Okay, consider me at the end of my rope. I’m switching doctors to the top notch shoulder guy in the state. My pt essentially kicked me out today - I’m in more pain at every visit. I should have been seeing some relief at this point. So he wants me to be seen by a doctor again and save my pt visits for potential post surgical visits. My insurance pays for 30 visits a year and I don’t want to burn through them all spinning my wheels. The first doctor essentially spent under 2 minutes with me. I just hope I don’t lose my mind between now and when I can see the new doc.
Physical therapy never did anything for me. But acupuncture helps, just wen to mine today. Somehow when the weather is bad, I feel the tightness.
Physical therapy seemed to really help me, although in the end it took over a year, so it might have gone away with no therapy at all.That was 4 years ago, and it hasn’t returned, but my mobility in my left arm is slightly reduced. Any time either of my shoulders hurts or crackles, I am alarmed, and I do my stretches more conscientiously. Frozen shoulder is extremely painful and frightening, because you just don’t know when or if it will ever go away.
my doc indicated that surgery could help with extension, not so much for rotation. since that remained as my most resistent problem (and since frozen shoulder is supposed to get better on it’s own) i couldn’t see surgery.
I’m 95% better since I last did 6 weeks of physical therapy and that was 11 years ago. But I had other accident that compounded the problem. I can do reverse pray or both hands clasp in the back of my shoulders. I can do the yoga pose with one arm above one shoulder and the other arm under another rib cage in my ride side, try to touch both fingers, but I was unable to touch both fingers on my left side.
I was “accepted” as a patient by the new doc - he has to agree to see someone who has another dr. Appointment is tomorrow. Hubby has already warned me, brilliant doctor, not exactly warm and fuzzy. I can get warm and fuzzy elsewhere, I just need someone to look at this and tell me how to get it better.
Good luck eyemamom! I hope you find relief soon.
I realized that I haven’t posted here in a while - the cortisone shot has worked magic for me & now I have only occasional minor pain & still some limited range of motion. I have even been hooking my bra the normal way, with some difficulty, but getting a bit easier each day.
This is a nasty, life-interrupting condition. Best wishes to all to find the solution that works for them!!
Last week while walking the dog, it started to rain. So I decided to run the rest of the way home. Unfortunately, we ran past a house with a herd of little puggy type dogs who ran barking to the fence, my pup cut in front of me to let those pugs know who’s boss, I tripped over him, and in trying to stay upright my arm instinctively flew up. OMG! I ended up sitting on the sidewalk, trying not to cry from the pain or pass out, while the rain poured down. I got up and walked another block and sat down again as I realized I was dizzy. After a few more minutes, I was able to walk the rest of the way home. This is such an odd ailment. My shoulder then hurt more than usual for the next couple hours, but by bedtime it was back to the normal bedtime pain level. I am SO very tired of this.
Oh no @barfly - what an awful experience. I know that pain, where all you can do is breathe deeply and just wait for time to pass until it starts to subside.
I had frozen shoulder symptoms start about 2 years ago. I just self-diagnosed and decided to wait it out, which in retrospect was a mistake. Anyway after about a year the painful stages were over so finally saw a doc and started PT. This was the part where I realized that waiting to start PT was a huge mistake.
The longer you wait the tighter and stiffer the membranes will become. The first couple months of PT were the most painful, excruciating thing I have ever experienced, and I have a pretty high pain tolerance. I once severely sprained an ankle. It was was completely black and blue all around. I saw a doc after a couple days because my wife insisted, and the doc said literally, “I can’t believe you’re walking around on that.” But it actually wasn’t hurting me all that much. By contrast in PT it felt like the therapist was trying to rip my arm off like the way I treat buffalo chicken wings. The PT did increase the overall pain a bit for the first month or so, but that eased up as I regained mobility.
So yes PT won’t shorten the phases you have to go through, but it will help preserve what mobility you currently have while you wait it out. Don’t wait a year like I did; worst case you learn the stretches and do them at home. And even if choose not to try PT now, do try to keep moving and stretching your arm as much as you can stand (I know it hurts like heck).
I found a cold shoulder wrap to be helpful for the pain. I did about 3 times a day, 30-45 minutes. This is the one I used but I’m sure cheaper ones are just as good
http://www.amazon.com/Shoulder-Freezie-Wrap-Right-Sm/dp/B0027IWZQA/ref=sr_1_6?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1431958946&sr=1-6&keywords=freezie+wrap
I heard that sometimes a cortisone shot early on can help, so that’s something to consider. If you go down that path, be cautious about doing more than one shot.
Also a bit of an odd question - are you taking a statin for high cholesterol, eg Lipitor? About 9 months into my frozen shoulder ordeal I also developed a problem in my other shoulder (tendinitis) that wouldn’t heal. Finally the light bulb went off in my head that the only common denominator was starting Lipitor about 6 months before my frozen shoulder started acting dodgy. I found an article on NIH that pointed to a link between statins and tendon issues (most commonly the Achilles). I stopped the Lipitor and my tendinitis that had been steadily getting worse for 9 months started clearly improving after 3 weeks. I now believe that statin either contributed or caused my frozen shoulder as well (I’m generally a very healthy, fast-healing guy so the entire thing with both shoulders was just inexplicably bizarre for me).
@anomander, not sure about any other sufferers on this thread, but I don’t take any statin drugs. I had not heard of that correlation. One I have heard of is thyroid disease - some correlation between autoimmune diseases like the thyroid autoimmune disease Hashimotos and frozen shoulder.
I do have thyroid disease,but I don’t take statins either. I think I have rotator cuff tendinitis (perhaps a tear) in the front shoulder joint and impingement in the back of the shoulder. The pt has forced my range of motion, I can lift my arm up straight but putting on deodorant is torturous. I have issues with internal and external rotation. I really shouldn’t even type.
@barfly, hope you feel better. I don’t take any medicine yet. But I’m try to stretch my shoulder all the time. My hand is some what crooked because of the injury, I mean the little finger is not straight. But I did have some Rolfing and that was incredibly painful, but I have high pain tolerant. Now I’m just fine tune the use of my hand, a little bit stiff in the morning, some cracking sound.
I went and saw a much, much better doctor. The difference was astounding. I have severe…whatever the technical word is for frozen shoulder. Capsulitis something. He gave me a full battery of tests that the other doc didn’t bother to do. When he said 2 cortisone shots I visibly winced and he said…you think it’s going to hurt don’t you? And he bet me $5 a shot it wouldn’t hurt. He was mostly right. He had me lean over while sitting in a chair so my arm was dangling and got it right in both spots gently. So I’m getting another mri friday - he said my first one wasn’t clear from last summer - plus the pain is different now. I let him give me a little hell for delaying for so long - I just said I was above average with pain acceptance. So I’m a more severe case, but the plan is back to therapy for 3 weeks - he wrote a note to my pt on what to do, mri friday, go back for 2 more shots in 3 weeks, then 3 more weeks of aggressive pt and then we’d see where I was. At that point if he doesn’t see major recovery it’s probably surgery.
I’m glad you found a better doc. But do some googling on cortisone shots before you take more though. There are potentially very severe negative side effects to multiple shots, but read up and decide for yourself. Also be aware that surgery doesn’t get you out of PT. Surgery releases the adhesions (adhesive capsulitis is term you’re looking for), but does not magically remove the inflammation from the membranes, nor does it restore the lost elasticity. Those come with time and stretching. Surgery will give your PT a jump start, but isn’t a cure all.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Turmeric seems to reduce inflammation. I don’t take it but I made a concoction for my husband to take and his PF or tendinitis which has not healed for 2 years, healed within 3 months of taking it.
I did mention my concern about so many cortisone shots. His reaction was you have to weigh the risk vs beneft of a one time multiple dose shot. He hasn’t had bad experience with doing it. I was amazed my first doc didn’t even give me an anti-inflammatory. It makes sense the inflammation is blocking the shoulder from being able to move. I’m fine doing pt. Apparently this go round will be rough which I’m not looking forward to - but the pt was working on range of motion. I really am surgery adverse so I will give it my all and really need to be desperate to do it. When it started I was bummed I couldn’t golf, now I just want to shave my underarm and sleep.
Well I will be getting surgery in a couple of weeks. I have tears, and severe tendonitis in my bicep and my shoulder just isn’t improving with the immobility. He’s going to manually manipulate the shoulder to break up the adhesions, clean out all the tears, and shave down the space so the tendons have room through the bone. yowch. I have been in tears in the middle of the night in severe pain. So he gave me 3 shots this time to get me through until the surgery, I’m stopping pt, changed the anti-inflammatory and got pain meds to take before bed. I have an ice machine I use throughout the day and he suggested I use it at night, which I do for several hours as I sleep. After surgery I begin pt that day at home, then back to my pt every day for the first 2 weeks than pt 3 x a wk for the next 3 - 4 months. And what a bonus - the surgery will be on my birthday. I was really hoping to avoid this but I’m also at the end of my rope.
I’ve been wondering how you’re doing. The constant pain and sleep disruption of this ailment is true torture. I hope the surgery helps you get to the next step in healing!
I too hope the surgery helps you. Thanks to this thread, I’ve been stretching my shoulder whenever I’m awake, which does interfere with my sleep sometimes. But I’ve gained more shoulder mobility and the tightness is now move to near the back of the ear, it’s a very hard area to stretch, but I’m going to keep doing it.