Can anyone tell me how you know when you are nearly out of the freezing stage or even already frozen?
For me at the beginning I got slowly worse from October to January mostly hurt at night. Then my shoulder began to interfere with daily activities. Getting my Rm in and trod clothes was the worst. By June when I did mr mua u could barely get a shirt off without help because of the pIn and limited rAnge of motion. So basically when you are freezing you will know
I know I'm freezing, just don't know if I'm coming to the end of that stage. I'm having trouble with dressing, driving, eating. Make up, brushing my hair, putting my hair in a ponytail is impossible I have to use my other arm.
That's where i was before my mua. Are you planning to treAt it or wait it out. I was in so much pain and could do so little I was glad to treSt it more aggressively.
Pt, acupuncture , shots and medicine did nothing for me
My left shoulder is frozen, my right is freezing. For me, when my left went from freezing to frozen, the pain became a lot more barable. Still basically no rom, but the constant nagging pain was significantly reduced. Pain was only on quick movements, when I moved to or past my rom or if I accidentally tried to sleep on it. My right shoulder hurts constantly and I get sharp pains that radiate down my arm throughout the day which hasn't happened in my left for a while now. Hope that helps.
Are you doing any treatment ? Can't imagine two bad shoulders at once
Tried Physio, injections, fluid distension and meds. Didn't help. Also did shockwave as I have calcific tendinitis too. Nothing. Waiting to see a sports medicine doc here as it takes a year to get into see a north. Hope the sport doc will help but am not holding my breath. Enter text...
to set see ortho not north!! Autocorrect!
Ask about mua manipulation under anesthesia. Helped a ton
I want help definitely. Need to get back to docs for better pain relief in the meantime. Cocodamol just doesn't work. Had 2 cortisone injections which didn't work.
What's MUA?
I guess I'm not frozen then yet as my pain is still increasing daily but I can't b far off.
Manipulation under anesthesia
They put you under manipulate arm and then you go to pt everyday.
Right away less pain and more range of motion. But two months later I am still in pt and have limitations
Thanks. X
I have 2 at the same time. Just now after 1 year coming out of it . 90 % ROM. Light stretching lots of rest and vitamin D and B
"Typically" moving to from stage 1 (freezing) to stage 2 (frozen) is marked by lessened pain. I don't think that is true in all cases, though. I have FS in both shoulders. The left side has had no improvement in pain or ROM. The right side recently has been moving much better, but not really any noticeable changes in pain.
Hi Lueece:
For me, 'frozen' was when I could sleep again on that side after months of difficult nights. (I just couldn't move it much, it was so stuck!) But sweet sleep. Makes all the difference. That was this past Feb. I am mostly thawed now.
All the best,
Liane
Thanks everyone
I've been kind of wondering too when I'll be finally frozen. Although I have an interesting note to add... That PART of my capsule seems maybe in the frozen stage--the part I originally noticed was in pain and limited... So my case started after I'd fell hard and broken a hand bone (and chipped wrist bone) so it was probably "secondary" adhesive capsulitis. After only a couple weeks of almost non-use of that arm (babying my broken hand), I realized my shoulder/arm wouldn't stretch as far... Didn't think much of it at first thinking it was just residual soreness from fall (and hand pain still overshadowed any shoulder pain. I also noticed, that while at that point I could still sleep on it, the "position" was kind of "forward" like my shoulder had repositioned from fall. And if I tried to "tuck shoulder under a bit" (like I normally did naturally when sleeping on side) it would hurt. That sleeping pain increased until I no longer COULD sleep at all on that side. If I fell asleep on it in exhaustion the pain would literally wake me up from a dead sleep.
Anyway... It was a month before I complained to Doctor, who sent my to PT. Then another Doctor said early stage frozen shoulder--at first neither I nor my PT believed him; she thought torn labrum. But MRI confirmed nothing else wrong. But I was SO PROACTIVE with my PT, that it progressed very slowly at first as far as loosing motion. Except that is for back-reach--that is, unfastening bra. Interesting that was the first place it lost motion--And I think now that "section" of shoulder may be frozen, because it doesn't hurt much anymore (I'm now about 7 months out from first symptoms).
But the rest of shoulder still hurts, and has gone through many "changes"--that is to say, pain has ebbed and flowed according to many circumstances. Interestingly, many here warn against PT. And mine wasn't overly aggressive--but I went often and did my exercises (including some very creative ones) at home. Hurt like the dickens especially if I "jumped" to grab something I dropped, but I maintained so much movement that one ortho said I simply didn't have frozen shoulder! Other orthos confirmed (again) yes I did and that THAT Doctor wasn't a shoulder expert (but rather a hand specialist).
Next interesting fact, is that about 4 months into it, I went on a 2 week vacation/no PT for 2 weeks. I don't know if it was from dragging my luggage on rollers with bad arm, or the lack of PT, or just the "timing" for my arm to get worse... But by the time I came back my arm had lost about (30%?) of it's motion compared to just 2 weeks prior and my PT was heartbroken. This WONDERFUL PT who at first found it so hard to believe I even had FS because of my great range of motion, now had to say "classic"; that I was now exhibiting all the classic signs and progression. At that point way more painful, starting to get hard to dress myself.
Sorry for my "book" here!
Had to stop PT no more insurance, continued to get even worse... But in absolute desparation I did some radical foam roller stretching (warning: dangerous! Can really injure yourself PT does NOT recommend!) that kept me where I can at least continue to live on my own (i.e. dress myself). But I might have torn something else to accomplish that I'm not sure and won't know until FS pain subsides.
At month 5-6 got first GOOD cortisone injection. If only THIS great ortho had done my FIRST one this whole thing could've been circumvented... Very obviously first 2 didn't make it into capsule--this one was obviously perfect and overnight my pain was 60% improved. BUT I felt SO good that I overdid weights, etc at health club..."Re-activated" and pain got the worst ever (only 2 weeks after shot). Finally considerably better after about a month... But I still can't possibly sleep on bad shoulder and wish FROZEN would come already. Sometimes I wonder if stopping exercises and just letting it freeze already would hasten this process. Is it a 'catch 22'? Stretches keep stretching the adhesions--but irritate at the same time keeping inflamed? And super gentle stretching just doesn't seem to do much. Maybe if did over and over like you're supposed to--but I just don't have time for that...
So here I am month 7. Backward (bra) motion so frozen it doesn't hurt (simply because it can't move?!?) but rest is still painful. Long for the night I'll be able to sleep on left shoulder again!
My shoulder problems also started at night couldn't sleep on my stomach. At first they also didn't think it was fs but slowly it got worse ( at first pt really helped and when I stopped for a short time I also had a major loss of motion) anyway after a while pt stopped helping and they finally decided I had fs and needed mua. Two months later I have more range of motion back but no where close to being able to buckle a bra in the back. I can do a ponytail and get dressed myself which I could barely do by myself before cause so painful. Finally I am beginning to sometimes sleep on my stomach for short times. It's a long process and I also sometimes wonder if all my pt is helping me get better quicker then I just would on my own. It seems like pt helps and I hope it does cause I spend like give hours a week there still but some people say you just need to wait your fs out so who really knows
Interesting you too got worse when you took break from PT...
I think pt definitely loosens things up. I always feel better when I leave.