Would experience with a cold shoulder count? I got one of those from a girl in a bar last week.
Maybe two years ago it developed in my left shoulder, until I could barely move it apart enough to apply deodorant. I had to bend from the waist, letting the arm hang. Lifting the arm was excruciating. My doctor didn’t have much advice as I recall. My chiropractor friend told me he could set me up with the shoulder man for our local pro football team. As I was very unlikely to be able to afford that, I didn’t pursue. It gradually improved to the point that after about a year, there was no more pain and complete range of motion.
FYI, other threads on frozen shoulder.
:smack:
Thanks!
Oh, hey! The top linked thread was mine. I came in here to give my experiences, but I guess they’re all there in the old thread, so I’ll just give an update, which is that I’m all better now. I ended up having quite a number of sessions of physical therapy, which helped considerably in giving me much of my range of motion back, and I make a point of stretching my arms and shoulders out whenever I think about it. I’ve been doing pilates once a week for about a year now and I believe that that has also helped.
Good luck, freckafree! I hope that everything resolves soon and as painlessly and noninvasively as possible!
Ha! I posted in one of those old threads, too! I see it has been two years, not one, since my mom had her frozen shoulder treated. She hasn’t had any problems with it since. And, I’m quite proud of myself that I remembered the name of the procedure after all this time.
With PT you have to be patient, but I have to say, some PTs are way better than others. I had one who seemed to be doing the same thing, yet I always had pain after a session with her, and it didn’t get better. It wasn’t intense pain but it grinds away at you nonetheless when it’s just always there. The other therapist fixed it within a couple of minutes and told me not to put up with that–if I had pain I should call, even if I wasn’t scheduled (and I was going in 3x a week at that point already). I started scheduling all my times at the time the good therapist was there and the not-so-good one wasn’t. With the good therapist I made progress that seemed infinitesimal, but with the bad therapist I had actually regressed in my ROM.
If you are not seeing progress with your PT you might check if there’s another one available–either in that office or in some other office.
My ROM is now as good as ever, although it did take months (and weird little exercises with things like 1-pound weights and stretch bands).
After my shoulder manipulation, I had about 4 weeks of PT. It was bad at first but quickly got better. Now I have just about total range of motion in it. The bad news is that I think I’m beginning to feel the same twinges in my other shoulder. My wife, an Occupational Therapist, keeps telling me “Move it, move it, move it.” I’m trying to.
Overall, I’m glad I had the surgery. I’d do it again but hopefully won’t have to.
True story: When I went back for my 2 month followup with my ortho, he had me raise both arms above my head at the same time. He said, “Well, it’s a little slower than the other but it looks pretty good.” Turns out, he was looking at the wrong shoulder. Then he said, “I think you’re fine.” 
Not necessarily, but it depends on your range of motion. You would likely need to be able to reach around to the shoulder blade of your frozen shoulder with your opposite hand. Other alternatives are to use a raquetball between your shoulder and a wall placed over the trigger points. There’s also a device called a Thera Cane recommended in the book for those hard to reach places. Those are about $40; not sure if that’s something you could get your insurance to cover.
I have a bunch of recurring trigger points that affect my right shoulder (no adhesions or anything, just repetitive stress issues). I can reach them with my left hand – they’re right along/under the edge of my shoulder blade – though it is easier when someone else does it for me.
I highly recommend the book regardless – I’ve used it way more than I ever thought I would. I’ve learned that if I ever have weird pain issues, to check there first. It’s a simple, fast, and free check (and if it’s not a trigger point you can quickly eliminate the possibility and move on to other checks). If you have trigger points you’ll know as soon as you find it. 