FROZEN SHOULDER SHOULD I BE OFF WORK

I have just stumbled across this site and am so happy that I'm not the only one out there with this. I agree that the name should be changed doesn't even come close to the debilitating affect it has on us and telling others of our symptoms get very little sympathy , my husband only just realized my pain, I have been in the

beginning for about 3 months now ,last week had a MRI and yesterday saw the orthopedist and she gave me this diagnosis also my second cortisone shot which hurt like a MOFO and has made my pain level go

through the roof hence my husband seeing me cry when I was startled my a spider.

I have been lucky my work has not been severely affected but the ortho said be prepared for my arm to get

Worse (mobility) I guess I will have to wait and see that is the constant factor here TIME..

Thank you all for posting it has help me so much as I said before I don't feel so alone

Hi Jackie,

Just wondering how your shoulders going and how your second opinion went?

Angela.

Hi confused about physio . I'm not a doctor but I work at a very repetitive job which resulted in having a frozen shoulder . Mine was from bursitis under some tendons I found out from an exray I was taped by pain prescribed pain killers had lasor light therapy physio you name it.

My advise don't give up get the MRI get the exray ultrasound . You need to get a picture so you know what your treating . Don't waste your money till you get an answer unless acupuncture helps pain. It's to bad we take the drugs to do out daily routine. Mine was fixable and I have 95@% use back . There are all different cases u have heard a lot of situations from work. I needed to be off work so I needed concrete evidence that mine needed rest for bursitis and calcification to have less swelling which meant losing most mobility also I had prolotherapy.Prolotherapy. Prolotherapy which strengthening my shoulder and no pain now I officially had a frozen barely moving shoulder now could do massage therapy to get it moving. It didn't hurt anymore but theassage to get it moving almost make you jump off table I had to cry through the deep breath but little by little or could do my own stretches in a hot shower since water will give your joint oxygen to move a little easier. So please you need to find out what the problem is and don't let someone give you a temporary cure. Really research prolotherapy I chose to have it on my shoulder since it had helped my first problem sacroiliac and ligaments stretched so I was very unstable had so much pain (and ligament strain will not show up on any exray MRI you name it but it is very really I mention this because if you can't find a picture for your shoulder find a prolotherapy professional to diagnose and see if this could be your problem. Never give up and do anything you need to make things easier like moving all heavy items in kitchen if you have family make sure they help it will make it easier then thinking you can do everything the same right now. Ps I put a pillow under arm to drive what ever helps

I am so pleased to have found this site!

I am 48 and have had Type 1 diabetes for 12 years. When I first had pains in my shoulder/arm in May this

year my doctor diagnosed frozen shoulder. I had two injections and have had physio, but absolutely nothing has helped. My physio suggested that i be referred to a specialist and I am now waiting for an appointment.

It is my non dominant left arm that is the problem, and over the last two weeks the pain has subsided

slightly and I am just getting used to the lack of movement (what I really mean is adapting to different ways

of dressing hair washing etc!). So, imagine my horror when at the end of last week I recognised pains in my right arm as the same 'starting pains' that i had had with my left arm.

I have an appointment with my GP tomorrow to try to hurry along the consultant appointment but I am

really feeling at my wits end -i don't think I can cope with this on both arms. Plus, I am a teacher, and

can't see how i can work if I am going to have to put up with this in both arms

It doesn't help that those people who have not experienced it really don't understand how crippling this

condition is -both with the pain and lack of movement - very depressing!

I'm so grateful to have found this thread. I realize it's been a couple of weeks since anyone has posted, but I'm hoping to hear back from some of you I feel I've come to know from reading your posts - I'd love to know how you're doing now.

Well, settle in with a cup of tea if you like, for my FS journey!

i took a pretty good fall on the pavement in June of 2010 and banged up my right (dominant) side. By July the pain had worsened and I started to feel the restricted range of motion. I went to an orthopedic doctor who took an x-ray and also ordered an MRI and diagnosed some slight rotator cuff wear and bone spurs and informed me that I was developing frozen shoulder. He prescribed physical therapy and ibuprofen and home exercises, as well. I had all the issues you are all familiar with, slept (if you could call it sleep) with 6 pillows in varying positions, best excuse ever to go braless, difficulty with self-care, house cleaning, driving, crumpling to the floor in a heap as waves of pain washed over me after a too sudden movement. The pain continued to worsen with minimal improvement of range of motion and by November I was unable to continue working. (I'm a telephone crisis counselor and the motion of mouse to keyboard to notepad as well as keeping my spirits up became too much). I continued the therapy and home exercises and had a cortisone shot, which eased the symptoms for a day or two. By this time I had progressed to Vicodin for the pain which managed it fairly well so that I could do the exercises and physical therapy. In January of 2011 I decided to go ahead with the arthoscopic capsule release surgery. I had a nerve block and general anaesthesia and went home that same day in a sling. I began physical therapy the following week and my Dr. prescribed a stronger pain med for the first couple of weeks that helped immensely, then we switched back to the Vicodin. As my shoulder started healing and I was able to exercise, my mood improved, my shoulder strengthened and I eventually became pain free. It took about 3 months after the surgery, and I'm happy to say that I have 100% range of motion back in my right shoulder - I feel bionic! So from onset of symptoms to end, with the surgery at the 7 month mark, just about 11 months total time.

Then, out of nowhere this last July I began to feel the familiar twinges of pain in my left arm. That long outside muscle between my shoulder and elbow. It crept up on me and I hadn't realized that I had unconsciously stopped moving it as much and then one day realized that it was freezing up. I got in to see my Dr mid-September and he took an x-ray, saw the same bone spurs on my left side that I previously had on my right, took me through the range of motion exercises and confirmed another bout with FS. I immediately told him I wanted to have the surgery again! He told me we need to wait for the stages to progress more, prescribed some Vicodin and physical therapy 2x per week. Deep down I know he's right, but it's so difficult this time to be patient because I know how successful the surgery can be. I also know that the success I had may have had a lot to do with waiting seven months into the process. It's just been 4 months for me right now, and the idea of waiting another 3 months for surgery, then the recovery time after is just so much to bear on top of all the symptoms I'm having again, the lack of sleep, the irritability, the constant aches and stabbing pains. We've agreed to tentatively schedule a surgery for mid-November and see how the healing has progressed During my last two visits to physical therapy I've just sat and sobbed on the table. I feel so sorry for the poor therapists having to put up with me, and also I hate myself for my whining and feel bad for my friends and family who I'm sure are tired of hearing about it. It's becoming more and more difficult to work as I cry easily and the pain from using the computer keyboard and sitting over the computer for hours is unbearable, so I'll be asking the Dr to take me off work soon. No one wants to call the crisis line and have their counselor in tears or irritable!

Anyway, thanks for reading if you got this far, and please let me know how you are doing, particularly those of you who have had surgery or are considering it. I'll be checking back in here as I try to be patient and let this mysterious affliction run its course for awhile longer.

I wish all of you good health and full recoveries and sweet, sweet sleep!

Hi, Mona!

I haven't posted for a very long time but like to follow this board. My frozen shoulder started from an injury at work(I am a dog groomer and a scared dog caused my arm to fling back suddenly and painfully). I went the

Normal route at first; orthopedic doctor, shots that never gave relief, pain pills that didn't alleviate any pain,

Therapy that I feel caused more harm than good, home stretches and exercises, a massager, TENS machine for relief, etc. I gave up therapy and the doctor and just tried to live as normal as I could...through immense pain at times, but I kept working which forced me to use both arms every day, and after about 4 or 5 months from the onset I started to feel better, at least less pain and I started to sleep mostly through the night.

It has now been 1 1/2 and my pain and range are almost completely back to pre-injury. The pain is completely gone...well a little twinge every now and then. I do get almost panicked every time I feel anything in the right arm, but so far so good,

I'm glad you got relief with therapy and surgery. It seems that some do and some don't or that the recovery time is just so long. I really thing my job, though torturous at times, helped keep my arms stretched and exercised .

So sorry that your left arm became afflicted and the best of luck for complete relief and recovery soon! This is such a horrible and misunderstood condition.

My best regards to all who are suffering!

Stacey

Hi everyone,

It feels good to go to this site and see others like me with this condition. I'm tired of complaining to friends and family who don't understand since it's not something that is a visual problem ! (Other than can't put my hair

Up for work) visual Meaning cast , gigantic cut or what ever and I'm tired of this being my focus twenty four

seven.

I have been into this for four months now, and have just started physical therapy , I kind of want to quit and

want to know what others think, going to the really nice girl and having her torture me with these exercises is

the worst. My pain level has gone sky high now. Like all of you sleeping is impossible I cry at night a lot

since I can find NO relief in any position, the shooting pain, of course the limited motion and when you

get involved in something and do some wrong motion it drops me almost to the ground and I stop breathing

waiting for the pain to subside.

I'm going to have my doctor give me some Vicodin , ( I have been using some my husbands) but these don't

Really help all that much. Heat sooths but now enough, if I'm going to eventually get better on my

own I want to stop the physical therapy , I will of course use my arm as much as possible but do I really

need this torture????

I have had the cortezone shot twice and it made things so much worse, any movement made me cry! So will NEVER do that again

I know I'm probably rambling and this post is chopped but I'm hurting like crazy today, so sorry, I'm at work

and want to go home cry and curl up.

Heidi

So here is my story and yes every word of it is true. Rewind to May of 2012, I woke up one morning with a sore shoulder. Right side (dominant of course) figured I just slept on it wrong. Gradually over the next month, I noticed that I was losing mobility and it was becoming increasingly more painful. Dr. said it was just a pinched nerve and I needed to "work it out"!!

Flash forward to January 2013 when I could basically no longer move my arm at all. Every day tasks became impossible. Showering, grooming, dressing, house cleaning, even laundry about killed me. I found a new Dr. that diagnosed FS. I was sent to an Orthopedic Surgeon, and a Neurologist, had a nerve conduction test done along with 3, yes 3, cortisone shots which provided no relief.

Now it is the end of October 2013 it has been a year and a half since the symptoms of FS first started and the pain is still unbearable most of the time. I have no mobility still and I am still unable to get a good restful nights sleep. I was hoping for some improvement long before now but have seen none as of yet. The Ortho Dr finally recommended physical therapy. Now while I might have been OK with this about a year ago, my feelings now are that if this hasn't started to resolve itself by now, what are the chances that Physical Therapy is actually going to do any good? I am seriously considering Capsular Release surgery but my Ortho Dr. says absolutely no surgery, "the only solution to FS is PT".

My main concern is that this is never going to go away. OK I will get off of my soap box now, but it is so nice to have found somewhere to tell my story that everyone will not just think that I am making it up or feeling sorry for my self because of a little bit of shoulder pain!

Hi Dolphingirl,

Will reply quickly as about to go to sleep, but just wanted to try to help you.. If you read most of the posts on here, physio doesn't seem to work. My personal experience is this - I had tried cortisone injections, hydro injection, physio etc etc, nothing was working. I went to my specialist who in the end performed a capsular release, and am not in agony any more. Straight after the op was hell and I thought I had done the wrong thing, but three months on its so much better! It's still partially frozen but the pain was my main concern - I was in hell! My life is so much better now and I'm happy again!! I still have a bit of pain but have grade four arthritis so won't be pain free until I have a replacement. In my experience it was definitely worth it, but the first month after the op is very tough, especially the physio. I suffered for six months and that was enough, I don't know how you're coping! You could also look into manipulation under anesthetic, I've heard that works well also.. I think you need to do something you poor thing!

Good luck, hope this helped,

Angela.

Thank you for your quick reply!

I was told by a different Ortho never to let anyone do MUA because it increases the chances that I will get FS again and it is harder to treat the second time around, and lord knows I do not want to go through this again. As far as the month after goes, I figure if I can endure this pain for a year and a half I can endure almost anything at this point. I do know that I am about at my wits end and I am so over this. I do not know how much more of it I can handle.

Oh and did I forget to mention that the muscle in my right arm has completely atrophied and my arm doesn't move at all independent of my scapula and most of the time I feel like the my scapula is going to pop out of my back. The rheumatologist has run every test imaginable to ensure that there isn't something else going on because I have issues with other joints as well.

Hi Angela214

How is your shoulder now/?....last time you posted you were considering giving up your job - I hope it hasn't come to that.

Consultant (the one that did the left one in 2010 not the one who did the unsucessful right hand side in June 2013!!!)has recommened that I have another MUA but without the Capsular Release. Gave this some thought as I was resigned not to having any further intervention and decided to go ahead as my shoulder has hardly any mobility and left to its own devices will prob remain that way for another 18 months....I just want my life back!!!

sooo...I'm in for day surgery on a cancelation on Monday (4th Nov) and hopefully this is the end of it all. Fingers crossed!

Hi Jackie,

My shoulder has improved a lot since then thank goodness, because yes it was that painful working, I was in tears every day. I went onto a stronger painkiller which allowed me to still be able to work. It's still only three months since my op, but it has improved greatly in the last month. My movement in my arm isn't great, but the pain from the frozen shoulder is nearly nil! When I think back about the pain I used to be in I shudder. It was hell! I have grade four arthritis so my specialist said I will always be in pain until I get a replacement, but I'm too young yet, so will grin and bear it. I guess I will be on pain killers till then.. Overall I'm happy with the outcome, I'm so much better than I was.

Are you in much pain, or is it mainly just your limited movement that you're concerned about? You weren't in a good place last time we talked. I've been wondering how you were going? I hope the MUA works for you!

Angela.

We need to call it DESP!!! Debilitating, excruciating, shoulder pain!!! There is no other term that would work!!! Some people get it in lesser degrees and that easier stage can be called frozen shoulder!!!