Frozen Shoulder Treatments

In January, I began getting a slight sharp shooting pain in my left shoulder. My regular doctor said I probably injured my rotator cuff and prescribed at home PT. As all of you with FS know, it just got more and more painful. So I went to an ortho at John Hopkins who through an MRI and physical exam confirmed it was FS. Unfortunately, due to a medical condition, I am unable to take traditional pain medicines. The ortho offered cortisone, but I just did not want to risk it causing a cascade of side effects in my body.

So here are some of the things I found helpful in this agonizing condition. Pillows! Lots of pillows to position the body for maximum comfort. Ice packs! From large ones to drape over my shoulder to small ones to slip under my shirt at work. Topicals! Tiger Balm, Biofreeze, and Arnica all helped reduce the pain to some degree. Medical Cannabis! In both tinctures and topicals. The topicals are outstanding for temporary pain relief. I could not tolerate the tinctures well, but when I did use them the pain relief was complete, absolutely no pain. Unfortunately, medical cannabis is not available in most states. Trigger point massage with a Thera cane. I was skeptical at first, but I found numerous "sore spots" Massaging those with the theracane really helped reduce muscle pain and soreness.

Finding relief and comfort is one thing, but the pain is relentless. It became a daily mental challenge to face yet another day of pain, accompanied by exhaustion from lack of sleep. I had an ad on my cellphone for Curable.com, and I signed up. Their methods of meditation, mind speak, and other techniques definitely improved my quality of life. Instead of being consumed by my FS, letting it define me completely, using the Curable app I was able to mentally cope again.

I have also worked with a kind and caring physical therapist who helped and encouraged me to regain my ROM. PT is hard work, and often very uncomfortable, but it also helped reduce pain by increasing ROM.

During this year of FS, even though the pain started to reduce, I was stuck in a pattern of sleep two hours, awake for hour, sleep an hour or so, and awake again, leaving me totally exhausted. In a last ditch effort, I went to acupuncture, and after the very first treatment, I slept the entire night through. I feel it has also speeded along my ROM.

In summary, FS is awful, but there are ways to find relief. Try everything and know that "this to will pass."

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