Recovering from 2nd Frozen Shoulder. Here's what I did.

First off, I want to console you poor souls who are still in the grips of agony. It gets better.

I am a research scientist by profession, so when I got my first out-of-the-blue Frozen Shoulder (left shoulder) at age 47, I dived into the research. I read frozen shoulder blogs, learned about the newest treatments (Xiaflex), performed my exercises, joined this forum, pulled research papers, went to Physical Therapy, watched videos and did everything I could do to make the pain stop. And during that time, I lost range of motion, lost months of sleep, and, many times I lost hope. After about a year of agony, PT, a cortisone shot and a new appreciation for folks in chronic pain, I sloooooowly got better. And eventually regained all of my ROM back. Yay!

But I'm a scientist, remember? I took notes. The research states that for women who get idiopathic ("out of the blue") FS, we have a 20-50 percent chance of getting it in the other shoulder.:-( Knowing that there are conflicting approaches to treatment ("PT all the way!" vs "Leave it alone!"), I thought that if I ever got it again, I'd try a different approach and document those results too.

Four years later, after weeks of denial, I got it in the other (right shoulder). Oh, rapture.

This time, no PT. Cortisone shot early in the process. Another cortisone shot 3 months later. Many soft/gentle massages. No stretching during initial freezing or frozen stage.

And, here are my results:

In a nutshell: Both shoulders locked up ("Frozen" blue line) and recovered at about the same rate whether I did the exercises or not! But the pain ("Pain" red line) was A LOT less the second time around. Perhaps it was the early cortisone shot, or perhaps it was the "leave it alone" approach. All I can say is that, FOR ME, the exercises didn't seem to change the outcome much, but the cortisone shots really helped with the pain.

So, what does this mean for you? Read as much as you can and find what has worked for others and apply it to your situation. Idiopathic FS, like mine, is very different from injury-induced FS, and those often require some of the more aggressive treatments (like MUA or surgery). I attribute my sanity to the honest folks on this forum who shared their successes and misses. There are ages of real home-tested tricks that work. (The best being Frosty's helpful hints - do a search for that thread).

Take comfort that most contributors come and go -- because they got better! Chances are you will too. But until then, soldier on and find the gems in the group wisdom. (And, I apologize for the weird formatting!! This thing messes it all up!)

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