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Basil

Basil

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Some may recall a couple of years ago when I developed a severe case of "frozen shoulder syndrome" in my left shoulder after having spent a full day shoveling heavy mud to repair a leak in our water line. (See picture). It took several months of therapy, but I eventually regained 95% of the motion in my left shoulder.

Well, for the past several weeks I have been going to therapy for frozen shoulder syndrome in my right shoulder! The weird thing is, I can't figure out what activity I did that would have caused this in the right shoulder. When it happened in my left side, I knew what had caused it, but this time it just sort of started locking up on me with no obvious cause. Anyway, the therapy is slowing bringing things back to a better state. Anyone else ever experience frozen shoulder? Makes little things like putting on a T-shirt difficult.
 
Basil - if it's the same thing I had (adhesive capsulitis), I tried physical therapy for a few weeks, but got nowhere. Then my orthopedic doctor gave me a cortisone injection in the shoulder, and the problem disappeared within 24 hours.

He also said it can re-appear in the *other* shoulder, but no one knows why. In my case, if it re-appears, he said cortisone would probably take care of it too.

Hope this helps.
Tom M.
 
NutmegCT said:
Basil - if it's the same thing I had (adhesive capsulitis), I tried physical therapy for a few weeks, but got nowhere. Then my orthopedic doctor gave me a cortisone injection in the shoulder, and the problem disappeared within 24 hours.

He also said it can re-appear in the *other* shoulder, but no one knows why. In my case, if it re-appears, he said cortisone would probably take care of it too.

Hope this helps.
Tom M.
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Therapy worked great on my left shoulder (took several months) and seems too be working slowly on this one. They told me the same thing about it showing up in the other shoulder for no apparent reason. Seems to be what happened with me.
 
Hope you get better.It really sucks when you can't do "normal" things.
 
I have exactly the same issue. Did my right shoulder skimming stones with my lad a few years ago. Eight months ago the left went for no apparent reason. Physio only seems to have a short term effect. Time seems to be the only cure. I've gone from what my doctor described as hyper flexibilty in my shoulders (I used to be able to put my right arm behind my head, reach under my chin from the left and tug my right ear) to about 90% of normal movement. Worst part was the pain when you forget you have an issue and do things by reflex (in my case trying to catch a jacket my wife threw down stairs to me. Spent five minutes sat on the stairs weak with pain).

Only good thing about it is knowing that in most cases it does go away of its own accord (eventually).
 
catfood said:
I have exactly the same issue. Did my right shoulder skimming stones with my lad a few years ago. Eight months ago the left went for no apparent reason. Physio only seems to have a short term effect. Time seems to be the only cure. I've gone from what my doctor described as hyper flexibilty in my shoulders (I used to be able to put my right arm behind my head, reach under my chin from the left and tug my right ear) to about 90% of normal movement. Worst part was the pain when you forget you have an issue and do things by reflex (in my case trying to catch a jacket my wife threw down stairs to me. Spent five minutes sat on the stairs weak with pain).

Only good thing about it is knowing that in most cases it does go away of its own accord (eventually).
Click to expand...

Ah yes, the reflex action! Not long ago, i remember touching some metal cabinet and getting a static shock. The pain when I jerked my arm in reflex almost brought me to my knees.
 
Had a similar thing a few years ago. Not frozen but could not lift it above horizontal at all. A few weeks of sometimes painful therapy finally took care of it. Still feel a slight discomfort above horizontal but doesn't stop any activity. Here's hoping you get better soon.
 
Sometime last December I couldn't sleep because of severe shoulder pain. After about three weeks I finally went to my doctor who diagnosed it as bursitis and prescribed a regimen of steroid pills. He gave me some exercises that included walking my arm up a wall with my fingers when I couldn't lift my arm. He said it would keep my shoulder from locking up. The pills didn't give any relief so he X-rayed it and said I had an inflamed bursa, a calcified joint and a torn biceps. I don't remember ever hurting it. Think perhaps shoveling our Wisconsin snow and ice? He injected a steroid (Cortisone?) and I can now use the arm again, but still cannot use it fully and without some pain. He suggested surgery if I really wanted a full recovery. I understand this is not uncommon. Oh, to be 60 again. Hang in there, Basil.
 
JFS said:
Sometime last December I couldn't sleep because of severe shoulder pain. After about three weeks I finally went to my doctor who diagnosed it as bursitis and prescribed a regimen of steroid pills. He gave me some exercises that included walking my arm up a wall with my fingers when I couldn't lift my arm. He said it would keep my shoulder from locking up. The pills didn't give any relief so he X-rayed it and said I had an inflamed bursa, a calcified joint and a torn biceps. I don't remember ever hurting it. Think perhaps shoveling our Wisconsin snow and ice? He injected a steroid (Cortisone?) and I can now use the arm again, but still cannot use it fully and without some pain. He suggested surgery if I really wanted a full recovery. I understand this is not uncommon. Oh, to be 60 again. Hang in there, Basil.
Click to expand...

I'm hopeful that the therapy on this arm will work as well as it did when my other arm locked up.
 
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