Question: I’m having significant pain in my pelvis/groin. It’s to the right of center, and about 3” below the belly button.
The pain started last night. I was sleeping on my right side with a pillow between my legs. I awoke at about 3:30 am; I needed to urinate. Just as I started to roll over onto my back, I felt sharp pain from the area described above. Might have been a 6 on the 0-10 scale. I stopped moving for a few seconds, then continued rolling onto my back. Felt more pain and some weakness.
Then switched to sleeping on my back, but couldn’t get back to sleep.
I’ve now iced it 4 times today. I still have significant aching pain, maybe level 5. It was milder initially after I got up, but has worsened since then. It’s about the same whether I sit or lie on my back.
I’m already taking Meloxicam 2x/day as a treatment for TMJ, so I have the pain reliever aspect covered.
I’m not sure what caused this, but my suspicion is that getting in and out of my car was the culprit. Hard to believe, but I’ve gotten a bit weaker and less flexible over the last few years. My right thigh particularly lacks flexibility and has weakened.
Over the last two months, I’ve typically gotten out of the car by swiveling in the seat and putting both legs out the door. I then rise up from there.
Over the last week or two, I’ve started going back to the more normal way, which is to move the left leg out and then push off with the right to exit the vehicle. I’ve noticed that this sometimes causes some discomfort in the pelvis/groin area.
I used this method twice yesterday, once in the morning and again at about 7:30 pm. It didn’t seem to be a problem.
I’ve actually had groin/pelvis/hip pain several times during July and August. One of the times was due to sexual intercourse. Another was getting in and out of bed in a way that stressed the area.
Also, my right hip is very stiff—I think it’s the soft tissues not the joint—so the physical therapist has me stretching it every day. I did so yesterday, and didn’t feel pain, though the area was stiff as usual.
This is part of a decline in my musculoskeletal health that began with back pain, leg stiffness and knee pain in 2012. I worked on these things, though not as diligently as I should have. By February 2014, the right quads had stiffened up so much that it became difficult to walk normally. I’ve had an abnormal gait most of the time since then. This has caused the right knee to stiffen up, and also led to problems with my right foot.
Since early July I’ve also developed TMJ, which make sleep difficult.
I also have a frozen right shoulder dating back to last year. And I’ve hurt both forearms and wrists recently by using improper technique when getting up from stretches or lowering myself down to do stretching.
And I should mention that I stressed my abdominal muscles Friday by grabbing my small belly with both hands, and not gently. It was anxious reaction to worry about losing weight due to the TMJ. I wrote to your organization about that incident. The doctor who replied said she didn’t think it was a significant problem, and that it should resolve on its own in a few days. It’s better today, but not back to normal.
It’s been kind of a Murphy’s Law, snowball situation.
What’s your thought on the groin/pelvis area pain? Could it be a hip flexor or groin strain?

Thanks for the response.

You’re the second doctor to mention ankylosing spondylitis. The first was a rheumatologist, Dr Draeger, I saw back in XXXXXXX 2014. I’d gone to see her at the suggestion of a neurologist and my physical therapist at the time. We were trying to see what might be causing the stiffness in my right leg.

Dr Draeger examined me. She thought I might have osteoarthritis. She also brought up the ankylosing…

She ordered x-rays of my hips and lab work. The results of the lab work included that I have the gene that predisposes you to ankylosing..

For some reason I didn’t do a follow up visit with Dr Draeger, or if I did I don’t have record of it. But her nurse provided me the following info about the hip x-rays: "May let patient know cyst seen in right hip which can be seen with acetabular impingement. Patient to continue with PT. Will await MRI results. Patient also may consider making follow up with ortho."

We never ended up doing the MRI’s, in part because I don’t think my insurer ever approved them.

After doing the hip x-rays, I met with an orthopedist, Dr Hyde, about my knees and legs. We also discussed the hip x-rays. Notes from our discussion:

Dr. Hyde said the cyst is like a knot in wood. She doesn’t think it’s a problem.

She pointed out an abnormality of the shape of the left hip bone (the part that fits into the socket). Could cause me to have some difficult with moving leg out to the side, as when doing the splits. But not a big deal.

I read about ankylosing.. online: From webmd: “Pain and stiffness. Constant pain and stiffness in the low back, buttocks, and hips that continue for more than three months.”

I’ve had lower back pain for years, though it’s not constant. A physical medicine doctor I worked with last year thought it could be due to weak muscles in the lower back. The right hip stiffness came on over the last few months. It became particularly bad after the first 2 weeks of July. During that time I was inactive and spent some time in bed each day tending to aches and pains.

I also developed buttocks pain during those 2 weeks in July, but I think that was due to my abnormal gait. It causes me to walk stiffly and awkwardly and with a limp. I’ve noticed when I do that I’m susceptible to muscle pulls, pain and stiffness in other parts of my body. But my current physical therapist thinks it could be caused by back issues. He has me doing back arches to see if that helps. We’re also working on strengthening the buttocks muscles.

I’ve had neck stiffness for decades.

Based on what I’ve written, what do you think?

Thanks.

HLA B27 - Details

About This Test
•     Details
•     Past Results
•     Graph of Past Results
Component Results
Component     Standard Range     Your Value
HLA B-27     SEE BELOW     PRESENT
NORMALS: HLA B27 IS PRESENT IN 7.6% OF CAUCASIANS,
3.0% OF BLACKS, AND 0.8% OF ASIANS.
DISEASE ASSOCIATION:
89% OF PATIENTS WITH ANKYLOSING SPONDYLITIS
79% OF PATIENTS WITH REITER'S SYNDROME
55% OF PATIENTS WITH UVEITIS
25% OF PATIENTS WITH PSORIATIC ARTHROPATHY
25% OF PATIENTS WITH JUVENILE RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
ANTI-HLA B-27 MAY CROSS REACT WITH HLA B-7 ANTIGEN IN SOME
PATIENTS, RESULTING IN A FALSE POSITIVE. A POSITIVE HLA B-27
RESULT BY FLOW CYTOMETRY ANALYSIS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED IN THE
CLINICAL CONTEXT FOR OPTIMAL INTERPRETATION. FOR A CLINICALLY
INCONSISTENT PRESENTATION, CONSIDER MICROCYTOTOXICITY ASSAY,
HLA B-27 OR FULL HLA ABC TYPING.
General Information
Collected:
06/13/2014 9:28 AM
Resulted:
06/14/2014 2:49 PM
Ordered By: XXXXXXX T Draeger, MD
Result Status:
Final result