Frozen shoulder and who we are??

Posted , 19 users are following.

Hi all just thought I would try and get us all together; to see who we are how we got here, how many there are of us; our ages , jobs lifestyle etc to try and find any plausible link to what we are going through..

I am Cindy, (as some of you already know), I have just turned 48, i live in Norfolk, UK.

I think I am starting to go through the change in life with the dreaded hot flushes😳.and lack of menstral cycle. I have had frozen shoulder since Oct 15, although I believe my first diagnosis was rotar cuff injury ? I had not had any injury to my shoulder, just a bucket load of stress prior to the onset ??

I would consider myself healthy, with a good diet, I drink occasionally and do not smoke. I am a senior support worker, I do use a computer daily...., and I probably did not exercise as much as I should have.

There is history of FS in my family and arthritis?

This forum has kept me sane (thank you all).. I believe I am now FROZEN, movement is restricted and the pain;although still there is more bearable. I still need the comfort of my heat mat and I have found a TENS machine works well , I have also started Trigger Point Therapy which is helping: I am also sleeping a little better although 8 hours sleep is a very distant memory !! Any way I'm rambling now my idea for this discussion was bullet points to try and find a connection ; so I've blown that already😊 anyway if you want to respond; thank you x

3 likes, 53 replies

53 Replies

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  • Posted

    Hi Cindy,

    Good idea.  I am Kim, i am 50 and had frozen left shulder since August 2014, following 2 operations on my left shoulder i now have a pretty good ROM and feel quite good...Howver, i now have a frozen right shoulder, so yes all the pain that is still very much alive in my head is now in my other shoulder, i am totally fed up as i'm sure everyone is and cannot believe i have to go through all this again, i have been referred back to my srgeon so im praying i do not have to wait too long....  not sleeping, tens machine and a handful of pills whilst maintaining my job as a recruitment manager, its very difficult as i am right handed so this time tasks are proving even more difficult.  I spent 10 years in the Army and was extremely fit but now as you, i could benefit from exercise, i am not overweight, i very rarely drink, i dont smoke and there is not history in my family of FS.  I have had no injury and im not diabetic.....

    Wish someone would come up with a reason why this happens, i was just moving on from my left shoulder nd now going through it all again.........oh well on the brightside maybe only another 2 years of pain!!!! (if i'm lucky)

    • Posted

      Oh Kim , thanks for replying.. I think that's what I'm dreading the most ,, this dreadful condition raising it's ugly head in my left shoulder as well ; I am right handed and it is currently my right shoulder that is frozen, and yes it is no laughing matter having your "working arm" out of action!! But the thought of starting all over again 😳😁😤😡. My heart goes out to you and I hope you get relief very soon.

      And Im glad to hear that your operations were successful , there appears to be many on this site that have not had the same success; and the thought of going under the knife feels me with dread!!

      Let's hope someone finds a cure for this soon. Take care and good luck x

    • Posted

      Hi Cindy,

      Dont be worried about going under the knife, its quick, the scars are tiny and most of the time it works!!! gets you out of pain quicker......

      Good luck x

  • Posted

    Great idea Cindy - I am in Australia. I am 53 and was at the gym last yr. Thinking a sudden problem with the chest press was the trigger (although I now doubt it) I also have an HRT implant - all about the time I got the suddne unbearable ache in my shoulder. This became a terrible pain in August and excrutiating in October. I am in the menopause period now and have a shocjking shoulder albeit they say I have neck issues that are causing it.

    I too do not smoke although I probably drink too much as in - 3 glasses of white wine a night.

    I exercised every day having 2 PT sessions a week and extra gym when I could. So, I have no idea why I have this. I do however have memories of my mother having a FS when Iwas a kid.

    that's my story - lol

  • Posted

    Hi im Karen im 47 from.Milton Keynes UK i work for Border Force currently doing a BSc(hons) Natural Science Earth Science. So doing lots of geology or.at least trying. I have had frozen shoulder since Summer of 2014 so nearly 2 years. I kept putting off going to doctors i eventually went.and was referred toma Rheumatlogist as i had other joint issues neck fingers shoulder so she dealt with the worst one and sent me on my way by telling me i had rotator cuff tendonitis she injected the bursa sent me for physio then 4 physio sessions i as in excruciating pain made worse by physio because each time i come out in more pain until it was unbearable back to my GP scans musculo skeletal centre all was horrid complainedcto my local MP as i was left stranded on the roadside as they did not fully inform me regarding injectingbthe joint and wentbto drive home got 100m.down theroad no feeling but the complaint come back my fault i consented. Anyway had hydrodilation didnt go so well i now have the awfuk ache back and feels like someone is sticking rods in my shoulder pain not so bad still dont sleep it.wakes me up just had enough really
  • Posted

    I'm 59 years old and from the UK.  After being made redundant, I took early retirement, so haven't been stressed.  Not especially fit (I think of gyms as torture chambers) but keep busy helping with 3 year old grandson, getting out and about taking photographs, etc. Maybe slightly heavier than I'd like - but certainly not obese.  I don't smoke, drink moderately - 1 - 2 bottles of red wine over the course of a week.  My diet is pretty good - plenty of fruit, etc.  No family history of frozen shoulder but I have a sister with severe rheumatoid arthritis and  my parents had arthritic problems to some extent.  I was in the process of trying to cut down my HRT when I started and had got to the point when my night sweats, etc had restarted.  I'm convinced that hormones have some role to play - the lack of them not necessarily causing this but at least reducing your bodies resistance to whatever triggers this.

    This didn't start with a specific injury for me.  Hard to pinpoint but I first noticed twinges in my right (dominant) shoulder late spring last year.  Thought I may have pulled something lifting my grandson or something like that but couldn't think of anything specific.  It gradually got worse over the summer and I started to wonder if it was anything to do with the increased use of a telephoto lens with my camera.  It also felt worse if I spent too much time on the PC.  I've always been a bit round shouldered and tended to slouch forward - I've since got a more supportive PC chair and tried to maintain a better posture.  

    Eventually it became obvious that this wasn't going to get better on it's own.  My shoulder was aching all the time most days, my movement were severely restricted and sleeping was very difficult.  I finally went to the doctor in September and after checking my lack of movement, he diagnosed frozen shoulder.  All he could offer was a sheet of excercises, a bag of pain-killers and a 3 month wait for NHS physio.  I was lucky enough to be able to get an appointment quicker through my hubbies Bupa membership.  One of the physiotherapists recommended hydrodilatation and a consultant who could do this and I had it done in December.  I think by this time I was probably in the frozen stage, as though very still, the pain was reducing, at least during the day.  The procedure was painless for me and wiithin 2 days I was out of pain. I can sleep on my good side and no longer need to be propped up. I am am still gradually regaining my movements and hoping that the odd twinges I felt in my other shoulder don't develop into a second frozen shoulder.  I'm continuing excercises at home, stopping if it hurts - physio certainly felt like it set me back, if they pushed too hard.  The remaining lack of movement is no longer causing me major problems and I can cope with getting the rest back gradually.

    Things I've considered that might have some bearing - you do a lot of thinking at 3am when you can't sleep!  Firstly, lack of hormones - not sure if it is a cause but I think there is some contribution.  The shoulder capsule is largely collagen and estrogen has a role to play in maintaining this.  Bad posture - may not help - I did spend a lot of time at my PC and tended to slouch forward with the mouse.  Lack of movement - we hear about people being imobilised in slings, etc, having issues but I started to think about this. When I'm walking about, my lefty arm swings freely but my right arn is generally imobile, clutching my shoulder bag or my camera bag.  I also wondered about spending a lot of time hand-holding a (relaively) heavy camera and telephoto lens.  All just guesses of course but worth considering.

    Lets hope someone does some proper research and finds a cause - and a cure - for this awful condition soon!

  • Posted

    Hi all, I am Teri, 59, from Florida.  I got diagnosed last week after having problems for 2 months.  The pain is unbelievable and it is so good to be able to come to a board where people understand.

    I did not have an injury or anything, just started noticing pain and increasingly restricted movement.  I purchased a tens machine and it has really helped.

    I will come back and post more, have to do some work now!

  • Posted

    Hi all and thanks for all of your replies, I don't know if we have discovered any concrete evidence of how we all come to be but I believe we understand more than the majority of the medical profession appear too about this condition ...

    We all seem to be ( or have been ) relatively fit, obviously our ages are a factor, and I'm assuming we all carry handbags? and we know we are hormonal creatures, and the majority of us as not sustained an injury? However it does effect men too ; all all be it a small proportion ...and it effects us no matter where we live in the world. 😳. Ok I'm none the wiser really but good to talk. I'm off to my trigger point therapy this morning , so bye for now, wishing you all well x

    • Posted

      I'm convinced that estrogen has some role to play in this - though I don't think it is necessarily the only factor - but there certainly is a spike in cases in women aged 40-60.  It's an accepted symptom that some women get joint aches and pains and skin thinning (collagen) at menopause - so why not frozen shoulder too? Men do have estrogen too and lack or too much can casuse them problems too.  Though some people get this after some sort of injury, the majority of cases have no obvious cause.  Being caused by an unknown injury wouldn't explain  the large percentage of people who get a second frozen shoulder.  It would seem that something in our body is either attacking the shoulder joint, or that something is lacking - it then takes our bodies a long time to "heal" the shoulder.  I have seen a suggestion somewhere that it is an auto-immune issue - like rhuematoid arthritis.  There's also the fact that diabetics seem to be more prone to it - I'm not diabetic though.  Should be lots in there for some research but I suspect there is little call (or money available) for it (except for the likes of us) as it isn't life threatening and eventually (mostly) gets better on it's own.

      There are lots of theories out there and though we do seem to become more of an expert than many GPs, it can be difficult to sort out fact from conjecture - and certainly best to avoid some of the more cranky theories and treatments.  I just hope that someone gets to the bottom of it.

      Good luck with your therapy - let us know how you go on.

  • Posted

    Anyone out there experienced a natural healing from this? How does it happen? Over what period of time? I am keen to know so that I know what to look out for! Oh how I wish it would get better - I'd rather this get better than win the lotto right now!
    • Posted

      If you mean by "natural healing" getting better on it's own (rather than visiting some sort of healer), there's a success story on here of someone who had no real treatment.

      https://patient.info/forums/discuss/it-does-get-better--484855

      Theory is, it generally takes 1-3 years to get better on it's own, depending on the individual - and I suppose it depends if there are other issues involved.  It's impossible to say whether those who have had various treatments would have got on without it - and how much it speeded their recovery.  Mine started sometime in spring last year, was most painfull in summer to early autumn and I think I was reaching the frozen state from around late October - but there seem to be a lot of different experiences on here, as well as additional problems involved.  I wish you all the best and hope you find some relief soon!

    • Posted

      Thank you for your post , I contacted the lady in question to see if she still visits this site, as I said to her ; I'm interested in the "natural approach " rather than being heavily medicated or subjected to the surgeons knife. I have tried a cortisone injection but that did absolutely nothing for me other than makingme lose control of my arm for around 5 minutes!! Apart from that I have relied on a heat mat and paracetamol and massages of varying degrees. My 2 hour trigger point therapy today I know has done some good , I just feel better in my self ( although I realise tomorrow I will feel like I have been hit by a truck), but come Sunday that would of settled.. I lost the ability to get my arm behind my back late Oct 15 and My aim is to rid of this awful condition within the year. Good luck to you all x
  • Posted

    Hello Cindy. Teresa here from Dublin. I'm 59, fell about a year ago and thought nothing of it but obviously did damage that manifested itself 6 months later. I'm a classroom assistant in an autism unit. I love my job but I'm worn out with this FS. I also have a family history of arthritis and have Chrons disease myself. I do think there's a connection with hormones as we age. This forum means a lot to me as I thought I was going mad before I found it. Good luck with your research. I wish you good luck and good health. X

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