Frozen shoulder

[Sarah69]

I think i have this in both my shoulder. I've had pain in them since about 2009, I have had an mri which ruled out arthritis. I saw an orthopaedic triage nurse who thought it was frozen shoulder, so sent me for the mri. I have a telephone appointment on the 22 July. I'm just wondering if anybody else has had this and what treatments you've had and if you got rid of it. I understand it's quite common in diabetics. I am on 30mg of morphine which doesn't get rid of the pain and I've also had injections which didn't work. I'm just wondering what else there is?

 

[Daibell]

Hi. If steroid injections didn't work then it probably is true Frozen Shoulder. My wife had three of these over 2-3 years (one came back). You may not want to hear this but sadly there is really no short term treatment or cure other than time, but my wife's consultant prescribed amitriptyline as a pain killer and it really worked well where co-codamol hadn't. It was a low dose as the full dose is used for other conditions.

 

[himtoo]

unfortunately as daibell has just replied there is no wonder cure -- i have heard of a newish procedure where they inject a combination of steroid an saline solution into the joint - it has shown positive in trials

i have suffered with frozen shoulder in the past -- eventually it goes or becomes bearable but for
a fair while it can be hell.

 

[ClareF74]

I had frozen shoulder and ended up having surgery to fix the issue, it was so bad that I couldn't get myself dressed! Since surgery I have had full range of motion and no pain, it was so nice to be able to get dressed myself again

 

[Sarah69]

Thanks for your replys. I'm having trouble getting my bra nd cardi's on and off. It also wakes me at night and mornings I'm in agony. I'm just hoping that something can be done about it!

 

[cyrryan]

I think i have this in both my shoulder. I've had pain in them since about 2009, I have had an mri which ruled out arthritis. I saw an orthopaedic triage nurse who thought it was frozen shoulder, so sent me for the mri. I have a telephone appointment on the 22 July. I'm just wondering if anybody else has had this and what treatments you've had and if you got rid of it. I understand it's quite common in diabetics. I am on 30mg of morphine which doesn't get rid of the pain and I've also had injections which didn't work. I'm just wondering what else there is?

 

[cyrryan]

Hi sarah69,
I have suffered from frozen shoulder for the past 2 years. It is very painful condition. I had 2 manipulations of the shoulder by an orthopaedic surgeon. This procedure involves going under general anasthetic and twisting the shoulder whilst asleep. I also had lots of physiotherapy! The pain has gone but I lost a little of my overall movement which is unrecoverable.

 

[hankjam]

I think i have this in both my shoulder. I've had pain in them since about 2009, I have had an mri which ruled out arthritis. I saw an orthopaedic triage nurse who thought it was frozen shoulder, so sent me for the mri. I have a telephone appointment on the 22 July. I'm just wondering if anybody else has had this and what treatments you've had and if you got rid of it. I understand it's quite common in diabetics. I am on 30mg of morphine which doesn't get rid of the pain and I've also had injections which didn't work. I'm just wondering what else there is?

When I had mine I thought something really bad had happened, just getting my bike gear took for ever and riding the thing.... the docs were collectively useless.... drugs and X-rays and really constipated....... in the end I asked for a physio and some of that was close to hell but it got after about a year... doing the exercises was a real challenge for someone like me who can lack application.. I'm thankful it worked for me given some others experiences of drugs and surgery...
Wish you as quick a recovery as possible.
Hj

 

[DeanLJ]

I had frozen shoulder last year and was referred to this chap

i followed the exercises for a couple of months while waiting for my appointment. The exercises helped a little but ended up with a high volume steroid/saline injection to break up the shoulder capsule.

all was great for a few weeks but things started to get painful again. I've since had a second injection, x-rays and an Arthrogram (dye injection in to shoulder and MRI scan).

I have an underlying torn muscle and a couple of small bone spurs that didn't show up on ultrasound scans or x-rays.

thing is though, i now suspect the frozen shoulder may have been a symptom of the undiagnosed diabetes ramping up. the timings coincide with other things such as eye sight worsening, night cramps, feeling more exhausted than usual etc..

Having had 2 steroid injections, 2 ultrasound scans and x-rays done it was only the Arthrogram (MRI) that actually found the problem. If like me you don't have private health care then it can be a challenge to get an MRI scan out of the NHS.

I was lucky, because i have competed at a national and international level at Archery (still hoping to after things are fixed) my GP was of a mind to refer me to Chris Tomlinson who is a musculoskeletal specialist.

Having an MRI scan, that's the only way you'll find out if there is an underlying cause.

 

[Flowerpot]

Hi @Sarah69

I've had frozen shoulders on both sides and had Manipulation Under Anaesthetic (MUA) where the surgeon tries to release the capsules in the shoulders that are restricting movement by stretching and pulling the shoulders under general anaesthetic. It helped a bit but the problem came back and I had capsular release under general anaesthetic where a camera and probe are put into the shoulders to break down the adhesions and clean the joints out. It hurt like crazy after but since then I have had improved movement and less pain although I have to put my bra on around my front, put my arms into jackets in a very odd way and wear tops with a bit of stretch else I get stuck in them! .

Frozen shoulder pain is agonising especially if you accidentally knock your shoulders. The only relief I have got is from surgery. Good luck finding a helpful treatment.

 

[Sarah69]

I have pain in both shoulders but only 1 was mri'd. I was more worried about this bring arthritis but the scan showed it wasn't that and frozen shoulder could not be ruled out. I'm just hoping something like other posters have had done, I will have done.