I broke my
tailbone at 11

In the winter of 2014 in February, a couple of days before my brother’s birthday party, I broke my tailbone and couldn't walk for weeks.

When I was 11 years old, during a bright winter morning, my little brother Andrew and I had a sibling fight about which show to watch while we were eating our chocolate cereal. 

After we finished eating, my mom told me and Andrew to go upstairs to our shared bedroom to pack and get ready for school. I was just about to walk down the stairs, but while walking down I slipped and fell down the stairs, hitting my head against the wall hard while falling. My mom and my brother panicked and kept calling out my name.

After falling to ground level, my mom helped me get up. But then I fainted on the floor. She called out for my dad, who rushed down the stairs. My mom said she was going to call the ambulance. I heard and saw all of that before fully fainting.

Two minutes later, I woke up on the same floor where I fainted and the first thing I did was call out for my mom. She came and asked if I was okay, I said that I was. But when I tried to get up from the floor, I couldn't. My mom helped me up and took me to the living room to sit down on the comfy leather sofa.

My brother didn't go to school that day because he was worried for me. My mind was occupied with negative thoughts like: Why couldn't I get up from the floor and walk? And was I going to become like this forever? My mom spent the rest of the day looking after me to make sure I was okay. I felt helpless.

A couple of days after the incident, it was my brother's birthday party, and we celebrated during the evening. During that same evening, my whole family from my dad's side to my mom's side knew about my incident and they were worried for me. 

Towards the end of Andrew's birthday party, my mom told me to go change my clothes and wear some comfortable clothes to relax. My mom said she would help to take me upstairs but I told her I was going to be okay, I wanted to try it on my own. 

I crawled upstairs. The changing clothing process seemed to go fine. I was wearing a green shirt with silver jogging pants with warm socks. As I walked downstairs slowly holding on to the railing, I slipped and began falling down the stairs again, but my uncle saved me by a couple of stairs. I was lucky in that he saved me from bruising my back and waist even more. My uncle took me to the living room where all the adults were and straight to my mom and maternal grandmother. They took a look at my back waist with my grandmother's sister-in-law, who said to my mom, “Rupa, Ryan’s back is bruised black and blue”.  

My mom went to the kitchen to get some ice and hold it on my back waist. As she was holding the ice on my back waist in front of my dad's family and her family, I was anxious and felt embarrassed. I felt like I was taking the spotlight from Andrew's birthday party.

Later, my mom took me to the hospital, where the doctor did an X-ray on me. The conclusion from the x-ray was that my tailbone was broken. The doctor said my tailbone needed time to heal.  I was instructed not to do anything that would hurt it even more. I was worried for a second, but the doctor said once it's healed, I can go back to my routine. The healing process took a couple of weeks. During those weeks, I was scared, anxious and traumatized by what happened, but luckily it was healed. 

The side effect of my traumatic incident is that whenever I sit down and then stand up, my tailbone hurts. Every so often I keep remembering my traumatic incident, down to every little detail. 

Different traumatic incidents can leave a child feeling anxious and scared, which often can leave a scar in their adulthood from different life scenarios.