Frozen shoulder and who we are??

I'm 47.  Right shoulder started 3 years ago and has gradually improved with PT and cortisone shots.  Left shoulder started in fall of 2015 and gain full frozen status by Jan 2016.  Have done 20+ session of PT for left and am now going to chirorpactor who specialized in ART therapy.  We'll see how it goes....  Left shoulder is severely affected.  I'm a desk worker with 3 young kids.  Tall, BMI of 20, still having periods (but starting to get irregular).  No diabetes or thyroid.  Has been called "idopathic" as neither shoulder was preceeded by any injury or surg.

I am 49 and was a full time horse trainer since I was in my early 20s, so I was in very good shape. However, my shoulders did take a lot of a use from breaking horses all of the time. The first pain I felt was reaching back to put my seat belt on.  I was surprised and wondered where in the world that came from.  This was in May of 2015.  Then later on that week I was dragging a tree limb and it felt like my shoulder came out of socket.  So much pain I started to black out and had to lie down in the yard.  Then often I would get the sharp pain that felt like my shoulder was coming out of socket.  The doctor thought I had a torn labrum, but I had so much work to do I put off th MRI until the first of the year in case I needed surgery. The pain continued to get worse and sleeping became very difficult.  I had to start wearing loose stretchy shirts or I would not be able to get them off.

In Jan 2016 I went back to the Dr and he wanted to do surgery.  I had the MUA , cleaned up a rotator cuff tear, shaved off bone spurs, and arthritis.  I started PT the day after surgery.  About 2 weeks after surgery, my shoulder tried to refreeze.  I have more movement now but it seems like a constant fight to keep it.  I have to keep stretching it all of the time and it is in a lot of pain.  I can make it though the day without taking anything for pain, but often I need something by night time.  I still cannot sleep on that side and sleeping is still very difficult.  It seems like lying in any position puts a lot of pressure on that shoulder and wakes me up.  I am going to stop physical therapy because I think it makes me a lot more sore and is not helping anymore.   I am exercising it at home and resuming my farm work.  I can't wait to wake up one time without pain and to not deal at throb and deep ache!

i am not a drinker or smoker, but have worked probably too hard most of my life. 

Hi all - a great thread!

My name is Colette - I am just months away from turning 50.

I am English - but have been living in Western Australia for the last 10 years.

My health is excellent - 10 years without a work sick day .  I get the odd cold and twinge but nothing too serious.  A family hitory of Osteo Arthritis - grandmother and mother, and my right hip used to play me up in the cold winters.  

No history of diabetes in my family and no sign of it in me either.  My BMI is around 24 so not really overweight. I eat well and healthily.  In the last 18 months I have cut out almost all meat, but eat more fish than I used to.  I don't eat junk food - and haven't for 15 or more years. I quit smoking 15 years ago.  I do love red wine though - my only signifiant vice!  

I am on my second Mirena Coil.  Some recent hot flushes suggest I am peri or even real menapausal. 

MY FS story

The early part I am hazy on now,  but when I was 44-45 I noticed that I had taken to sleeping on my back with my left arm up and above my head - normally a right side sleeper I thought it was odd - my left arem felt a bit different - but no pain.  A couple of times I reached for something at the back of a cupboard and felt imense pain - as though I had torn something - but the agony ebbed away after a few minutes.  

Then came a gradual discomfort at night.  I finally decied to see a physio He noticed I had lost some movment and did a number of exercises and techniques. He pressed down on my shoulder while I lay on the table - that felt good,  He massaged my back that felt great. I went again a week later - same thing.  Two days later the pain was unbearble.  My range of movment was diminishing. He looked crestfallen and said he thought it was probably a frozen shoulder - said it would get much worse Freezing, stiffen up Frozen and eventually thaw.  I had x-rays and an ultrasound - which confirmed the diagnosis.  

My GP said I could try Cortisone injections - I tried one - it made no difference.  I could try surgery - but that he felt that the recovery time and pain was almost as bad as just letting it carry on naturally.  He also said that there was a possiblity of getting it in the other shoulder one day...

So, six months or so of dreadful pain and lots of ibuprofen, and the pain started to diminish.  I did gentle exercises that I saw on YouTube 'walk the dog'.  They helped.  I joined a Zumba class and every now and then one of the moves would jar and rip something - but despit the pain it seemed to be giving me back movment.

18 months later my moement was back to near nomral.  Yay

Four years later...

Early last year, I found myself back to sleeping on my back - this time my right arm up and over my head.  I started to notice my right forearm hurt when using my mouse at work.  I had my desk adjusted, the pain moved a bit.  In the end I moved the mouse to the left hand side.  In September my shoulder was uncomforatable - and I couldn't do a lot of stuff.  By November it was painful - I went to see a physio - had 10 sessions.  they helped for a couple fo days but it progressed and got worse.  By Christmas I would wake, crying with the pain.  It has been hell.

Getting dressed is so difficult, washing my hair - simple things.  Pouring a kettle has become a two handed task.

Everyone that hasn't had it has no idea how awful the pain is.  Sudden moves when you trip, throw, catch or anything  sudden, leaves you whimpering, crying and hugging a wall. Last week I went through a few nights where I woke, but did not get up to take any pain killers - I thought - thank goodness.  The worst is over, now just 12 months of getting back to normal.  Wrong.  the last three days and I am back to pain.  It is like toothache - throbbing and pulsing.  aaaaarghhh.

The plus side?  Well I know I can't be far off completing the Frozen phase.  I hear it is rare to get it twice in the same shoulder...  Please don't let me be the rare one!

I really would love to know the cause.  I read earlier today that it could even be a virus.  I find it most curious that once you have had it in one shoulder it is less likely to return.  A virus would make sense - sort of.  Hormones seem the most plausible though.  I rarely read of anyone under 40 or over 55 getting this in either male or female instances.

One thing that did help me last time was a hand held 1mhz Ultrasound machine that I had purchased after reading a beauty / skincare forum.  You cant feel the vibrations - but when you get it on the right spot you feel it shooting along the nerve - a sort of pain but pleasure feeling.  The machine I had died - internal battery that no longer charges.  I have just bought a new much cheaper one - I have only used it once - not sure yet if it does the job.  I will post in a week or so any results.  If anyone does look at ultrasound devices, the lower the number, the greater the depth - so 1mhz is better than 3mhz!

Thank you to everyone on every thread and every forum that has posted - it helps to know I am not alone, that all the symptoms and pain are normal and that this does go away eventually!!!

Colette

I have an update the hydro dilation didnt work for me, it was to painful. So it was left 4 weeks i saw the consuktant again 2 days ago after 2"years of veryblittle sleep and pain i opted for surgery so in 25 days i will have a procedure to sort it

Karen xx

Hi Cindy,

What a good idea! Sure isn't much information online about possible causes of the FS. Sorry you all have this FS too.

Background:

-early 40's, partial hysterectomy about 3 years ago now, but still have ovaries. No menopause so far. 

-Diabetic for 20+ years, on a small amount of only 1 insulin.

-Healthy lifestyle, don't smoke,

-I use to have a few glasses of red wine a week... prior to my pain pills of course. 

-Arthritis in my family, but no FS. 

-discovered a 2mm tear in rotator cuff on MRI for FS... who knew

-I was under an insane amount of stress and had decided to quit my job when the FS hit me.

-If I think about it, it started creeping on my last year around May, 2015. I

remember I could no longer sleep on the now FS. Came on full force around August of 2015.

Type of work:

-Have always worked in an office, but make an effort to move around. 

Treatment:

-Physical Therapy from November last year to February of this year. (Doc pulled me out, said was harming my shoulder...?)

-2 or 3 anti-inflammatory injections

-1 office cortisone injections

-round of oral steroids

-2 joint ..cortisone injections under x-ray

-home exercises

-a bucket of pills that I am sick of looking at :-)

Hello to you all,

Soooo interesting to hear the background stories – this is a horrible condition, isn’t it?  This forum is so supportive & makes me feel normal for a while!

I’m 53 now, living in London.  I WAS in good health, fit & active until August of 2014. No signs of menopause at that time, healthy lifestyle, non smoker, not on any medication, all my numbers were good (BP, cholesterol etc) Too heavy, but active (gym, swimming, zumba, 10,000 steps a day). I work in a school setting – 3 part time jobs, screen based. Life was all good!

I went on holiday for 3 weeks – week 1 was fine, but I noticed I couldn’t sleep on my right side (my dominant side)... I was missing my own pillow I thought. Week 2 I developed the shooting stabby pains down the arm. Week 3 I couldn’t put a bra on or tie my hair up. It was that quick!

Saw my GP in September who referred me to physio, x-rays etc, also recommended this website. No pain relief prescribed – recommended Paracetamol, which seemed a bit lightweight given the pain. X-rays were clear & the physio outlined options for injections, dilation etc but said it was far too early as I wasn’t frozen yet. These all seemed a bit violent, given that the FS hadn’t come on as a result of trauma.  She also gave the stats on success with surgery – it appeared more successful on those with a causal injury, rather than a bolt-from-the-blue like mine.

I decided to wait it out for a while, but the pain was extreme so as a friend had had some success with a back problem from visits to a Bowen & massage therapist I thought I’d give it a go as a middle ground option. I found it really effective at relieving & controlling the pain. Knowing the pressure relief points really helped – the challenge was to reach them and massage while relaxing... not easy! My range of movement also increased at each session, but that snapped back in the following days.

This condition runs a coach & horses through your life doesn’t it? Dressing, self-care, self esteem, staying employed, staying a nice person! - all are suddenly marathon tasks. I missed walking – my balance was shot to pieces, and not swinging your arms in a natural way ruins your stride. All exercise was painful - I really didn’t think through my attempt at swimming (don’t do it ladies!).  I couldn’t access the pool by the ladder, so I had to walk through a class in the kids end; couldn’t swim when I got to the lanes, the cold & tense movement was agony; couldn’t get out of my wet swimsuit after the disastrous attempt, struggled, wriggled, cried, got dressed over the top of the wet costume and dripped home for help – good times!  

I started to regain movement at the end of 2015, but over Christmas 2015 I noticed a clunking in the left shoulder when I rotated it, like cogs on a wheel. It was probably over-use as my left had covered for my dominant right for over a year. Sure enough in February my left shoulder froze. My GP has given me naproxen, which maybe takes the edge off, but I’m still waking at night with the pain.

I think I’m resigned to another 18 months of this – it’s also much harder to get things moving this time round. My GP is dragging her feet about referring me for an x-ray, or to the physio (who seems to hold the keys to injection/surgery options) and the physio doesn’t see you without ruling out arthritis first (via x-ray) – is this a funding thing?

Does anyone know if this might come back for a third go? That’s my real dread... What if it bounces from shoulder to shoulder forever..? I’ve had to give up one of my jobs – I needed the rest - I’m now definitely menopausal.  Oh and I’m 20 kilos heavier than I was 18 months ago - I don’t need to explain why.  Happy days!

I just want to be me again – or at least a version of me that I like! Soz for the long rant - Thanks for listening. 

Seems like everyone goes through the Sam hell with this disease. I can't remember anyone ever saying they got it again in the same shoulder but many many people get it in both shoulders. My second was about two years after the first one started. My theory is that having a diabetic gene and being symptomatic ally hypothyroid... Diagnosed or not...are linked to this. May be part of the autoimmune spectrum. Wish you a speedy recovery. Please try a portable tens u it. I lived in mine!