Wow, I had no idea this was so common! I’m going through it now, as part of a rotator cuff tear that I ignored for too long. (Kept hoping it would just get better with time, sigh.) So sorry to hear you e got it too, the pain is just awful.

I started PT immediately. After about 2 months, my range of motion is about 50% better when I’m warmed up (still almost nothing once I’m stiff, like overnight) and the strength has progressed. The pain is still awful, though. It’s actually helpful to read these responses because I feel like (and my PT has suggested that) it should be progressing faster. Sounds like sometimes it just takes that long.

A few tips I’ve found helpful:

If you haven’t already tried this, I’ve found the most sleeping relief with lying on my unaffected side and then propping the affected arm in front of my stomach on a tall pillow.

If you can’t tolerate shoulder exercises or have to wait for PT, my therapist suggested that walks can actually help. A gentle way to keep your arm swinging back and forth for an extended time.

If you can get someone to prescribe it, I’ve had a lot of help from topical NSAID. (Didn’t even know it existed till now, despite a decade of serious body pain from joint hypermobility!) The big benefit for you would be that it skips the stomach. The one I’ve got is Diclofenac Sodium Gel 1%.

Good luck!

Heat, massage, acupuncture and time. PT was a huge time and money sink for me. Painkillers wouldn't touch it, but MSM supplement did, like magic. Methylsulfonylmethane.

I was diagnosed with a frozen shoulder in September. It was extraordinarily painful, particularly as it interacted with an existing upper back problem. An initial cortisone shot only provided temporary relief. I was referred to Dr Itskevich of ROSM for hydro-distension whereby a steroid and saline solution was injected into the shoulder cavity to break up the adhesions, immediately followed by intensive PT. The first PT session had to be within 4 hours of the injection. I attended PT sessions twice each week and immediately improved. After three weeks, Dr Itskevich said he had expected a greater improvement in mobility so the physical therapists were more aggressive. The improvements accelerated. I suggest contacting Dr Itskevich.

Shoulders are proof of random evolution. No engineer / diety would "intelligently design" something so stupid.

If you don't use it, you get frozen shoulder, if you use it too much, you get arthritis and wear out the rotator cuff. (I had my shoulder cleaned out, biceps tendon and rotator cuff repaired last July. Six months of PT ....ended on its own right before COVID exploded. I can now throw a ball again).

My rotator cuff is messed up (perimenopausal women are at high risk--who knew?) and if I don't do my exercises at least every other day, the pain returns. Shoulders are a crazy joint--you will need to keep up whatever works long term.

Anonymous wrote:OP - it will heal. It will heal in a little over 12 months, completely, whether you do anything or not. Nothing will make is heal faster, not physical therapy, not any particular exercises. Don't do any motion that aggravates it, but otherwise, try to do as much normal motion as you can without it hurting.

This is generally my experience. My left shoulder was frozen a few years ago. My right is frozen now. From start to finish it takes about 12 months to resolve but it only really hearts for the first six months. Do as much stretching as you can. PT and targeted message are good. So is one Aleve a day.

With one shoulder a cordizone shot really helped with the pain. With the other it didn’t help. Either way the problem will resolve in 12 months.

Anonymous wrote:I read up on this for my husband (who had it at 38) and both our mothers who got it in their 60s. Honestly, if you look at the studies, the sentiment is that doing PT or not doing PT it eventually goes away. PT may help speed the process but so does exercise, swimming, tens unit, heat, and acupuncture. Probably chiropractor care as well. I’ve known other people who had extremely good results with acupuncture before/after rotator cuff surgery. DH’s cleared up in 6months mostly after digging a hard ball into his muscles most nights and some acupuncture. MIL did two years of PT and she would say it maybe kept it from getting worse, but acupuncture is what “fixed” it. My mother did minimal PT went 2x and then said she’d do the exercises at home. Didn’t. Went to a chiropractor a few times and then it just went away after about a year.

I tried accupuncture for it, and it didn't really help. Stretching at home, seems to help me. I guess everyone's different. OP should try different things.

Anonymous wrote:I had one about 10 years ago. It was incredibly painful. I was diagnosed by an orthopedist who recommended physical therapy. I did PT for about 5 months and they kicked me out of the program because my insurance was up, but thankfully about the same time as therapy was ending my shoulder began to unfreeze. I have to say that the pt was the most painful thing I've ever been through. They basically just move your shoulder a little bit more each time you go to break the adhesions that form in the shoulder socket. I actually have full movement of my shoulder now and sometimes forget which shoulder it even happened to, which I guess was a successful treatment.

Get to the PT as soon as you can OP - that's the only thing that will help unfreeze it. It's a slow process but you will get there. If you have to wait for PT, there are exercises that you can do on your own at home. Just do a google and you can at least get a head start on therapy.

Someone once said that PTs were sadists, but in a good way. I would agree.

I don't know if it's "frozen shoulder", but I could not pull any weight with my arms, or when laying on my back, with my arms raised over my head, I could not bring my arms down. Was that frozen shoulder? I don't know. But I did go to PT for it for a few weeks. It turned out, it was my neck. I started doing neck stretching exercises that the PT taught me. It got better to the point that one shoulder has now zero pain when bringing my arm down while laying on my back; the other should still hurts, so every night, I lay on my back and I massage my shoulder and my neck where it joins the shoulder muscle. I can also feel the soreness/tightness down to my inner arm. And after a while of massaging, I can bring the arm down with little pain.

For me, it's my neck that's causing the problem. When you turn your head to look behind you, does it hurt? Does it feel tight? That could be your issue, too.

Obviously, I am not an expert, but just sharing my experience.

I read up on this for my husband (who had it at 38) and both our mothers who got it in their 60s. Honestly, if you look at the studies, the sentiment is that doing PT or not doing PT it eventually goes away. PT may help speed the process but so does exercise, swimming, tens unit, heat, and acupuncture. Probably chiropractor care as well. I’ve known other people who had extremely good results with acupuncture before/after rotator cuff surgery. DH’s cleared up in 6months mostly after digging a hard ball into his muscles most nights and some acupuncture. MIL did two years of PT and she would say it maybe kept it from getting worse, but acupuncture is what “fixed” it. My mother did minimal PT went 2x and then said she’d do the exercises at home. Didn’t. Went to a chiropractor a few times and then it just went away after about a year.

I had this for about 12 months at age 51. Struggled to get accurate diagnosis and then nothing really helped until it self resolved completely and on it's own in about one year. It is very painful.

Since then I am so careful to exercise my entire upper body through full range if motion and some weight lifting to maintain strength and flexibility and have had no problem since.

Good luck and hang it there. It is quite debilitating while you have it. Shocking that there is not more attention to this disorder actually. Who cares about issues of middle aged menopausal women, right?