Frozen Shoulder and Anchor Tendon

Hi, Cynthia

I live in British Columbia.  My physiotherapist told me the exact opposite.  My shoulder began this ridiculous journey last November.  About 6 weeks ago, it stopped hurting through the night and I was able to sleep again - now it is more discomfort.  At the worst point, I couldn't lift my arm on its own at all - I certainly couldn't reach around my back.  My physio said to just keep moving the arm until I felt a bit of discomfort so as not to lose any range of motion.  I take it to that edge every day, but definitely not to the point of pain.  It is now July and I have been dealing with this for 8 months.  I can now lift my arm 90 degrees and reach across my back (although not up towards a bra strap yet).  I don't notice a difference day to day, but every week I gain a little more movement - I can now reach the top of my steering wheel, but I can't comfortably rest my arm on the car door with the window down.  Little accomplishments like that tell me I'm going in the right direction and an end is in sight.  It's hard to say if this would have gone faster with aggressive painful physio, but I'm content with the path I've taken.  Incidentally, the best stretch I was given that also provided some pain relief was to stand by my bed, bend at the waist and let my "bad" arm hang down like an elephant trunk, letting the shoulder droop into it.  Use your good arm to keep your balance against the bed.  Gravity acts as traction.  Start making teeny circles with your arm as it hangs down.  I found so much relief from this - particularly when I couldn't sleep.  As my range of motion increased, so did the size of the circles.  Good luck to you as you navigate this nasty affliction!

I also have to strongly disagree with the "no pain no gain" attitude - it is not universally accepted and many surgeons believe it will do more harm than good.  It seems more prevelant in the US than here in the UK, for some reason.   I've always been told to stop when it hurts and do gentle, stretching excercises to try to keep as much movement as possible.  

What worked for me was hydrodilatation, which I had after about 6 months of hell with my shoulder..  Within 2 days of the procedure I was pain free and have remained so.  I didn't get instantaneous release of my shoulder but since December, when I had it done, I have regained 90% of my movement back though gentle (and to be honest, not very regular) excercise, without pain.  I'm pretty much back to normal now - there's little I can't do and the most I've experienced is a bit of mild discomfort if I do too much or lift anything too heavy.  I know hydrodilatation doesn't work for everyone but there are certainly other, less painful routes than intensive physiotherapy.