Frozen shoulder

[uggmum]

Has anyone had a frozen shoulder and can give any advice or suggestions to ease it.

I can barely move my arm. In so much pain. I have had a steroid injection last week and continued physio.

But no improvement yet. I am on 60mg of codeine 4 times a day and 500mg of naproxen twice a day.

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?

There is but its a long tunnel. Ive had it twice and its taken a year each time to get full movement back. I didn't have steroid jabs but had some physio - don't really know if that helped it improve more quickly or not

Many people find that a TENS machine helps. You can get them on Amazon from about £35. I recommend the wifi ones as you can go about your normal business wearing the pads but they are more expensive. From about £50.

They do not work for everyone. Maybe try to borrow one first.

I have pulled a muscle in my knee and have been hobbling around on a crutch for 2 weeks. There has been a gradual improvement since I began using mine. However I am also using hot compresses, topical creams and at times painkillers. My use of the painkillers has definitely decreased.

This time last year mine was so bad I had to give in and go to the physio. I was struggling to drive as turning the wheel to the right would bring tears to my eyes.

A year later and I'm getting on top of it. I've had a number of ultra sound sessions and massage by the physio. The best thing is an exercise that is dead easy... Sit up straight and turn your head to opposite side of the bad arm. Now look down, so your nose is pointing at your armpit on the opposite side to the bad arm. Reach up over your head with your good arm and apply gentle pressure, so you are pulling your head towards your armpit on the good side. You should feel a lovely stretch over your shoulder blade and shoulder of the bad bit.

Hope that makes sense.

I try to do that stretch once an hour. If I miss a day or two, I can feel the frozen shoulder starting again.

Thank you everyone for your responses. All very helpful.
I will certainly look into a tens machine

I feel for you - been there, and the pain is awful.

I had one session of hydrodilatation which reduced the pain by about 80% virtually instantaneously (the procedure was extremely painful, but quick, and I noticed the vast improvement when getting dressed again afterwards).

I was due to have another session but the pandemic struck and it was cancelled. Weirdly when I got Covid quite badly the frozen shoulder and other inflamed joints hurt like hell, but then were “cured”. Never had a problem with it since.

My DH did two years of physio before he had it manipulated under anaesthetic - was better within hours and just progressed, never to come back.

As a previous poster said, there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel but it is a long tunnel. I have had one, and several of my friends have also had them. They seemed linked to being peri menopausal in my experience.

My sympathies, they hurt like heck. Physio does help a bit, as does applying some heat. Also gentle range of motion exercises like hanging over and letting your arm hang down relaxed and just "stirring the pot" type of motion, gentle and easy.

They seem to be self limiting, at about a year they get better, and quite quickly. In the meantime, they are very painful.

I hope you find sone non-drug solutions to help you cope.

Physio and actually do the exercises

Physio here. Ultrasound is not evidenced based and that would have doing nothing but a placebo effect.

It will take up to 18 months to ease but that doesn't mean you can't improve. Exercises are best, Pendulum motion as someone has said, swinging arm. Hold a stick in front of you with both arms and push the stick into the other hand to lift the shoulder.
If you Google, lots of exercises will come up. Push about 10% into the pain but no more. Best thing is to keep it moving. Exercises in the pool may ease it. There are 3 stages to it unfortunately but by exercising each stage won't be as bad.
You can use ibuprofen gel or tablets but if the steroid hasn't helped they might not either. You can try hydro dilation as someone has said but try to move it first and expect that it will be painful, focus on managing the pain and range of movement for now.

Check your sleeping position too - look up YouTube - it won’t make the pain better but it will assist in your healing. Many of us sleep in a position which is continually putting pressure on our shoulder and will keep it from getting better. I know my sleeping position was one of the main causes (sleep on my front with my head to the side and arms up). I had mild painful frozen shoulder three times in 3 months, it got better quick, then came back. If I hadn’t sorted my sleeping, and new pillows then I probably would have long term frozen shoulder now.

There was a thread a couple of weeks ago on this with some good suggestions. I posted on it so if you advance search my user name you should find it.

Mine was fixed under anaesthetic, but had been caused by surgery so was done more quickly than usual to avoid the need to repeat the initial surgery.

I had hydrodilation. Also slept with a v shaped pillow - that helps.

@Bluesheep8 how was it? Did you need physio afterwards? Dh being referred to a specialist as physio not making progress.

@LIZS

Immediately afterwards it was great. I was referred for physio that had to happen within 24 hours, had that one session and then just left to get on with it. All was great for about 8 months and then I began to have problems again ( this is where I have to stress the importance of proper hands on physio after the procedure on an ongoing basis)
It turned out that my shoulder had started to freeze again and luckily the consultant I was under was able to put a camera guided steroid into it which worked a treat.

Thanks @Bluesheep8 . Presumably it was xray/mri scanned before the procedure was arranged.

Yes I had an ultrasound done. As I said, hydrodilation itself worked really well, the relief was almost immediate but so many medical staff said later on that I should have had much more intensive physio regularly.

Sorry - @LIZS

Just a quick update to the thread

I have had 6 weeks of physio and the injection in my shoulder.

I still have 0 degree rotation and my Consultant recommended surgery.

This is being done on Wednesday.

I will update once this has been done

@uggmum How did your surgery go? Was this on the NHS?

I only ask because I've been diagnosed with frozen shoulder by a private consultant who says that to get an operation on the NHS you have to do six months of physio, then injections and it will take around a year.

@LittleGreyFluffyCat
Mine was private. Although I did try physio and injections first as I wanted to avoid surgery.

The operation went well. I saw the photos afterwards and he cleared away all the tissue that was stopping the movement.
I did lots of physio but was still in pain which prevented me from moving it a lot. I had another injection and then did a lot of swimming which really helped.

Unfortunately, my other shoulder is now freezing. I am having an injection in a few weeks. I am trying everything I can to avoid surgery again.

I am still on codeine and naproxen but I am in a lot of pain with the new frozen shoulder

@uggmum I'm glad that your operation went well and it's good to hear that the injection and swimming helped.

I'm so sorry to hear that your other shoulder is now freezing. I suspect that I will be in the same boat, as I have pain in my left arm that feels like the pain I had for a few months before my right shoulder froze.

It's not much fun is it? Did you just have the shoulder manipulated or did you have the keyhole surgery as well? Would you mind sharing the cost for your operation? My consultant's secretary is off today and so I won't be able to find out the operation cost until next week and that will be a big factor in my decision making! It would be so great to get a rough idea of the cost so that I can start to think about what to do.

Sorry @uggmum that you are still having issues. Dh is finally having his injection in two weeks. It has slightly improved but the consultant still found it very restricted and unlikely to unfreeze itself,

@LittleGreyFluffyCat
Thank you. Sorry you are suffering too.
My costs were covered by insurance. When I go back to see him I will ask what it has all cost.

I had keyhole where he cut away all the tissue that was preventing movement. About an eight week recovery.

I am just so disappointed that the other shoulder has starts to freeze. It is in a really painful stage right now

That's great that it was all covered by insurance! I've never really understood health insurance, whenever I've claimed on insurance for something to do with my house my premiums go up massively so claiming on insurance never seems worth it. I assumed health insurance was a similar rip-off and imagined that they would never pay out for anything but perhaps I'm wrong as you've had your operation that way.

I'm not surprised that you're disappointed that the other shoulder is freezing.