The Story of How I Broke My Tailbone

Today, while I was unpacking some boxes, I came across an essay I had to write for an English class my freshman year of college. It instantly took me back to 15 years ago when I was an optimistic 18 year old who thought she could do anything.


The warm night air rushed against my face as I began my journey down the hill. The slippery ice block, which was my transportation, started to slide and slip beneath me uncontrollably. Suddenly, the giant man-eating hole, which is feared throughout campus, appeared in my view. I frantically tried to steer myself and my ice block around the hole, but was unsuccessful. As I was thrown into the air my unfaithful ice block continued on its path down the hill. When I landed on the cold, hard ground I thought I had died.

Gathering my senses, I came to the realization that I was in fact alive, and had not passed from this world into the next. I began to probe my legs and arms, searching for broken bones. After a complete examination, I pronounced myself healthy.

Ice block in hand, I started my journey back up the hill to test my luck once again. Pain began to spread through my body and its origin seemed to be my bum. Deciding not to try ice blocking again, I sat and watched as my friends flew down the hill on their somewhat faithful ice blocks.

When I awoke the next morning the pain was unbearable. When I lifted my arms, my bum hurt. When I walked my bum hurt. Never had I imagined how much I actually used my bum in common, everyday activitites. Trying to get out of bed without moving my arms or legs became a difficult task. Finally, after reassuring myself that the pain would only last for a minute, I rolled off my bed and used my nightstand and dresser to drag myself up to a standing position. Boy, was I wrong about the pain. It didn't go away, but instead became increasingly painful with every step to my roommates door. Using the wall to prop myself up, I called out Jan's name, praying she'd awaken from her dead sleep. At last, when I had almost given up, she appeared at her door very blurry-eyed.

"Hey Jan", I asked. "Have you ever broken your bum before?" She looked at me with the look that said "it's nine o'clock in the morning, are you serious?". When she became more alert she came to the conclusion that she had never broken her bum before and didn't know how to help me.

My first though then was, "Get me the phone, I want to call my parents." My parents had always been there for me; through sickness, surgery, and broken bones. For the first time in my life, I was on my own with no one to take care of me, fetch me a blanket, or hand me the remote. When I moved out of my home in Idaho Falls and into my apartment in Logan, I vowed to myself that I would be able to make it through whatever disasters I got myself into. This seemed to be an exception.

After I explained the situation to my parents, my mom told me to lie down, that she would take care of everything. I couldn't figure out what she meant until about ten minutes later when my Aunt Myrna showed up with all the necessary information to take me to the emergency room at the hospital.

The emergency room seemed to be overflowing with injured people that day; people that had no patience for me or my slow, painful walk. I was thankful when we actually made it into one of the little exam cubicles, until I remembered that I had to crawl onto one of those huge slabs that are used for beds in the hospital. It had taken forever to get myself out of bed and now I had to get right back into one. With the help of my aunt I finally made it up onto the bed and was taking deep breaths while wiping perspiration from my forehead. When the nurse brought in a hospital gown and told me to put it on, I looked at her with a blank stare and slowly said "I can't lift my arms higher than my waist, how am I supposed to get it on?". She replied with "I don't care how you do it, just get it on before the doctor comes."

Again, with the help of my aunt I made it into one of the ugliest and I'm sure the oldest of all hospital gowns. Now, back on the bed, lying flat on my stomach, my aunt began questioning me. "What were you thinking? Didn't you think about what could happen before you started down the hill?" I was about to answer when I heard the swish of the curtains as the doctor approached. He then asked the dreaded question, "So, what happened?".

"Well, let me explain," I said. "Last night my friends and I had the brilliant idea to go ice blocking, but unfortunately, we didn't receive this great idea until about midnight. On my second time down, I hit the biggest hole on that hill and was thrown right up in the air and came down right on my bum."

Trying to explain to him about my unfaithful ice block while he was laughing hysterically didn't seem to be working. "You fell off the ice block and broke your bum?" he asked, almost in tears. "Well, I guess that would be the short version of it," I answered.

He couldn't stop laughing long enough to reply, but after he calmed himself down, he sent me off to the x-ray lab. This time I didn't have to get down off the bed, but I had to slide myself from one slab to the next. This proved to be very difficult. Trying to slide myself while holding the back of my hospital gown with one hand and using the other to keep it from coming up to my neck put me in great pain. Finally, in exasperation, the lab technician helped me into the correct position and did the x-rays.

When I got back to my little exam cubicle and the doctor returned with the results of the x-rays, he was successfully able to keep a straight face as he told me the bad news. I had, in fact, broken my tailbone, and I would have to carry around an inflatable donut to sit on for quite some time. Besides the donut and some medication, he told me there was nothing else he could do for me. At that moment, I decided that I would never again use an ice block as a vehicle for transporting myself down a hill.