I was wondering if I can just ask my docter for an MRI examination,

Sometimes you have to ask for what you want.  I'd suggest you ask and
see what the doc says.  There are no rules in being a patient.  I've
asked doctors for things and have gotten what I wanted.  Just be sure
you're asking a specialist.  You want a doctor who is capable of
reading the MRI....you don't want to just go by what the MRI report
says.   I would think a neurosurgeon or neurologist would be the
doctor to see.

Also, have you thought about trying acupuncture?  I'm heading for my
first appointment with a acupuncturist for an ankle problem in order
to hopefully avoid another surgery.  I figured it certainly can't hurt
to try it and many people have great success with it.

Good luck!
Carol

I experienced some similar things around your age, so I can sympathise
with the restrictiveness of pain in athletic endeavours.

First guesses:
- sciatica
- piriformis syndrome
- iliotibial band syndrome

these do not address the groin pain though, which makes me concerned
about a hip joint problem as well

You need to get a referal to either a sports medicine specialist or a
rheumatologist. General practitioners are not well equiped to deal with
the sometimes tedious diagnostic issues involved in long term pain like
this. I got lucky: my rheumatologist is also a sports medicine specialist.

Not surprising, very few things show up on xrays. I had a shattered hip
and it didn't show up on xrays! The fractures were in line with the
curve of the head of the femur on the plane xray, so it took an MRI's
cross sectional view to show how badly damaged it was.

Yeah, with the groin pain as well I'd be worried about a problem within
the hip bones or even in the lumbar spine.

You really need to see a specialist (I strongly emphasize rheumatologist
over orthopaedic surgeon - only see a surgeon if the rheumatologist
thinks you need surgery, because surgeons always have a surgical
solution which should be a last resort rather than a first treatment
option). If you don't get a good result, go see another one, and so on
until you get a diagnosis and relief.

That depends on what country you're in and the requirements of your
insurance company.

Please keep us informed.

Cheers,

Ari

I have an odd question for you. Do you carry your wallet in your right
back pocket? There was a study a couple years ago done on males with
sciatic pain. They found that in many cases the cause was a wallet
pressing on the nerve all day every day.

~KJ

Go with your instincts.  I just had an incident where I was having
excruciating hip pain that ran down my left to foot, through the groin,
and around the upper part of my butt.  It got so bad that I could not
walk.   Went to the ER, she'd love to tell the story of how she got me
in the truck but that isn't going to happen.  Gave ER doc my
background, he said give her morphine.   He checked later and asked it
the pain was gone, I said, "NO!!!"  He said give her more morphine and
send her home.  I then went off.  "Send me home, I still can't walk, I
didn't come here for pain control, I can do that at home.  I came
because I can't walk.  You have not even examined me.  The only way I
will go home is if you come with me to carry me in the house and to by
bed, and to the bathroom when I have to pee, I'll want a shower in the
morning and so on.  Well, the twit decided that maybe he should examine
me.  He grab my hip, I kicked him, He said this is not normal pain for
you?  NO!  I told you that already.  I can usually walk.  So the Twitt
decides to admit me.  If he didn't, I had my RD's cell number in my
purse and was going to let him explain what a asswhole he was being to
a patient with a normally high pain tolerance.  Long story short, 2.5
MRI's later (don't ask about the .5), x-rays, a bonescan, all of which
made my doctor call me Dr. Normal, which is a term he doesn't use
lightly with me.  RD says what the hell, lets do an emg.  emg showed
nerve damage at L5.  Another MRI (yipee)  it showed a bulging disk.
TaDa.  Problem solved.  It's not my hip, it's my back.  I am now
walking on a walker, I still have numbness in my right foot and leg.
Some of you may fondly recall, "step, step, drag".  Well now it will be
"step, flap, step, flap"  I can't wait to walk on the beach with Wayne
and Cindy.   So anyway, I am home now.  I start PT next week and go for
a steroid shot in the disk.  Then finish up with a neurologist.
Another ologist to add to my collection.

So anyway, nohope, there is always home.  What kind of doc are you
working with.  An aggressive RD is really good at getting around this
stuff.  You have to be aggressive also.  Go in there and tell them you
want an MRI of you hip and lower spine and ask for an emg also.  Shoot
the works, demand a bone scan too.  It will pick up problems the other
tests miss.

What else,  it's been awhile since I popped in.  You guys know about my
heart attack.  I broke a foot one month ago, just walking.   A month or
two before that I broke my ankle.  My house was robbed on June 21
(Happy Birthday to me!).  Took all the electronics and the only other
things were family things that could not mean anything to anyone but
me.  My neice and her baby, my grandneice, moved in while I was at the
Florida gimpfest.  It's been nice to have them around and the baby just
lights up this old broad.  It's been fun having them here but Brandy
and I deffinately have some philosophical differences.  Hopefully, I'll
have her leaning more my way.  :-)