Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Frozen Shoulder - Anyone deal with it?

I've been diagnosed with a frozen shoulder. Basically an enflamed and very stiff and sore left shoulder. I think it came mainly from shooting archery and enough years of not being very nice to my shoulders. Wondering if anyone has been through it and what you did to get through it.

find someone near you that practices the St Johns Method of Neuromuscular Therapy. Seriously.

I've dealt with it for over 15 years some days pane is terrible some not so much....worst part its my right shoulder....I just changed to shooting left handed and keep on going....
Wife has the same problem in her left shoulder went to the doctor 10 years ago he wanted to operate I told here find a different Doctor .....the second Doctor gave her some pill haven't had a problem since....

Diclofenac gel.

Had the same thing in my left shoulder from Archery. One serious impingement. Tried all of the phys therapy BS and the pain was still there...shoulder down to elbow. Got it scoped during an outpatient procedure. Six weeks later I felt like a new man. 2 years later it is still 100% pain free. My advice: don't overlook the surgical procedure. Consult a good orthopedic surgeon

I've had a frozen shoulder on both the left and right shoulder. About 14 years apart. Doctor first sent me to physical therapy, which made it worse, then gave me a cortisone shot in the bursa - which did nothing. At this time it had not yet been diagnosed as a frozen shoulder. I mentioned the pain to a friend of mine and he, an avid tennis player, suggested that I see a shoulder doctor who was used by a number tennis players.

I went to see the new doctor and he ran me through a series of range of motion exercises and said - "you have a frozen shoulder". He proposed a cortisone shot and I said that I already had one and when I told him where he just laughed and said, "let's do it right this time." He brought out a needle that was about 4" long and came in from the top of the shoulder and went in about 3". I never felt a thing and within days, I was back to normal.

Same thing 14 years later. Same result. Since then I have gotten much better about noticing any twinge in either shoulder and immediately stop what I'm doing and let my shoulder rest for a couple days.

I have had to have a number of shoulder injections over the years. They have flat out worked for me.

Surgery!

Is it your your draw arm or bow arm? I've had a sx on my right, and the left is sore as heck now.....I'm going for shots next week and will hopefully skip right to the knife again.

Bow arm. Stiff as hell and if I raise it up enough or stretch just right it about makes me want to cry. Have seen a PT and Sports Medicine Ortho doc, had X-rays everything looked ok and they both gave me some exercises to do but 3 weeks in there seems to be no improvement. Watching some Youtube videos it looks like it's going to take a while.........

Mine cropped up 2 years ago, from what I think was a result of an ATV wreck in the mid 80's. A heavy barrel 22-250 was uncomfortable to shoot.

Just like a knee, damage &/or excessive wear. Maybe a fragment floating around.

Luckily mine finally went away after 2.5 months. Dr. prescribed topical didn't help as much as hemp infused oil roll on. BUT..........

The roll on contained menthol & camphor & I think that was as effective as all the other crap. Considering age, & the fact a topical helped, it could have been a bursitis or arthritis flare up..

Back to the old basic Ben gay or other sports creams.

centershot:

I once had what was described to me as a frozen left shoulder by the sports medicine and orthopedic surgeon who treated me. Don't know how many different causes there might be for it, and I don't know if there's more than one kind of frozen shoulder. Anyway, I got mine from shoveling snow. With a damn shovel. A lot of snow over a period of weeks.

What he said was that I had torn a bunch of muscle strands throughout the shoulder and when they healed, little bits of scar tissue adhered to muscle strands next to them, so that they pulled on each other, painfully, whenever I moved my arm sideways above waist height.

He said I had to tear those muscle strands loose from the adhesions and keep exercising the muscles so that when new scar tissue formed, the strands didn't adhere to each other so much.

So after he treated me to an injection of cortisone directly into my shoulder joint with a horse needle, which was no fun, he sent me home with a regimen of daily exercise that involved said tearing.

It took weeks, but it got better.

I had it bad for about a year. Dr. told me I had the worst case of it he had seen in 40years. Went to PT three times a week for them to torcher me. Dr. wanted to cut some scar tissue, but I wanted none of that. PT had me yelling and crying so bad, they had to put me in a private room in the back. Went on vacation for a week, and after no PT for 10days, it was fine.

Surgery should be an absolute last resort. You don't stand to lose anything by trying injections. I have had 6-8 injections, including one in which the needle bent in my joint, and they don't bother me at all.

I had it in both shoulders a few years ago and got to where I couldn't do squat anymore. Couldn't pull start a mower, sleep with arm under pillow, etc... I read about MUA, manipulation under anesthesia where they put you out, given you a nerve block and physically move your arms through the full range of motion to tear where your shoulders tendons and ligaments have adhered to your shoulder capsule. So one night I got drunker than [bleep] and had my wife do the manipulation on both arms. By far the worst pain I've ever experienced and you could hear the tearing and popping but I got back to about 90% normal afterwards.

I had pseudo paralysis in my left shoulder from a 26 foot fall off some scaffolding. Almost no use of my left arm whatsoever. This happened in September, and a great physical therapist had me shooting waterfowl by January.

Did PT for impinged. Helped but back to work and it still hurts. Cant take off work for 6 months to let it heal.
Job physical.

Still doing PT at home, go til it tears and then Ill be out 6 months. Draw arm, shot bow many yrs.

I went through about four months of PT and home exercises.

No shots, and no relapse. I regained 100% of the range of motion. The doctor said if four months of PT doesn't solve the problem, we will put you to sleep, rip it free, and then another four months of PT. Needless to say, I was motavated to do the home exercises.

Good luck!

Had it bad in one shoulder about 10 years ago probably from an old tear and broken collar bone/acromial joint. Did PT for almost a year. It got worse.

Went to surgery, they tore it apart. I did PT for another 3 months and it's back to 95%. I can do pull ups with it now.

That was some wicked pain.

I put off surgery until my shoulder would pop out if I rolled over with my arm up while sleeping.

Recovery and rehab sucks, but I had all the tendons detached.

Without an MRA you don't really know what's goin on.