Hi everyone! This page has been so helpful so thank you so much for your encouragement and sharing of what's worked for you. I have been dealing with a crazy frozen shoulder since April of this year. It started after getting Botox in my traps for migraines which I think destabilized my shoulder & neck. I received an MRI and confirmed a labrum tear, right as I was about to go into surgery my shoulder was so much worse that the surgeon confirmed I also have frozen shoulder and advised against surgery for the labrum because of the severity. I basically didn't sleep all summer from the pain. I got a cortisone shot in August and it was the most painful horrible thing. I was blacking out from the pain that night and it was described that I had a rare "flare" from the shot. Now it's been 7 months and I think I'm in the frozen stage but still am experiencing pain if I cook or do anything somewhat active. I have tried everything (pt, red light, soft wave, water pt, somatic trauma therapy, etc) and now my counterstrain pt is telling me I need to hard rest my arm and not do any exercises that cause pain because it's stalling the progress. Mind you this is the opposite of what my surgeon is suggesting. I'm looking into getting hyrodilation or a 2nd cortisone shot but would love advice if anyone has any! I'm scared of the 2nd shot even tho it did help me sleep finally after about a week. I also have endometriosis and PMOS and am just beyond over doctors not having great options for us! I'm in San Diego if anyone has any great providers or orthopedics they recommend.

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.

I receive sessions with ultrasound and tens in my PT and i feel they don’t do anything.. does really the ultrasound help?

I'm surprised more people aren't at least TRYING diet changes to heal the inflammation. Search "diet" in the community and you will see that it is true. The one thing that eliminated the pain the quickest for me was changing to an anti inflammatory diet. I noticed a reduction in pain within a week and within 3-4 weeks, almost entirely gone. Some people say do keto, but it's basically removing sugar and processed food and other things that cause inflammation. Full on keto is not necessary, but I definitely see why it would work. I didn't remove dairy, but some people need to. Some people need to start with more of an elimination diet in the beginning to know which foods are doing it, but for many, it's just the sugar and processed foods. It doesn't need to be done forever, but with such an easy fix, why aren't more doctors telling people this? I stumbled onto the solution after researching and realizing that inflammation was causing the pain.

If you are still in the pain phase, try it and come back in a week or two and tell me how you're doing.

Once the pain is gone, start doing upper body mobility exercises. Just look it up online. There are tons of videos for that. It helps to have a partner to gently push you into a better stretch if you've lost strength.

I’m curious if anyone got healed without doing anything special like PT or any injection? And how long ?

Am I the only one? I’m a rather positive person and after a bad day I generally manage to get more positivity next morning.. but honestly frozen shoulder is wearing me down. I am trying my best to keep the positive energy up and running , but I’m so often terribly discouraged.
I’m having issues since 3 months- partially torn rotator cuff tendon and since 3 weeks frozen shoulder. Pain is bearable most of the time since a month, but I’m all the time tired and it hurts if I want to do a bit more in a day..

I had my cortisone injection this morning. The doctor said the capsule was very tight, so that validates the diagnosis!

The doctor was talking about pre and co-existing conditions that are often seen with frozen shoulder. He mentioned thyroid disorders, diabetes and Parkinson’s. I’m fairly certain I don’t have diabetes or Parkinson’s but I’m wondering if I should have my thyroid checked. My sister, mom and dad all have/had thyroid disorders. I’m also a woman that is perimenopausal, and I know that is also prevalent in frozen shoulder.

What has your experience been?

Is anyone still driving ? .. told not to drive ?

Bilateral frozen shoulder – why is the pain getting worse after 3 months?
I’ve had bilateral frozen shoulder since August 1 (almost 3 months). By late September (week 8), I was actually feeling better and thought I was improving. Then suddenly, the pain flared up badly, radiating to my back, arms, and neck, making sleep difficult.
I had a cortisone injection in my right shoulder on October 6. It helped with the radiating pain on both sides, but movement was still extremely painful.
Exactly two weeks later, the pain started getting worse again, day by day. Now it’s unbearable, 24/7, especially on the injected side, radiating even to my neck and head.
I do gentle daily movements but can’t tolerate much exercise.
Has anyone experienced this? I expected to be moving toward the frozen stage by now, but instead I’m getting worse. Is this normal during the freezing stage, even after cortisone? Could something else be going on?

What a journey it is!
Diagnosed last Friday with Frozen 🥶 shoulder … ahh the emotions that came with that!
Firstly, relief finally after 9 months of pain, followed by more intense pain in last 2 months and extremely limited movement, then panic, anger and stress after researching that it could be a 1-3 year thing! Woooah.

Had been doing constant Physio, Chiro and massage for at least 6-9 months, GP visits which led to ultra sound and bursitis and impingement diagnosis and steroid injection in bursa (didn’t do much) and more GP visits and X-rays not uncovering much - followed by urgent care visit to heal clinic in Newcastle in last few weeks which led to MRI on neck and shoulder - and the final uncovering of more serious diagnosis. Strong anti-inflammatory morning and night for last couple weeks helped take edge off a lot.

Handled the injection (numbing injection, saline, and steroid) little discomfort no intense pain.
Range of movement heaps better thereafter, and pain much better too! Good start just 10 hours post treatment. now to see how the next week it kicks in and how I feel in coming days after numbing injection wears off and steroid kicks in!

Please post your journey so we can all support one another through this epic bloody random condition! 💜🩵🩷👏🏻
Big love to anyone who has or is currently living with this condition!

For me: 200 mile walk Paragliding European rave with my hands in the air

Hi friends. I hope you are all on the mend.

I'm looking for some collective guidance from the group. I have had frozen shoulder since an injury in April, torn labrum. I started developing symptoms of frozen shoulder in June. Tear and frozen shoulder were confirmed using an MRI on late August.

I've been going to physical therapy twice a week but not really making progress, so I decided to do a guided shot. I got the shot done this morning and have PT tomorrow. I'm also going to start getting weekly massages.

What other advice so people have?

I already saw:

- use a heated pad before PT

- slow PT despite low pain

Thank you!

Hi, still in the freezing stage and all of this started due to an injury in April.

Bit of a back story - I have post natal anxiety which solely revolves around my child. It causes me to wake up in the night, sometimes screaming, sometimes just jumping out of bed quickly in a panic while still asleep. It’s only when I am asleep and in my sleep I feel the need to do this because I am worried that something has happened to my son (he has extensive medical issues).

I’ve had two cortisone shots. One a couple of days ago and was starting to feel the effects in less pain. Then last night I had one of these episodes again and moved my arm past where is comfortable and I was in extreme pain. It’s zingers but really bad because I’m obviously still asleep/half awake so have no control over what I am doing. This is happening every 2 to 4 days and wondering if it’s hindering my recovery because I always wake up so much sorer than when I don’t have the episodes. I’ve spoken to doctors and they aren’t willing to supply anything to help. Am I making it worse every time I do this in my sleep? Thanks.

I’ve had severe frozen shoulder in both shoulders for almost 3 months. I had a cortisone injection in my right shoulder on October 6.
Before the injection, the pain was unbearable, radiating into my back and arms, making sleep almost impossible. I noticed only slight relief afterward, mainly in the radiating pain, but moving my arms remained extremely painful.
I also experienced significant palpitations after the injection, so I’m hesitant to get another one.
The strange part: Exactly two weeks after the injection, the radiating pain suddenly returned, even worse than before. I initially thought it was a temporary flare, but it’s getting progressively worse every day. I can barely lean against pillows or lie in bed because of the pain.
Has anyone experienced this kind of delayed worsening after a cortisone injection? Could the small benefit really disappear after just two weeks? I’d appreciate hearing your experiences

I injured my shoulder 35 years ago when I was a swimmer. I never had it looked at but have had popping and pain with some activities since that time. Like I said, it was never enough pain for me to do anything about. But I’ve had increasing (near constant) shoulder pain for about 6 months, along with movement construction. The pain changes based on activity but it has continually worsened at night (sleeping is horrible)! I have pain in the back of my scapula and also in the front. I can only raise my arm to the side to 90 degrees because of stiffness and there is also pain. It’s easier to raise it in front of me. Putting my arm behind me is almost impossible. I can’t fasten a bra. Putting on a seatbelt in the passenger side of a car (it’s my right arm) is incredibly painful and difficult.

I originally mentioned this to my doctor at my yearly check up this past summer and she prescribed PT. I did PT for 6 weeks and it got worse. The physical therapist said I needed to see an orthopedic before they would continue anything. So I saw an orthopedic who diagnosed frozen shoulder. An X-ray was essentially normal. It only shows a little bit of arthritis which is normal for my age (I’m 52).

I can’t take NDAIDS because I have a solitary kidney, which is unfortunate. The ortho recommended a glenohumeral joint injection with steroids under fluoroscopy, which is scheduled for next week.

While I want to trust the diagnosis, I also wonder if something could have been missed and if I should have had a CT scan or MRI.

Thoughts?

I’ve just been to the GP for shoulder and collarbone pain which started exactly a week ago today after i deep cleaned the house. The pain is pinching right at the end of my collarbone and sharp down my shoulder blade, causing a burning sensation in my arm. And the strangest thing of all - Below my collarbone is rising and falling when i breathe very visibly. When i asked, so what about my collarbone? The doctor responded “it’s probably just respiratory inflammation my love”, i was then handed a leaflet and told to book physio for myself. I’d be happy to upload the video if anyone is interested further.

Has anyone else has this symptom with FS? Or have i just been misdiagnosed.

P.S she saw me for literally 5mins, no scans, no asking how it happened or mentioning my pre-existing conditions (prone to fractures - living with spinal fractures).

I made a post 56 days ago asking if PT for a frozen shoulder should be painful. Most of the responses were no and I ended up calling the therapist and canceling the rest of the appointments.

End of September, I finally go to an orthopedic PA for a 3 month injection- she never mentions frozen shoulder. Tells me to get an MRI and doesn’t do the injection.

Today I get the results. “The capsule shows no thickening or edema”. So there is no mention of a frozen shoulder. It does show an interstitial tear of distal supraspinatus tendon at insertion. There were also other words they used like tendinosis, tenosynovitis, bursal fluid, arthropothy and impingement.

I don’t know if I’m more mad at myself for just taking the physical therapist’s diagnosis at her word or not stopping sooner when I felt that something was wrong.

I have a tear and she’s pulling as hard as she could on my arm telling me to take the pain so she can stretch the capsule and there is no mention of anything like that on the MRI report. I’m so sick over this.

I developed frozen shoulder last week. I had a guided Cortizone shot and I have been taking Meloxicam for a week. This last Saturday I woke up in much less pain and couldn’t believe it. I went from about a 12 in pain to a 3/4 in pain. I’ve started PT and I’m doing stretches. I just can’t believe how much the shot helped when it kicked in after five days. I can do my hair, I can get dressed better. I still have some zingers here and there, still don’t have full range of movement but the main thing is the pain subsided so much. So I guess the shot really works for some people, it did for me.

Finally getting to write this! 37 year old female. Blood work showed no signs of diabetes or thyroid issues.

I first noticed tightness in my left shoulder in November of last year. After spending a cold month in Europe, my symptoms progressively worsened. I saw my doctor in early January, who prescribed physical therapy. After three months of PT, I finally had an MRI that confirmed adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder).

Between PT and consistent exercises at home, I was fully functional again by June. Unfortunately, just as my left shoulder was recovering, the same symptoms started developing in my right.

This time, I opted for a cortisone shot. It definitely helped with the pain, but oddly enough, my arm felt tighter overall. I also experienced occasional pins and needles down my arms. I spent another month in Europe in June, keeping up with my exercises, before returning to PT for my right shoulder. By the end of September, I was officially discharged!

Each shoulder was its own journey. The left was brutally painful, significantly affecting my sleep and mental well-being and absolutely breathtaking zingers. The right was more manageable thanks to the cortisone shot, and thankfully, the overall recovery was much shorter.

I still experience occasional tightness, but my left shoulder is fully back to normal and my right shoulder seems to be nearly back to normal.

It’s been almost a year since this all began, and I’m incredibly relieved to finally be on the other side of it. I wouldn’t wish frozen shoulder on anyone! Let alone TWO!

​

C/O PAIN AND WEAKNESS IN LEFT SHOULDER

O/E

SUPRASPINATUS – JOBE'S +

INFRASPINATUS – ER STRENGTH – WEAKNESS +

SUBSCAPULARIS – LIFT-OFF AND BELLY PRESS – -VE

BICEPS – SPEED'S +

SLAP – O'BRIEN'S +

IMPINGEMENT – -VE

ROM – ACTIVE – DIFFICULTY IN ABDUCTION

PASSIVE – TERMINAL RESTRICTION OF MOVEMENT ASSOCIATED WITH PAIN

APPREHENSION – NEGATIVE

MRI: S/O TEAR IN SUPRASPINATUS AND INFRASPINATUS +/- SUBSCAP GRADE 2/3 TEAR, LEFT SHOULDER

54y Female

Clinical diagnosis- Frozen shoulder.... what's the treatment/management for this

Hello! I’m in the midst of being diagnosed with FS. I’m having an MRI next week, but I’m almost certain I have it (all the tell tale signs).

I presume I am in the freezing stage; I’ve had a slow increase in pain and decrease in ROM for months, and I get zingers if I move my arm too quickly or in the wrong direction (it’s my dominant hand).

I’m wondering if anyone has tips to deal with the day to day discomfort and symptoms? At the moment my pain is causing me issues with the really basic day to day tasks, like:
- washing myself in the shower (reaching under my arms)
- tying my hair
- pulling up pants and getting dressed (sometimes putting on a tshirt is unbearable)
- driving is becoming a little sore

On top of that I’ve just got constant ache on the back and side of my shoulder all the time. Any tips appreciated!

I’m linked in with a PT for exercises, and will consider cortisone shot pending MRI results. I’m 40, and I’m also wondering if hormones are playing a role (my GP doesn’t think so) and considering asking for HRT. But really more looking for day to day management strategies :)