Mrs midlife has had this diagnosis recently, looks to be a pretty long haul of pain and rehab, limited mobility. Has anyone got any experience of it they can share?

I’ve something similar but not so severe, used to get it a lot in nightclubs

I may have had this last year (never went to the doc ‘cos I’m a bloke).
Started in my right shoulder and almost stopped me lifting my arm above shoulder height. Hurt a bit at night and in the morning, then eased during the day.
Stayed with me from October until around March when I went sailing again – the next day it didn’t hurt so much. After a couple more weekends sailing it felt better still and now I don’t feel anything.
So if I did have frozen shoulder it didn’t last long – but it may have been something else completely unrelated.
That wasn’t very helpful was it? 😐

A few years ago after a skiing tumble, which resulted in a frozen shoulder.

It took 18 months altogether, although I have heard stories of it taking longer.

My treament was of lots of physio and a couple of cortisone injections into the shoulder, the first shot didn’t work however the second one 6 months later helped ease things a lot.

The doctor gave me 3 choices. An operation with keyhole surgery. Or manipulaion under anesthetic (where they literally pull the shoulder out of its frozen state), this one didn’t appeal because they can’t guarentee it will work. The last choice was time spent on exercises and a slow process of healing.

She has my sympathy because at first it’s quite painfull and normal things like dressing yourself or washing up are difficult.
Also for me not being able to mtb was not good for everyone around, mrs grumpy was my nickname.

Edit – forgot to mention that her age may have something to do with it, as it can be a hormonal thing.

Thanks, she’s considering surgery as the consultant seems to think it’s a bad one given how she’s affected, pain pretty bad and not getting much sleep. Seems the surgery could cut down the recovery time and increase final range of movement.

One thing that i’ve seen is a combo of surgical release of some parts of the shoulder capsule, and a nerve block for a couple of days to enable intensive physio that isnt stopped by pain. So effectively surgery and manipulation under anaesthetic. Maybe discuss that as an option. Seemed pretty effective from where I was standing.

Tricky one this as the conventional medical answer is what is outlined above, that there are adhesions in the joint that in most people somehow magically un adhere after 12 to 18 months and if not then may be helped by surgery or manipulation that on the face of it should cause further scarring and adhesions. This tends to go against all we are otherwise taught about scarring and healing.

There certainly are some causes of shoulder pain that are only manageable by surgery, but for a standard frozen shoulder an alternative is to explore the interesting world of trigger point therapy. See here. The book is available for around 6-8ukp if you look on ebay, also available from amazon. The concept of trigger points seems to be well known to pain clinic doctors but not the rest of us and the techniques appeared to sort out my other half’s frozen shoulder when conventional physio etc. was doing nothing. On balance I am a believer but the suggestion comes with no guarantee.