Stay hopeful, this too shall pass

Hi frozen shoulder family, first I want to thank each and every one of you who have contributed in this forum.  Your words have helped me through some of the darkest times I can remember, both through the sharing of your experiences and helpful tips, and by helping me to feel not so alone.

I have two frozen shoulders right now, the left is 11 months in and the right is about 2 months in.  I will tell you that my left shoulder went through the excruciatingly painful freezing stage and the frozen stage, and is now in the thawing stage.  Most of the pain has gone and I am slowly regaining my ROM.  The right shoulder has been even more painful than the left and is solidly in the freezing stage, with pain all the way from my neck to my fingers.  In my moments of despair I force myself to remember that it does get better, and that I am already experiencing the beginnings of my return to normal with my left shoulder.

Whatever you choose to do or not to do, I respect your decision, as only each of us can know what is the right path for us.  After my diagnosis from my ortho, and after exhaustive research (much of it starting with reading each and every post in this forum) I have chosen to forego any outside treatments at all.  Instead I have utilized many of the methods that you have tried, from ice/heat, TENS, being faithful with my bio-identical hormone creams, very very very slow and gentle self-massage including trigger point, ultrasound with gel and Cats Claw, topical essential oils, and some herbal anti-inflammatory and pain remedies, with the occasional tylenol or aspirin if absolutely necessary. (I am scared of opiates so no pain pills for me.)  My herbals manage the pain fairly well, or at least take the edge off.

This morning I had a FaceTime with my PT in Florida (I am now living in Utah.)  She encouraged me to be patient and gentle and not to push myself, or allow anyone else to push me past the point of pain. She encouraged me to continue to take my daily walks and to massage (including some gentle trigger point) my hands, arms, neck and shoulders and to gently move my head, neck, arms, hands, legs, feet etc. (not the extremely frozen shoulder yet) as all movement is good and helps the shoulders, even if not moving the shoulders themselves.

She relayed stories to me of her many, many patients (mostly women of some years - yes she believes there is a hormonal connection) who she is treating for other things, share with her that some years ago they had frozen shoulders and that they now have absolutely no pain and complete ROM.  Every one.  She told me to be gentle with myself and try to live my life the best I can and focus on the good things.  She said to do anything that feels good and to not do anything that doesn't feel good.  She reassured me that this too indeed shall pass.

I am feeling hopeful today so I thought what better time to start this discussion (my first)?  I wanted to give back to you all who have helped me so much here by sharing your stories, with this message of hope.

I'm holding the vision of the complete return to pain-free, flexible and perfectly healthy shoulders (arms, necks etc.) for all of us!

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