[JDBear]

Apparently I have a condition called adhesive capsulitis aka frozen shoulder that is often seen in diabetics. It hurts like **** and all the physical therapy in the world only seems to help a little.

Anyone else dealing with this and how do they deal with it?

[Scratch]

Keep up with the physical therapy. It's going to hurt but it will help preserve range of motion along with how much range of motion you recover when the shoulder begins thawing out.

[rzrbks]

Scratch is correct.

Keep up with the physical therapy and you should eventually not only see improvement but also some relief.

I know if I quit my workouts for even a few days, I pay for it by having the pain come back.

Find an activity that stretches and moves the shoulder that YOU enjoy doing is the best thing.

Good luck

[sable_032592]

i have it too... a lot of us here have had it or still do... i even had a cortizone shot done last month, did nothing to help... don't use a sling, it'll only make it worse... stretching bands help... it's an elastic piece of "thing" that you can tie one end to a door knob and use the other end to stretch your arm with... pharmacies have them...

[notme]

We recently had a thread on just this painful subject. Click on this link and you can read it. frozen shoulder?

Sorry to hear about your frozen shoulder. It is MISERABLE!

Here is another one. Frozen Shoulders

Do a search on "adhesive capsulites" and "frozen shoulder" under the search mode and you will find a lot of reading.

[lorilei]

I don't have it, but i treat many clients who do.... unfortunately, all of the above are right. despite the pain, perserve and continue to use your arm. steroid shots help some, pain patches really only a little. you might need to see what helps more, moist heat or cold packs (people are different and respond differently in the inflammatory stage.) in the meantime look up pendulum exercises and towel slides on the wall or tanle to increase/preserve ROm. you may be one of the lucky ones with a spontaneous recovery. frozen shoulder can often be a secondary injury. Good Luck and hang it there! keep moving!!

[Mich]

I have had two frozen shoulders. One of them required surgery to vacuum out the "crud" as my doc (a sports medicine specialist by the way) put it.

After the surgery, I must have tried four or five different physcial therapists over a period of about two years. None of them really did any good and some actually made it worse.

After the failures, I was beginning to feel it would never be normal again, but I agreed to try therapy one more time. This time, it took exactly three weeks to give me most of my range back. The therapist knew exactly what she was doing (it was in a major hospital PT department) and recognized that I would put up with a lot to get better. She worked my shoulder slightly differently than anyone had before and until I had had enough and it was feeling inflamed, then she iced me down. YAY...at long last--SUCCESS!

When my other shoulder began to hurt, I launched into my own program. I began to walk my fingers up the shower wall in the mornings under a hot shower--a little higher each day. I stretched it every way I could and refused to favor it. After about a month, it went away.

Two points:

Don't give up on physical therapy, but do switch therapists if you are not seeing any improvement.

If you feel it happening again, you now know how to prevent it. Do the exercises, stretch and rotate. Being under a hot shower helps. DO NOT FAVOR YOUR SHOULDER JUST BECAUSE OF PAIN. Be tough or it will nab you again and in my opinion, it just isn't worth having it twice

Mich

[Cassini]

Swimming.

I hurt myself at work a few years ago, damaging my rotator cuff in the process. I did weeks of physio and then on to sport training doc who suggested strength training followed by swimming for 6 weeks, followed by some hot tub therapy, ahhh, my favourite kind!

I haven't been keeping up with the swimming (bad girl, bad girl) and when I do not, my shoulder pays the price.

Cass