<p>Puzzled88,</p>
<p>That is an amazing story. I bet the man who helped you was so thrilled to be of assistance.</p>
<p>It’s actually therapeutic to read other stories. I hadn’t ever heard of frozen shoulder when I was first diagnosed, and wondered if the doc was making it up. Came home and looked it up - was amazed that my exact symptoms were so well documented. But I still deal with folks says, “Frozen shoulder? Never heard of it.” The personal trainer at my gym, trying to sell his services, admitted he had never heard of it, but offered to create a workout for me that didn’t hurt. I said that would be entirely beside the point!</p>
<p>My pain seems to move around. Sometimes right at the joint, sometimes on the front of my arm, and sometimes at the shoulder blade. I wonder if the shoulder blade pain is caused by my moving my arm differently from usual. It’s the little movements that take my breath away, when I’m not expecting pain, and suddenly it shoots out and leaves me feeling bruised. Like tossing my purse onto the passenger seat when I get in the car (It’s my right shoulder, and I’m right handed.)</p>
<p>One exercise I hate, but find effective is to stand in a corner, facing the corner, and put both forearms on the walls beside me, hands straight up, palms flat against the wall, and upper arms perpendicular to my body. Then lean in toward the corner, and hold for 5 seconds. For me, it stretches exactly the right spot. Leaves me in pain for awhile, though. That’s one of the more difficult aspects of exercising myself - it is hard to choose to cause myself pain.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I have a frozen shoulder or not. I have a feeling that lots of people who contributed to this thread have different conditions. The shoulder is such a complicated joint!</p>
<p>I started getting pain and loss of range of motion in my left shoulder, all of a sudden. I had sharp, shooting pain when I tried to open the fridge door. (A sign from above that I should lose weight!) I couldn’t pinpoint a cause, a fall, etc. I went to an orthopedist and he ordered an MRI. It showed that I have a torn labrum, which is cartilage. The doctor said that my shoulder joint might have become dislocated and then popped back in, tearing the labrum. My rotator cuff is fine. So I did a little bit of physical therapy and occasionally I ice it. It’s been a year now, and I am slowly improving.</p>
<p>I played tennis last week with the guy that had surgery. He was out for six months. He played quite well except for his serve which was a lot slower. It turned out that he only had to have calcium deposits removed. He owns a building construction firm of about 10 people and he needs the range of motion for his work - he’s also a tennis addict. Taking out six months of your life to get something like that fixed is a major undertaking.</p>
<p><chuckle> I was thinking about this thread and thought it had gone into the black hole.</chuckle></p>
<p>According the the PT and orthapedic surgeon, I am about 90% back to normal, as of yesterday. I can sleep on my right side again!</p>
<p>I learned that since I was experiencing pain in the shoulder, I was compensating by doing certain “things”. This caused me to not use certain muscles in my arm, so we had to get those back up and running.</p>
<p>Anyway, I can now lift my arm high enough to be sure I can put on deodorant and put my hands behind my head. Removing the bra, not so much, but progress has been made!!!</p>
<p>I have had an xray, an MRI, and a cortisone shot. The doctor is 50/50 on whether I have rotator cuff tear or labral tears. The cortisone shot is supposed to be diagnostic…if it helps, it is rotator cuff, if not, it is something else. I go back next week. Sitting around doing very little does not hurt. Reaching out my car window to mail a letter is excruciating, but more after the fact. I go back next week to find out what is next on this journey.</p>
<p>If you are 90% better after such a short recovery time, you’re doing amazingly well. You may find that the last 10% takes much longer but don’t get discouraged. My frozen shoulder started in December 2007 and while I still see the PT once a month and consider myself pretty much cured in a functional sense, the affected shoulder still feels different even though it can do anything the other one does. It feels crunchy or gravely as it moves but isn’t painful or tight.
Isn’t it remarkable the things we take for granted like being able to put on deodorant. The thing I remember being flummoxed by was blow drying my hair. I finally figured out how to stick the hairdryer in the hand towel rack and lean down in front of it.<br>
Good luck with your recovery.
And Kiri, yes, the man who helped us was absolutely beaming.</p>
<p>I’d second and third the opinions of the folks who recommend massage. My H had a skiing accident a few years ago and mentioned about a week later that he was still having quite a bit of pain and couldn’t raise his arm. Mentioned it to our chiropractor who recommended either massage or a trial of PT. He said PT would take longer and that massage would be incredibly painful but quick. H chose massage, said yes it was painful (nausea, stars, etc.), but within two days had full range of motion back and has been fine since (well except for the cracked rib on the next skiing accident this past winter – :)</p>
<p>Bumping this thread back up because it looks like I have this problem now. I’ve just started physical therapy and do not enjoy it. It’s so boring! I did yoga years ago and would love to do more exercises like that to stretch my arm and shoulder. Anyone have any favorite stretches to share that you think did a good job? My PT made it sound like it will take quite a while to conquer this but I really want my old shoulder back soon. Does it really take months or even a year to recover??</p>
<p>Yes, I had two and each took a year or so. One I used PT and one I just let it take its course and both were healed in the same amount of time. I used to walk my finger up the wall. Sorry, but it does get better!</p>
<p>I think I may have it now, too. I’ve been meaning to go to a PT, but haven’t had time. Thanks for reviving the thread. I’ll be reading it.</p>
<p>I have a shoulder problem for which I’m getting PT, but I don’t think it’s frozen shoulder, or maybe it’s just a milder version. I was told by the MD that it was a rotator cuff injury, but I really don’t think it is, based on my range of movement. My PT doesn’t think it is either, she thought it might be biceps tendonitis. Anyway, it’s been going on for 6 months now, and I just started PT, which mostly consists of ultrasound, then her giving me exercises with a band. They seem to help a bit but it’s slow going. It doesn’t really bother me in my regular life, except for a few movements, like washing my underarm and taking off my shirt. What bugs me is that I can’t do much yoga anymore til this heals.</p>
<p>I had it 2 years ago. I went to PT about 4 times and had 1 cortizone shot. It was very painful before the therapy. The therapist gave me instructions and a rubber band to exercise at home in the morning. I also use some small weight lifting tool and a wood stick to swing and raise may arm. I was more comfortable after 4 weeks and completely recovered after 8 weeks. Using a heat pad to apply on the shoulder before exercise will help reducing the pain.</p>
<p>Best wishes.</p>
<p>I’d suggest finding a good Iyengar yoga teacher. They are very precise and systematic in helping people recover from an injury and there are a number of good asanas and stretches you can learn to improve shoulder mobility. It is gradual but definitely possible. Keep looking until you find a teacher who has some experience with injuries and feels like a good fit for your personally… Hang in there…</p>
<p>The physician assistant (different from the PT nurse) also taught me the following:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Stand in front of the wall and crawl your finger up the wall as far as possible.</p></li>
<li><p>Stand in front of a wall corner, raise both arms against 2 sides of the corner and lean your body against it until you can stand the pain.</p></li>
<li><p>Stand at the beginning of the wall, hold your hand to the wall and pull your body away from it. Do this with the same arm on both sides of the wall.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Repeat each step above about 3 times before going to work. Also do it at lunch break if possible or in the evening. I found these methods are more effective.</p>
<p>The PT is boring, but I think it’s worth sticking with it for a few months. I did PT 3 times a week for about 4 months, then took a break (mostly because I disliked it so much). Over the next month after I stopped, my shoulder improved rapidly, and I didn’t need to return to PT. I do think the first couple of months of PT helped a lot - really helped bring back some range of motion to my shoulder. I think the most useful exercise was one with a pulley contraption hung over a door - it encouraged me to really stretch out the shoulder and I could feel the shoulder loosening up as I did the exercise. My PT also “cranked” my shoulder pretty hard - it HURT but I think it worked. Two years later my shoulder is fine. Good luck!</p>
<p>I went through this and interestingly so did two friends at about the same time. We had all just turned 50. Wonder if it has anything to do with all the hormone flux going on at that time?</p>
<p>Anyway, mine was very intractable. Steroid injection, then steroid pills, tons of PT, then prescription strength NSAID for about three months. I thought it was never going to end.</p>
<p>Then I told my dad about it - I tend to take after him physically - and he told me about his own bouts with frozen shoulders in his fifties. He said find a PT with an arm bike. Well, no one seemed to have an arm bike but i finally found a PT place that had one and they also seemed better than other places because they did the deep heat wraps and the ultrasound massage - both therapies the other places didn’t offer. </p>
<p>Don’t know if it was better quality PT that included deep heat wraps, ultrasound massage or the arm bike. Or maybe just the long term NSAID. But it finally gave and now I can even swim laps again. </p>
<p>Hang in there. Once it’s over it makes you really appreciate the simple freedom of being able to lift your arms overhead.</p>
<p>Oh yeah - my ortho surgeon did tell me at one point that the normal course of the injury tends to subside within a year with treatment or no treatment. He said the immune system eventually heals the shoulder.</p>
<p>I responded about my experiences with this over on the “Diet & Exercise Thread,” but here’s the condensed version. I went through this last summer – although I wasn’t quite all the way to a frozen shoulder. A cortisone shot did nothing, so then I tried PT. Went 2x/week for about 5 - 6 weeks and was given exercises to do at home. Helped some, although the stretching the therapist did was just short of agony – she literally pulled really hard on my arm to stretch out the shoulder muscles. Also had the pulley thing to hang over a door. What worked the best for me was using the “Lat Pulldown” machine at my gym. After pulling the bar (with weights) down, I’d let it back up and just sit with my arms overhead. That really did the trick and now I’m back to normal. It’s somewhat disconcerting to discover how easily this injury happens, though.</p>
<p>I developed my frozen shoulder nearly two years ago. I still have it, but it is greatly improved. My doctor (orthopedic surgeon) told me that it would take about 2 years on average to go away, and that my full range of motion might never return.</p>
<p>It was quite painful at first - waking me up at night, screaming. The first couple months I suffered under a wrong diagnosis and therefore wrong PT. When I took myself to the Orthopedic surgeon and was correctly diagnosed, he gave me a shot of cortisone right into the shoulder. It was extremely painful. He told me the pain itself confirmed the diagnosis, as the shot shouldn’t have hurt.</p>
<p>I then went through several months of PT, with a different therapist. The doctor explained that the frozen shoulder would go away on it’s own time; the goal of the PT was to increase range of motion during that time, as without it, mobility would decrease. After a couple months, I asked if I could quit PT and join a gym, and my doctor agreed.</p>
<p>I’ve gotten lazy with the exercises, and think I’ve regressed a bit. My H is good about giving me shoulder massages (and my D, the violinist, has the most amazing fingers! But she isn’t here now.) I can get my arm behind me and part way up my back now. When it first started, I couldn’t do that at all. I still can’t hold my right arm straight out and dangle the forearm at a 90 degree angle. But at least I can sleep without pain, and can raise my arm straight up now.</p>
<p>October will be 2 years, so I’m hoping I fit the average and it will be gone by then.</p>
<p>By the way, my doc told me that it isn’t fully understood, but does tend to hit women in their 50s. (Mine started the week of my 50th birthday). I don’t think it has anything to do with my hormones - which have been out of kilter for nearly 10 years now.</p>
<p>Wow, it’s been about a year. I had PT for about 3 months and it worked. Shoulder is fine, reach is fine. I have some twinges every now and then, but I do the stretches.</p>
<p>My treatment included a hand cycle, the stretch and reach exercise that Coolweather covered, heat, electro-stimulation, and manipulation (note that I did not say massage) by the therapist.</p>
<p>I guess each case is different and I was fortunate that the frozen shoulder didn’t last long. </p>
<p>One day my therapist noticed I was walking funny and he asked what was wrong. Told him my thighs hurt. He said, that may be a problem with your back - long story short it was, but that’s another story for another day … :rolleyes:</p>