Pain In The Arse and other such things

I am fascinated by phrases and their meanings and origins. For instance did you know that using the expression "kick the bucket" as a way to let someone know that someone has died comes from when people were hanged? A person stood on a bucket under a tree limb to be hung and when it was time, the bucket beneath them was kicked out of the way for that person to be hung. Hence the phrase they "kicked the bucket". It makes sense and I get that. But as I lay here after surgery, not being able to lay in a comfortable position and at this very moment have construed my body to be twisted like a contortionist just so I can somehow type on my lap top on my bed (this is so that my belly is mainly lying down so that my rump is mainly up with no pressure on it) and typing this in sections when I can; I am very well aware of, and have become much more intimate with the phrase "pain in the ass".

So it's got me thinking-- what could the origin possibly be for that phrase? I mean really, you hear it all the time. "these new programs are a pain in the butt", or "your beginning to be a real pain in the rear". It's almost comical. Almost.  Did people used to walk around with pain in their kiester all the time? Maybe way back then, coccyx problems ran rampant! And if it did, well why in the heck doesn't anyone seem to be aware of the problem now? I mean people were coming from all over the country just to go to the surgeon that I went to for the exact same issue and he does about 2-3 surgeries a week for the same problem. Yet supposedly it's so rare! It's not rare. Why isn't the medical community schooled on this? The medical community is so uniformed that my surgeon is doing a study. He's already been doing it for a year or two and I am now part of that study. For the next two years I will be recontacted as to my progress post surgery of removing my coccyx. It could very well be possible that people had this condition way back when and were faced with absolutely the same problem as those that have it today, facing no alternatives because it went undiagnosed and unfixed.

I've had a pain in my ass for nearly 2 years now and I'm hoping once the surgery pain is gone, that I will once and for all only have to deal with it figuratively. But rest assured, if you are ever to hear me say, "you've really become a pain in my ass"- I mean some serious business, because after everything I've gone through, trust me, it will not be meant nicely.  Either way, no matter the origin or how you choose to say it, whether it be pain in the arse, rear, butt, can, rear end, sitter, bahakas, ass, bum, kiester, buttocks, bottom, derriere, colito, or gluteus maximus- in this area, I am now an expert.