It does get better!

Yes, I too am retired so do not have to deal with trying to work. The first months were just horrid! And yes, trying to get any sleep was awful! Even siting in my recliner I had to have little pillows placed all around my arm and shoulder. It seemed there was absolutely only one place it could be positioned without intense pain. Not too far forward, not too far back, and my arm couldn't just hang, it had to be propped at just the right height. I couldn't sleep in bed for months. Had to sleep in my recliner with the little pillows all around my arm and shoulder. And heaven help me if I shifted in my sleep!!! Had to start all over! Lol!

Switching from heat to ice throughout the day was routine and I did finally invest in a "tens" unit. Bought mine on Amazon for $70.00 and worth every cent. It has the four sticky pads and multiple choices of electrical patterns and intensity to choose from. And the unit is so small and light you can wear it while moving around. It would give me such relief.

I too worry about my other arm as it has a spot in it that seems to get a painful knot in it and I panic thinking it will go full on frozen on me, but it just seems to come and go.

Boy, I tell ya, this is NOT how I pictured my later years! But I keep reminding myself things could be SO MUCH worse.

Finding this site and just knowing how common this is amazed me. And to know how little and how useless the treatments seem to be for something that affects so many of us was really a shock!

Hope some things I mentioned might be of some help to you.

Hi candace, not too sure if you are still around on this site as I know that you were on the mend.. I was interested that you had very little treatment and the condition still improved of its own accord. I have read so many posts where people have put themselves through surgery and hydrolitation and they are still suffering , I'm also a strong believer that we can all get through this. I have mostly stuck with the natural healing , massge heat and tens machine rather than heavy drugs and the scalpel . I believe I am in the frozen stage and my restricted movement started back in oct 15 so I'm only 5 months in but I remain determined and positive that I will beat this awful condition within the year . Hope all is well candace.

Cindy

Hello Cindy. Yes, I almost deleted out of this forum as no one seemed interested in hearing that left on your own, you will get better. My situation wasn't of choice of course, I just had no medical coverage that I could afford to have anything done  And I didn't feel like taking on years of medical payments to take the chance I read others taking. I read extensively on this condition and found enough evidence to sway me into riding it out on my own. Not that the first yrar wasn't horrid at times. Boy oh boy was I in pain. I did do about a month of therapy but couldn't afford the medicare co pays so dropped it. But during one especially painful visit they used one of those tens units on me. I went straight home and bought one off amazon. That combined with a page of paper they had given me at therapy showing what at home excercises would help (the very same things they had me doing there) I canceled out of any further visits and decided I would just get along on my own. January was two years into this and I have pretty much full forward movement of my arm. I can reach it over my head again and do my hair, pull clothes on over my head. This is the most important movement we need. My limitations are out to the side and to the back. I have limited movement trying to move my arm out from my body on the side. I can almost get it all the way out but not quite. And to the back is limited. Keep in mind once I went on my own, I crapped out totally on excercising. Lazy ass that I am what movement I have gotten back has just been the unfreezing it has done on its own. Had I done more to help it along perhaps it would have done better. I read once where it said after about three years whatever movement you have by then will probably be what you will have. I just bought a tent with a 6'4" center height. My Bruce is going to sit and watch me put it up on my own to see that I can. My biggest love in life is tent camping and I never thought I would get to again as I only enjoy camping by myself. So the fact that I can get back to my greatest love is proof to me that yes, it does indeed get better. Remember, doctors are never going to tell you  it goes away on its own over time. That's not how they buy their yachts.

We have the opposite problem with the NHS - it is always short of money and many doctors are too willing to fob you off with a prescription.  As it isn't life threatening, frozen shoulders aren't seen as either urgent or a priority.  I was lucky enough to have access to private health care, provided for us  by my hubbies work.  The NHS offered me pain killers and a 3 month's wait to see a physiotherapist.

Glad to hear you have continued to improve - I think this gives hope to many of us.  In the end, I opted for the least invasive option I could, recommended by the physiotherapist, as I wouldn't have considered surgery.  Hydrodilatation seems to have helped me - though reading other posts on here it would seem it doesn't for everyone.  I'm not saying it cured me overnight but I've been without pain since mid-December now and my movements are slowly but surely improving.  The lack of pain is the most important to me - I can cope with remaining lack of movement, which is getting less of an issue as time goes by.

How is your other shoulder - did the pains develop or go away?  I still get twinges in my "good" shoulder.  Not the excutiating jolting pains but a feeling of tightness and a mild ache at times.  Some days I'm convinced it must be freezing, then it goes away and I think it must be OK - the jury is still out!

I've been lucky enough to start to regain some of the movent at the back and what helped me was gentle excercising in the shower, which I sort discovered by accident.  When my arm and back is nice and soapy I gently pull my bad arm up and down my back and in circular movements, using my good arm.  Slowly but surely it it improving.  Once you're dressed, the clothing causes too much friction for much excercise behind your back.  There was a real sense of acheivement when I could at last put up my hair and fasten my bra again!

Good luck for your continued impovement and hope you are able to get back to enjoying your camping!

Maria - thank you so much for that tip about using our good arm as a gentle 'therapist' in the shower. I tried it and it works so well! I can't get my FS arm up nearly that high yet, but I can feel it coming. I'll be tempted to overdo it this way. LOL!  

I also have pain in my arm at times.  It goes down to my elbow and my elbow is actually sore at times.  Its good to hear that not everyone wants surgery as a cure, because I know from seeing patients every day that surgery sometimes makes things worse.  I am currently dealing with the limited range of motion, pain with only certain movements, inability to sleep well.  I am going thru workers comp and I pretty much have to do whatever they decide. I am going to tell them that I do not want surgery under any circumstances, since I am able to use my arm, it's just limited.  I am hoping for it to work itself out.  Both of my sisters have this and one has already regained her range of motion and is pain free after a shot, and the other is having trouble still, but she doesn't exercize at all and holds her arm close to her.  I have told her that some gentle exercize might help but she's got her own ideas so whatever.  

When my shoulder was bad, I also had pain, right down my arm to my hand, at times.  One physio said it was "referred pain" but another told me that the tight shoulder capsule was trapping tendons or nerves and that caused it - whatever it was, it wasn't pleasant!  

Hi terri yes I to have pain up and down my arm and even in my wrist at times plus along my neck. I'm also doing the no surgery route, with heat and massge , mild pain relief, tumeric capsules and an awful lot of perserverance , I believe I'm in the frozen stage now, and some days are good and others are awful , we all have each other to help us try and keep sane x

Hi Annie,

I also have pains which go up and down my arm and into my wrists, I've been suffering since Oct 15 and I believe i am now in the "frozen" stage but I have had a set back over the last couple of days which is frustrating .😤 I do hope you get sorted at work, I am also avoiding surgery by any means ... I'm interested to read that both of your sisters have this condition , I did start a discussion earlier about the possible causes and asked wether there could be a family link ?

Take care

Cindy