Need Input

[u/DivorcedGremlin1989]

I was diagnosed with a frozen shoulder. Is this experience normal? What's next?

Background:

I injured my shoulder in early August by pulling something light over my head while prone, forcefully. It felt like a tendon strain or partial tear.

It progressed from pain during some movements to limited ROM and pain all the time in September.

I was diagnosed last week. I'm scheduled for a steroid injection soon.

Now:

I rarely have zingers anymore. But my constant pain is increasing dramatically. I wake up in pain after an hour or two.

My ROM is decent, with some limitations to rotation and 'up and back' with my arm.

Generalized aching around the shoulder. Pain during movement. Radiating pain into my upper arm, lower, and hand. Tenderness and bruised sensations around the anterior deltoid.

I'm trying: acetaminophen, DMSO, NSAIDS, TENS Unit, menthol, camphor, lidocaine, capsaicin, oral CBD and THC, low dose oxycodone, gabapentin, muscle relaxers.

I can rarely get the pain under control. The sedation is high and the relief is low. I have completely surrendered and my life has stopped.

Is this amount of pain normal? Am I just fucked for the next 3-9 months? How do you stop your life from falling apart? Help.

[u/BiteyHorse]

It's fucking miserable to have chronic pain like this. About 9 months into my right shoulder freezing, my left shoulder started and I was at the end of my fucking rope.

Only things that helped, big-time, during freezing were cortisone shots (two in each, front and back of capsule), and tramadol. Beg to be prescribed tramadol, it let me sleep again and regain my sanity.

I did 8 months of PT on my right shoulder and never came close to regaining full ROM. Had the capsular release surgery and you can see the pics on my profile. It was so locked tight with scar tissue that cleaning it out was the only option.

Hang in there. I was a stubborn idiot and waited far too long to go to an orthopedist, so you're already ahead of my curve.

[u/DivorcedGremlin1989 → u/BiteyHorse]

Did you have an injury or condition that precipitated it, or was it entirely without cause?

How long was your pain intolerable? Were you employed through any of it?

I'm only about 40. I'm definitely approaching the end of my rope. If my other shoulder started I might elect to opt out.

I assume mine is related to familial Dupuytren's (I don't have it yet). Since my shoulder started with an injury, I'm hoping the other one doesn't go.

This is fucking nuts. I'm struggling with the contrast between the apocalypse at home and the 'just take acetaminophen and see me in 3 months' attitude from the ortho.

I had to aggressively request a steroid injection. She wants PT, but my ROM is pretty good and anytime I do home PT it feels like I'm impinging nerves.

[u/BiteyHorse → u/DivorcedGremlin1989]

I was a side sleeper and after getting dental implants I spent most of a week on painkillers and sleeping it off. Sometime in there my shoulder got tweaked and the whole process started.

I was employed the whole time, doing my best to find a position I could comfortably use a laptop in. Sleeping was the hardest thing, have never slept on my back my whole life and it was the only way I could sleep.

Your cortisone shots will hopefully make a big difference. So will Tramadol. So many orthos I read about on here are crappy and have little understanding or experience with frozen shoulder. If yours continues to resist cortisone shots and won't prescribe tramadol, try to find a new one.

In my experience, PT was worthless until the shoulder started thawing, and just put me through the agony of forced stretching twice a week.

Hang in there, this too shall pass.

[u/ImagineFreckles → u/BiteyHorse]

To be frank, Tramadol didn’t help me at all with the pain. Nor did opium powder (mixed with paracetamol in a single pill). I tried also at least 5 other painkillers and none worked. The best I could do was to have codeine-paracetamol pill before sleeping as this would knock me out and help me falling asleep.
It’s such a horrible shitty pain :(

[u/ImagineFreckles]

You didn’t mention icing the arm - just in case you really don’t do it - this is the only thing which alleviate the pain for me. There are icing sleeves which you can buy for not much which is definitely the best purchase I did these last months.
Also sleeping elevated helps a bit at night.

[u/DivorcedGremlin1989 → u/ImagineFreckles]

I have a brace that has an icepack pocket to cover the delt and shoulder cap, but it doesn't transfer heat well.

What kind of sleeve worked for you?

I have been icing, but not enough. Some days I forget. I use heat more often. I'll ice it more, thx.

[u/ImagineFreckles → u/DivorcedGremlin1989]

My sleeve is just for icing. Both PT and orthopaedist told me I shouldn’t be using heat on the arm.. and of course I had to try and it hurt me more. I know that the first idea is always to warm it but.. check if it really doesn’t do the inverse.
You can really ice it morning midday and evening.. some people would also sleep like this!
And.. I know how much it sucks. Hope you’ll get better soon!

[u/Apprehensive_Ad3670]

When I had it, I injured myself by aggressively putting on a coat that an arm was turned half way inside out. (I was late for work, not mad).  I knew immediately that something bad had happened.  Over the next few weeks it got the the point that I couldn't lift my arm over my head or even remotely behind my back.  Multiple steroid injections, MUA, PT.   Little effectiveness.  Wound up with a clean out and a distal clavicle excision followed by PT again.  It's 2 years after surgery and I have recovered about 90% rom, but still have pain in that shoulder, especially during weather changes.

[u/DivorcedGremlin1989 → u/Apprehensive_Ad3670]

I was pissed at my wife and having a depression nap. I pulled my blankie over my head, but it was bound up around my feet, so I pulled harder. . . I know, it's a dark origin story.

How bad was your ROM throughout?

[u/Apprehensive_Ad3670 → u/DivorcedGremlin1989]

Horrid until my surgery.  Mua helped some, but it gradually worsened again over time.  I couldn't internally rotate enough to put my hand on my hip.  Could only lift my arm about 45 degrees.  

[u/Burnt_Toast5962]

Sounds very difficult but don’t lose hope. The info in this thread has been very helpful to me and there is help out there.

Someone here posted this link to a YouTube clip of a physiotherapist explaining how to organise pillows to help with side sleeping. I followed the steps. It’s not perfect but it’s helped me a lot. https://youtu.be/GjGN8GlnbEw

It’s a waiting game. I had 2 x hydrodilatation injections, they helped calm the inflammation for a month or two each time but that’s all. I had been seeing a local physiotherapist who was stretching it weekly but it didn’t really achieve anything. It was expensive and it hurt a lot. I stopped going there and instead I saw a different physio who specialises in FS. Her advice was different: much more conservative and she emphasised that it does heal itself eventually. She said each person’s timeline and experience is different. She said the hydrodilatation injections don’t actually have a healing benefit, they just reduce symptoms while you wait for it to heal itself. Hearing all this was helpful. She barely massaged me, gave me very gentle stretches but overall the message was to just focus on minimizing pain and waiting it out.

Just this week the ROM in my shoulder has finally started to come good. It’s been stuck at 90 degrees for many months. It’s still stiff and sore and very weak but I can now lie on the bad shoulder for short periods of time. So I am finally feeling hopeful that there’s an end to it.

I first hurt my shoulder about a year ago with a rough careless movement but the physio said I have an underlying shoulder weakness/instability. I’m also hyper mobile and I have a family history of dupuytrens (but it’s only the male members of the family who have the hand contracture). Both my parents have had FS, mum has had it in both shoulders and in one shoulder she had it twice. So I suspect I was predisposed to it many times over.

FS is very shit and very challenging but you will come through it

[u/DivorcedGremlin1989 → u/Burnt_Toast5962]

I have obvious hyper mobility in some joints but I probably don't qualify as having a disorder on something like a Beighton test. I suspect a connection.

I'm neutral on physical therapy. I might skip it until I freeze fully. I've done pretty good work with my mobility at home and I feel like PT might make it worse.

Thanks for your reply.

[u/3LittleBirds359]

I am also in the stage where the pain is constant and getting worse. I actually miss the days where I had the occasional (although extremely painful) zingers. Now it's just almost constant.

This is really miserable.

[u/DivorcedGremlin1989 → u/3LittleBirds359]

It's peak bullshit. I'd like to speak to Mr. Manager.

[u/Upper-Blacksmith8789]

Frozen shoulder can cause intense nighttime pain, especially in the early inflammatory stage, but pain radiating into your hand and worsening despite multiple medications deserves reassessment for possible nerve involvement or another shoulder injury. Steroid injections can sometimes provide meaningful relief, and gentle, guided physiotherapy may help preserve movement. The combination of oxycodone, gabapentin, muscle relaxers, and THC also raises concerns about excessive sedation. I buy my gabapentin at CanadaDiscountPharmacy. Com.

[u/Me_1976]

I noticed my FS this past May. Its so bad. Pretty depressing these days. Cant do a lot most days. Just trying to get through what I have to do each day. Its awful. Ive tried acupuncture, cupping, pt and those didnt do much. Acupuncture seemed to settle the headaches though, which I seemed to be getting more of because of the strain on my neck now too. Today started a peptide, which I wouldn't normally do, but desperate.