If you experience an unexpected pain in your groin/ hip area, please seek medical advice.
This might sound strange. I’ll share an experience I’ve had during the last few months. For several months previously I had experienced pain in the inner area of my right hip. (I thought groin area of the body). also, when I sat on a chair occasionally my hip would lock and would be very painful to stretch out my right leg. It transpires that these are both signs of arthritis of the hip. I was blaming the pain on an operation I had done many years ago where this area was where the surgeon entered the body to do a heart procedure.
When I had my first COVID jab. I had a very severe flare up of arthritis and was in so much pain that I ended up in the accident and emergency unit of our local hospital The doctor there diagnosed arthritis of my hip. I knew I had arthritis in my shoulders and in my knees but didn’t know about the hip. So, I requested an x ray be done. The A&E doctor would not do it so, I asked my GP. when the results came back it seems I have advanced arthritis in both hips and severe arthritis in my right hip.
I requested a consultation with the physio linked to our GP practice. He looked a the X-rays and advised me to immediately stop take part in organised events- such as rambling and playing in bowls matches. He also advised doing as many of the exercises on the “Versus arthritis” website as I could manage.
As you can imagine this all came as quite a surprise. So, if you feel pain in the hip/ groin area that you can’t explain, my advice would be to seek urgent medical advice. If, like me, you have arthritis, you may be able to find it in the early stages and seek the advice about how you can best manage the situation. The versus arthritis website is an excellent source of information and has suggested exercises for various parts of the body, knees, hips etc. These seem to be rated by the medical professionals as good exercises.
As you might expect I have a referral to see the specialist at out local hospital. I’m told he is dealing with a lot of cases so it might be some time before I’m seen. The only course of action is a replacement hip, but that will be many months if not years in the future.
steve butterfield 