A day in the life of FS

Nicole, you are far ahead of where I was if you've gotten to thawing already. It took 3 years for mine to thaw. You are right, it will come to an end and normalcy will resume.

In my case, however, I had a lot of residual discomfort (probably due to my body being contorted for so long). After many years of massage and physical therapy that only gave temporary relief I tried acupuncture which was nothing short of miraculous. All the stubborn knots and cramping left, though it took a series of treatments. Comments I have read here lead me to believe that for most people once you thaw you'll be good to go.

I used a moist heating pad and ice packs when I was at my worse. I did try and rest/ sleep as much as possible. I only took occasional ibruprophin, medicine wise. Castor oil application followed by heating pad helped me a great deal. I lucked into an Air Pro pillow on clearance, and it turned out to be a lifesaver, helping me find a fairly comfortable position  for sleep. I had to cut down on scheduled activities, since toileting, bathing and dressing were all so painful and time consuming. I was affected on my right/ dominate side, and even eating and driving were difficult. I have received physical therapy throughout this entire disease process- it's been 18 months; and I am 95% pain free and I have regained about 90% of mobility.  But for the last six months I have been fending off pain and freezing of my left shoulder. Not sure where it's headed, but I have pain and loss of range of motion on the left, except just to a lesser extent at this point than I had in the right. Hoping the left will never become as severe as the right was! 

I feel for you.  I am 53 y/o - fractured my humerus (at top where it meets rotator cuff) on April 3 while running across a street on vacation...now my shoulder is frozen from immobility, and inflamed.  I just quit PT bc I think it is making pain worse.  I am a single mother of a 16 y/o daughter, who thankfully can help me dress and can drive with me in the car.  I had to return to work at 5 weeks.  some days are hell.  I type a lot at work, which sometimes causes more pain.  I use diclofenac gel, ice packs and for the past few days, heating pad at home.  it is depressing, b/c it is limiting.

my best friend moved out of state a couple weeks ago.  I felt bad b/c I didn't see her much in the weeks prior to her move.  I kept telling her I was in too much pain to go visit, and I feel like she didn't believe me, b/c to see me just walking around you can't tell I'm in pain...

At the advice of another person posting in this forum, I started taking 1500 MG of MSM, which seems to help.  I also purchased the T-Shellz from MendMeShop for the shoulder.  It's a deep heating pad of sorts to put on your shoulder 4 times a day, which also seems to help.   And the last thing is I noticed I was always rubbing my arm between my shoulder and elbow as it ached, and always seemed cold.  So I cut off the end of a fuzzy pair of sock slippers and slid it up over that part of my arm.   It compresses it to a degree - not so much to cut off any blood flow, but wraps closely around the arm.   That also seems to help.  Soaking in a warm/hot magnesium flake/lavender oil bath takes away any pain while doing so (oh what a relief it is!).  There are videos on YouTube that note how to place your pillows at night if you sleep on your back or side, if you have a frozen shoulder.  My pain started last January - went to the doctor last month, got a steroid shot which helped the rest of the day, but that was it.. He suggested the 3 minute surgery to stretch the arm, with a 2 week recovery period of soreness, but from what I'm readying from others, I'm not so sure that's guaranteed, so opting right now to wait it out. It's manageable right now - still get the zingers if reflexes or "just not thinking" movements cause it to move out of it's comfort zone, and an ache at other times, but many parts of the day,there is no pain at all.