Help! I think I'm getting a frozen shoulder in my second shoulder. Can I stop it?

[Borris]

For the last 9 months I've been living with a frozen shoulder. I'm through the worst of the pain stage and am now in the stiff/reduced movement phase. I've been doing my physio and I feel like the range of movement if slowly increasing and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

But ... for the last few days I've been having some stabbing pains in my good shoulder and today's been much worse. I can't face another year of this

I've still got a normal flexibility in this one. Is there anything I can do to stop it progressing?

Aww you poor thing. I had a frozen shoulder too, awful pain. When are you next seeing the physio? Could you ask for advice? Perhaps you could try the first lot of exercises. I hope you feel better soon. Good luck.

I knew someone who had to give up learning to drive because of this. He found that acupuncture with his physio was the only think that helped - and he was in no way woo!

I would say pay money and see a sports physio now.

I managed to stave off similar in my right shoulder, having had no use of my left arm for a total of six years put of ten before a steroid injection cut it to mildly agonising, by brutally massaging to break up scar tissue and adhesions before they formed, using hands and a lacrosse ball. The result was that I only had mild pain on certain movements for about six months.

But having somebody who knew what they were doing and could have treated it immediately would now get me flexing a credit card, as it's just not worth waiting for the GP and NHS physio to wring their hands and say 'it usually gets better in a couple of years'.

I've had two frozen shoulders .I did get down to an osteopath pretty quick when the second one started and it did help ,not total success ,but significantly .

My first one was worse as I tried but failed to get NHS help .Had I known how bad it was going to be I would have paid ,as I did for the second one .

Can you go and see someone ?

I had 2 frozen shoulders, one after the other. For both of them I had surgery - has this been offered to you?

How old are you? Peri/menopausal age? HRT

I'm 42 but no sign of menopause yet.

The nhs physio gave me 2 phone consults where she diagnosed it as rotator cuff. I did those exercises for 6 weeks and phoned back saying it was getting worse. Then she saw me about 6 weeks ago and said that it was frozen shoulder and gave me other exercises. But she said to come back if no change in 3 months.

I could look at a sports physio. I'd happily pay £££ if it prevented or lessoned it.

Not been offered surgery. She did mention a steroid inject but said it only helps the pain rather than speed up recovery.

Hmmm, I've found the NHS physios to be spectacularly unhelpful - I had big problems with one of my knees before Christmas. Ultimately (and after three months of being fobbed off), I was offered either a steroid injection, or an MRI.
Ultimately, I had the MRI (and got a diagnosis), BUT I was discharged as they were closing down services for all but cancer / amputee patients and the like.
Go private!

I was also going to ask your age. In Japan, frozen shoulder is a well noticed symptom of declining oestrogen. You're in the age bracket for perimenopause (doesn't need to have haywire periods)

I had a shoulder that was freezing, but not completely frozen (painful enough at the stage it got to) and I saw an osteopath - exercises are probably quite similar to those a physio wouid do, but there is (typically) more direct manipulation.

Personal choice - some people wouidntnever go to an osteopath, but I've found them very good for muscular/skeletal issues

Interesting. I wonder if oestrogen can be measured. Does supplementation help?

HRT is oestrogen (and progesterone if you still have periods). Oestrogen protects your bones and flexibility, amongst many other things. There's a growing opinion that all women should be offered hrt from perimenopause on, for the rest of their lives.