What is frozen shoulder?

Frozen shoulder is a painful condition where the shoulder joint becomes stiff and loses its range of motion. This is caused by the connective tissue capsule thickening and developing scar tissue. Frozen shoulder progresses slowly through three main stages: 1) freezing, 2) frozen, and 3) thawing, over a course of 1-3 years. The freezing stage is the most painful. The frozen stage is less painful, but range of motion is extremely limited. Relief begins at the thawing stage. How long these stages last is individual and varies considerably.

 

How do you get frozen shoulder?

It often occurs after an injury or surgery and also for no apparent reason.*

*Primary frozen shoulder (also known as idiopathic FS) happens for no “known” reason. However, emotions can play a key role in developing FS and resolving it.

Secondary frozen shoulder develops due to an identifiable underlying issue, like diabetes, thyroid issues, injury (via fracture, surgery, & vaccination injection), stroke, or other shoulder problems such as rotator cuff issues and arthritis.

It also occurs mostly in women during perimenopause and menopause and often correlates with stress/emotional trauma.

 

What can you do about it?

After a lot of research and personal experience dealing with my own frozen shoulder, these are my observations, and not medical advice, since I am not a doctor.

 

Don’t wait for an official diagnosis.

If it sounds and feels like frozen shoulder, it probably is. Sure, seek a second opinion, but don’t let that delay taking action towards recovery. You can’t always get in to see someone right away and I’ve seen people waiting months for a diagnosis. Or worse, being misdaignosed or gaslit about their shoulder pain. You don’t have to wait to start helping yourself.

 

Take responsibility for your own healing.

Please do not outsource it to doctors, physiotherapists, chiropractors or by doing nothing. Yes, frozen shoulder is self-limiting… meaning that eventually the pain and stiffness will fade on their own. But ultimately healing will depend mostly on you.

 

Try as many natural healing modalities as possible before resorting to drugs and surgery.

Drugs come with many side effects and surgery is risky with no guarantee of success. It’s a bit like Russian roulette, so do your research before undertaking any medical intervention.

It’s natural to want a fast fix, but…

 

Trust that your body knows how to heal itself.

This can be hard to do since most of us have been conditioned to believe that we need someone or something to heal our own bodies. But that is a lie that keeps you in a victim’s mindset and gives your power away to those with perceived knowledge and authority. Of course, there are things we can do to assist the body… like sleep, nutrition and movement… but the body is doing the actual healing. The more outside “help” you seek, the more you are interfering with it.

 

Determine whether or not physio is right for you.

Physio can be helpful or harmful depending on when you get it, how it’s done and what advice they give you. Getting physio in the freezing stage doesn’t stop the progression of the phases and can make matters worse by creating more pain and inflammation. During the freezing and frozen stages, you are literally stuck. Gains will be small and not long-lasting, but the pain and additional trauma can be substantial.  If it takes more than a day or two to “recover” from physio, then perhaps you are not ready for it and best to hold off until you reach the thawing stage. Also, their prognosis may be quite discouraging, and you do not need that right now. What you need is encouragement and positive feedback. However, there are a couple of early medical interventions that might help, and you need to be advised of them in order to make an informed decision. More on this later.

 

Slow and steady wins the race.

Know that once the initial painful period reduces, you will gradually be able to do more, recover from setbacks faster and gain your range of motion back.

Healing is not linear.

There are natural ups and downs to any type of healing, and trying to rush any of this will only move you backwards.  Another thing to remember…

This too shall pass.

 

Accept your situation but don’t expect the worst.

Yes, it sucks right now. No, it is not fun. But you need to know that the range of healing is anywhere from 6 months to a few years. Expect to be in the former and not the latter because mindset matters.

 

Assist your body. Don’t be passive.

Actively help your body to heal. This can be done by getting gentle massages (to relax muscles, reduce inflammation and lymph buildup); move your body to maintain mobility (walking and swimming are gentle but effective); use heat (heated bean bags provide moist heat that is more soothing than dry heat from electric heating pads; take supplements that assist in healing (magnesium, curcumin) and use healing oils (castor, comfrey and frankincense).

Sleep is not passive since we do most of our healing during sleep. But I know that sleeping during the frozen stage is next to impossible. Do your best to create the ideal environment and conditions for sleep such as lots of pillows, heat, and pain meds if needed. Get a small microwave to keep in your bedroom to re-heat your bean bag multiple times throughout the night. This allows you to do this quickly and get back to sleep.

Heat is your friend here. Applying ice packs to a frozen shoulder is counterintuitive. Recent findings suggest the traditional RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) method for acute injuries is outdated, as icing can delay healing by hindering the essential inflammatory process that brings healing factors to damaged tissue. Ice constricts blood vessels, reducing this vital influx of healing cells and potentially delaying or weakening the repair process, leading to slower, less robust healing.

 

Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Frozen shoulder is frustrating because you can become completely depependent upon others overnight. This is a hard pill to swallow when you are used to doing EVERYTHING yourself. But that may be, in part, why you have FS. From doing too much and carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders. Take this as an opportunity to let others step up and for you to do less.

However, as soon as you are physically able, start doing mobility exercises; use your arm as much as you can; and try to lift progressively heavier things. Your arm will still get sore from doing these things, but you will get better each day. If you do nothing, you may be pain free but still have poor range of motion. Adhesions need to be released and muscles that have atrophied need to become strong again. Address these or you will live with these limitations for life.

 

And finally…

Do what works for you.

I suggest joining a Facebook group (this is a good one) for mental support and ideas, but remember that what worked for someone else may not work for you. It’s up to you to use discernment as to what you feel is best for you.

Everyone has limitations… whether it’s time, money, threshold of pain, ability to cope, support from others, existing health conditions, etc. These will impact your decisions. For myself, I incurred nerve damage when I fractured my shoulder from a skating fall (and then developed secondary frozen shoulder as result of the trauma and inflammation) and then the frozen shoulder kept the nerves pinched. Nerve pain is one of the most excruciating pains a person can encounter. Eventually, you will start to break down emotionally and physically if you don’t get a temporary reprieve.

Early intervention with a cortisone injection can limit the progression of a frozen shoulder and lessen pain enough to allow for sleep. Nerve pain medication (if you have nerve pain) for a short period of time can also help with the pain. However, both of these interventions can do also do very little to help or go badly for some.

An injection of any kind can cause trauma to an already injured shoulder, and cortisone specifically can weaken cartilage. And most pain medications cause side effects, one being dry mouth which can lead to new issues such as cavities, another being addiction and the need to be weaned off them slowly, so you don’t have a desire to off yourself!

Like most injuries or setbacks in life, you learn valuable lessons and can come out stronger on the other side. Maybe you’ve learned to finally slow down and realize what’s important in life. Perhaps you now know who is really there for you and what you’ve been avoiding that is affecting your emotional and physical health.

READ: 5 Reasons Why You Should Slow Down

Maybe you already have stiff joints and poor mobility which can lead to injuries. Or maybe you have anger or resentment (click link) that you are not dealing with and that are showing up in your body as dis-ease. Perhaps you are out of shape, not sleeping well, have thyroid issues and/or are going through hormonal changes. This is your opportunity to fix all of that.

READ: The Sexy Woman’s Guide To Exercise

READ: Is Your Bedroom The Perfect Oasis?

Your body is a gift. 

Health and independence are not guaranteed.

You need to take full responsibility for injury prevention and recovery. Not having use of your dominant arm is humbling. And it is frustrating when you can’t do even the most basic things… like putting your hair up in a ponytail. But you learn to use your other arm, and create new neural pathways in your brain.

Whether you make yourself more of a priority, set better boundaries, or address chronic injuries and health conditions, you learn that it’s up to you to fix it.

READ: It’s Time To Start Making Yourself A Priority

READ: Real Empowerment Through Health

Approach this as an opportunity to learn and grow and become more confident in yourself. You will emerge better for it.

 

Another insightful article by Dr. Larry Burk, MD, CEHP

Psychosomatic Aspects of Frozen Shoulder

 

 

Photo Credit: Unsplash/alina-makhatyrova