After complications with my broken collarbone I finally had surgery to fix it after 12 weeks.
The operation was five weeks ago and i’m still in a fair bit of pain from it.
i’ve seen two different physios and both are saying its frozen shoulder and could take a long time to put right.
All good so far except one of them has given me some resistance bands and exercises to do telling me that i need to build up the muscle again.
The other physio is telling me that this is a really bad idea and will cause more swelling to the tendonds, more pain and slow down the whole process.
I have to say it does seem to cause more pain and I’m not getting any more movement.
I just don’t know which advice to go with? At 17 weeks after the initial brake and still being in pain I can’t see an end to it all.
Any advice on this would be most helpfull to me.

As a general rule, some pain during rehab exercises (eg up to 2 out of 10) is ok esp for tendons*. However, if the pain is getting worse day by day then stop / regress the exercises.

You could write down how it feels every morning on a score of 1 to 10 and keep a log. Shoulders & tendons can take months to fix (eg mine took 9 months of rehab to fix), so it can be a long journey.

* when tendons get damaged they form cracks into which blood vessels and nerves grow, these intruding nerve cells are what cause the pain and part of the rehab process is to repeatedly flex the tendon and these cracks to snap off the intruders (how it was explained to me).

Are you using an NHS physio or private?
Memory is you’re Stourbridge way, I can recommend a good private practise if you want another option and don’t mind paying for it.

Thanks footflaps.
I understand that I need to brake up the scar tissue in the tendons but it’s the conflicting advice that’s not helping my frame of mind towards seing light at the end of the tunnel.
Lunge
Yes I’m Stourdridge way.
One was NHS and one private.
I’d be interested in who you recommend any why please?
Have they treated you and what for?
Thanks

If it is actually frozen shoulder then probably don’t use the bands at the moment. There is other stuff you can do to keep the muscles working and I’m guessing the Physio who told you not to use the bands has given you stuff to do…

As well as treating lots of patients with this condition over the past two decades, I’ve had it in both shoulders, so I feel the frustration! Find a good clinician you trust if you can and follow their advice, it can make a big difference 🙂

Thanks steam.
I’m due to see the guy who gave me the band work again on monday so I’ll lay off that until I’ve asked him about the different advice.

Find a good clinician you trust if you can and follow their advice

This is the difficult bit.
Don’t suppose you’re in the West Mids are you?

I had frozen shoulder, before ending up with surgery on both shoulders. The guy who eventually did the operations prescribed some sort of injection, steroid iirc, which cleared the frozen shoulder instantly – proper spooky instantly. Iirc it flushed through the problem.

kilo.
Did you have the injection at the hospital/doctors?
Was the operation for frozen shoulder or something else?

The injection took place at the hospital. Just done some Google and it was hydrodilalation.
I had a bad mtb crash and borked my left shoulder primarily but also damaged the right one. I ended up with a frozen left shoulder. The injection cleared up the frozen element and then I had keyhole surgery a few months later as the impingement which was causing all the problems was still there but the frozen shoulder was long gone.

Thanks for the info.👍

Can I also recommend you do the exercises for both shoulders as you’ll end up with muscle imbalance, well I did after I had shoulder surgery and initially just concentrated on the damaged shoulder.

@singlespeedstu although I live in Shropshire, I only see patients in Manchester nowadays.

I don’t know many clinics in the West Mids, I work around the NW primarily. It may be a bit away from you, but Function Jigsaw in the Leicester area are excellent. Another option might be to have one or two sessions in person and have virtual appointments, they can work really well, I can highly recommend the team at M20 health in Manchester for something like this:

https://www.m20health.com/services

I had a frozen shoulder that came on for no apparent reason – struggled with physio in this phase as the exercises just hurt and didn’t do anything noticeable. A deep saline injection with X-ray co-incided with the path to recovery, but whether it was the trigger IDK – this pathology of a frozen shoulder (ie no obv injury cause) does usually get better on its own.

I felt the physio was helpful in the recovery phase but I was just fighting an under-lying condition prior to that with no headway- I guess it still felt right to be pro-active and try to do something though. So definitely do get on the rehab but don’t get discouraged if you’re not seeing early results, and be content with gentle stuff if there’s too much pain there.

Good luck with it and I hope it starts mending – my mobility with it above the head was savagely painful, something like dead-hanging from a bar I thought I would never be able to do. But it’s as close to completely recovered now as makes no difference, could bang out chin ups to my heart’s content (well one or two).

Recent collar bone and frozen shoulder here. My CB was plated in September 2018 and in April 2019 the same surgeon did a capsular release op arthroscopically. On discharging me he said: your recovery is in your hands now. You can’t do it any harm so crack on.”

I used resistance bands for strength but for range of movement the best exercise was lying flat on my back using a dumbbell to keep the arm extended while I moved it above my head angel-style. This was a very effective exercise.

For the pain, paracetamol is your friend, a very effective painkiller if used correctly, which means keeping the level up. Take 1gm four times a day at regular intervals, keep a note of times so you space them evenly. I managed my CB and frozen shoulder fine using just paracetamol.

Thanks again all who have replied so far.
After a really bad day pain wise yesterday it has eased a little today which gives me hope again.
It seems to go in phases pain wise and the movement gets larger then decreases again in circles.
Overall I have a bit more movement than two weeks ago so it is kind of making progress.
Just so hard to deal with it mentaly when it starts hurting again and the range decreases.
Been in touch with the folks lunge has recomended and they’re supposed to be getting back to me on tuesday.
Got another appointment with the NHS guy on monday morning so I’ll see if he can explain to me about the conflicting advice.
Though it does seem better without the band work.
I’ve read a fair bit of stuff about it and there seem to be a fair few people that think in these initail painful stages its best not to stress it then start more excersise when the pain stops.

Edit

I’m really not into the idea of more surgery.
I’ve now got quite a large area with no feeling in it and don’t want to add to that.

Think i’ve taken half the UK’s supply of paracetamol every four hours for weeks
Doesn’t seem to do a great deal for me unless I also take codeine with it.
Think ibufrofen would be better to reduce the inflammation but don’t want to take that as don’t want to slow down the bone healing.

I’ve been where you are right now my friend. Every four hours is too much paracetamol, you’re not supposed to take more than 4gms a day. I gave up on Ibuprofen pretty fast as it gave me searing heartburn as it eroded my aesophagus. Codeine blocked me solid because it suppresses bowel action.

I did find the bands made me ache so I just concentrated on that vital range of movement at first, lying on the floor groaning and really pushing the limits. Not daily. Only when I felt ready.

I also avoided ibuprofen because I’d heard that it can inhibit the healing response and after 3 miserable months of non-union the bone ends had rounded off and gone to sleep so the surgeon had to rough them up and join them with cancellous graft under the plate. So I wanted to give it the best chance possible of joining.

Don’t worry the pain will subside. Mine is still a bit stiff and sore 2 years later but I have full ROM and it’s more discomfort than pain.

By an area with no feeling do you mean skin around the incision? This doesn’t bother me.

Yes around the scar and the top of my shoulder/arm.