Anyone out there with frozen shoulder?

[UnaOfStormhold]

There are a few old threads about frozen shoulder but nothing current, but given FS mostly affects women I thought Mumsnet might be a good place to go for solidarity and shared experience.

I'm about 5 months in and very fed up, lack of sleep is getting to me and the stabbing pain is like nothing else I've ever had. I've had one cortisone injection that didn't work, waiting for another one in case the first one missed the spot. Have tried physio but still in the painful stage so there's not much I can do. So I'm getting by on ibuprofen and hot wheat bag, and I went to the sauna this evening in the hope of helping it relax enough to get a bit of sleep

Anyone else out there dealing with this horrible condition and up for a chat/vent?

I know this thread is a couple of months old, but I wondered how people were getting on?

Mine has been building for a few months, first as a niggle and slight restriction but then has got massively painful the last few weeks.

I got slightly jostled last week and genuinely nearly fainted from pain. The doctor has given me codeine and inflammatories, and I’m waiting to see a specialist for steroid injection.

How do people manage like this for months on end? I am off work, not even managing my desk job at the moment because the pain is too bad even with heat packs and pain killers. I can’t even manage basic tasks, yet it seems everyone else just carries on when they have had it?

I had the injection yesterday. Time will tell.
Mine started in January after 2 breast cancer surgeries.

I am off work, due to the cancer and shoulder. However, I'm fortunate that mine is not constant agony. Sorry to hear yours is. I've had shoulder problems that were like this before and really suffered.

I think everyone just assumes physio will fix this

I’ve had it in both shoulders and it is horrible. I still wince at the memory of the zingers.

The first went eventually after a steroid jab but took 3 years to regain full movement.

The second was much worse and four months in I had hydrodilatation which helped enormously. It stopped the worst of the pain immediately band I got about 60% of the movement back straight away. It’s now 7 years on and I have 90% movement back in that shoulder. I started swimming three times a week straight after and that helped even though I could only manage an odd one armed crawl/doggy paddle.

However I am hypermobile and probably had overextension of my shoulders anyway.

@VividDeer so sorry to hear about the cancer. Fingers crossed the injection helps for the shoulder. How was it?

@BestIsWest with the hydrodylation did the pain and restriction come back or did it keep getting better? I thought it was just a temporary reprieve.

@Theonlyreasonablygoodthing kept getting better. It wasn’t a pleasant experience- they aim to burst the capsule but I couldn’t bear it for long enough. But the relief was immediate.

Mine started after HRT. I stopped HRT and gradually have more movement back but still quite limited.

My first FS was over 10 years ago and took 5 years to resolve. Following the advice of a lovely orthopaedic surgeon I saw privately, I chose not to have any surgery, injections or physio. It did resolve all by itself but it was a long 5 years. My second started to freeze 4 years ago and I was quite distraught when I realised what was happening. But it never froze completely and was back to full mobility in 9 months. My advice - don’t do physio until you are well within the thawing stage. Take the painkillers. I found ibuprofen gel to be really helpful. I used a V shaped pillow propped up, and kind of dropped my shoulder into the V. My first FS was hell for those years but it did resolve and it’s a distant memory now. Mine were both idiopathic - no prior injury or illness.

My friend really struggled with this. She said HRT solved it

My dominant side went first, then about a year later the other went. Second wasn’t quite as bad.

I remember waking in the night with my shoulder absolutely throbbing and weeping with the pain. It also kicked in when driving.

Ice helped like nothing else. Cocodamol didn’t touch it and at the time I didn’t realise how well it might have responded to naproxen but if I had it again I’d go back to ice and naproxen.

I’m not sure if this is recommended but I bought a sling to support it at the times of day when it was at its worst. I don’t know how much it helped, it made me feel very vulnerable with one arm strapped to me so I don’t think I used it much, but it helped psychologically to have some options.

Lots of sympathy OP, it’s awful.

@Theonlyreasonablygoodthing The injection was ok. You are told not to drive home. They were kind and stopped when I needed them too. Best not to think about it too much. Plan to rest after

I’m just so worried about taking time off work. From what people are saying, most people just carry on and work through it? I’m just not managing to even though it’s a desk job. I’ve never had any significant time off work before.

@Theonlyreasonablygoodthing everyone is different. If you cant work you can't.
People have time off with bad backs etc, it happens