring my derrière, not much fun when you are a shy eighteen year old!

4 comments:

  1. It would appear that your parents were of their time, "don't make a fuss" and tough as it may sound, that is often how life was then. It is a good that many things have changed for the better since those days. They were not always the good ol' days were they! I am glad that you eventually got the pain sorted out.

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    1. I agree Rachel, they certainly weren´t the good old days. Looking back I´m amazed I survived my childhood as my parents were extremely neglectful, even for those times.

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  2. I really sympathise with what you went through and pleased that you recovered after your operation. I had a relative who in the 1930s was travelling in the farm pick-up when a milk churn overturned and hurt her back. Nothing was done about it by the family. In her 30s she had to start wearing a leather covered metal frame which came up under her armpits.
    (Wendy) Wales

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    1. Thank you Wendy. Your poor relative, another example of the not so good old times.

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