I was diagnoses with bursitis and frozen shoulder recently.
My doctor told me that it is common for diabetics to have it especially if control is not great.
My control is very good. I have no other complications and I have been t1 for 26 years.
In any case it is majorly painful and limiting. I have a tough time lifting things over my head. Even playing ball with my kid is nearly impossible.
The thing is , it came on so fast. I have an appt with a PT next week.
Anyone else ever have this and have some insight on what to expect?
Well thanks for all that info. I'm no sure I'm glad I asked .
The trouble I have is in both shoulders and is diagnosable just in my right.
The pain is very weird horrible to sleep with and any quick movements during the day is excruciating. Like that punching bag thing they have at carnivals. I tried to punch it forgetting my shoulder and I thought I would pass out.
I still have good strength but range is limited and pain is terrible.
I'm quite afraid to take cortisone in my shoulder but my doc recommended it. He said I will come around after my first visit with the PT. He thinks the pain will persuade me.
As for the possibility of auto immune disease. It think it is likely. I have also developed eczema over the past 2 years, although not severe. And a new allergy to tree pollen, Both cam on suddenly and I believe it is an immune issue.
I also had my immunity checked for several of the usual childhood ailments and My bloodwork showed that I have no sign of immunity to Chickenpox or to Hep B.
I was immunized for both of those and that is suppose to be lifetime protection.
So I guess I will get another injection for each of those.
I'm not exactly sure what to make of it, but my endo tells me it is not common but also not uncommon for type 1 s to have this happen.
Are you taking supplements? I actually took (and still take) high doses of fish oil, which is claimed to be an anti inflammatory. I also took Glucosamine. At times I would take a NSAID, like Aleve, but I was always concerned about long-term use.
I have not had a chance to read the whole thread, but I will say that you can fully recover from frozen shoulder (at least I did). At the time I'd had T1 for about 25 years with very good control. Frozen shoulder came on after 2nd pregnancy, along with carpal tunnel on the same side. Very painful especially when throwing the arm over the car seat to look in the rear window to back up. Physio had me stretching and using weights (soup cans) at home to improve my range of movement. I would say that after a year or so of attending to it, including massage and then eventually less work stress, it all went away. Albeit I occasionally get a little tendonitis in the elbow of that arm these days. Good luck, don't despair, it should improve. Ask the PT about TENS or radial shock therapy before going the steroid route. It might help.
I've had frozen should in both shoulders now (not at the same time). The right one I had a cortizone shot and the shot hurt more than the shoulder pain - but it worked. The left one I used physical therapy and it took two years, but I was not good at doing the regular PT exercises. Although I don't think you get frozen shoulder again in the same shoulder, I would just get the cortizone shot. ps, my control is good, no complications; type 1 for 38 yrs.
Yes, I was diagnosed with frozen shoulder several years ago. Came on fast and I've also always been in good control. They say that it can run it's course; freeze up, be frozen and then unfreeze on its own over several years. I went in for therapy and after awhile it un froze so don't fret, there's hope.
I had "frozen shoulder" several years ago that turned out to be a muscular problem that I solved by seeing a trigger point therapist and doing lots of exercises and work on my own. I do a lot of yoga, so it was weird because I have way more range of motion in my shoulders than most people due to 18 years of avid yoga practice. Turns out it was a computer mouse problem! My trigger point therapist (I call her my torture therapist but never to her face) was a miracle worker, and I got an ergo eval for work and new equipment. I recommend "The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook" by Clair Davies or "The Frozen Shoulder Workbook" by Clair Davies.
Hi Tim. I too had a vicious frozen shoulder about a decade ago. I was uninsured at the time, so I just suffered with it for a couple years. It got progressively worse, till even riding in a car hurt with every bump in the road. After three unhelpful cortisone injections into the joint I was sent to a "shoulder specialist" in the nearest big city, a two hour drive. It took that guy exactly 5 minutes to diagnose my frozen shoulder. He said I could un-freeze it myself through physical therapy, or spend a few thousand $ to have a 10 minute Rx where they'd put me under general anesthesia, physically spin my arm/shoulder through it's proper range of motion, ripping loose the scar tissue. Then I'd be given pain killers and anti-inflammatory meds while I healed.
Well, I chose the physical therapy - Got the exercises for free from a friend of a friend who was a PT. He had me put a strong eye bolt with a pulley attached into a wall higher than I could reach. Then I ran a nylon rope through the pulley, made handles at ends by threading them through short sections of PVC, then tying them back to the rope.
The exercises involved 1) pulling the frozen arm straight up, backward, out to side or forward using the good arm - Pulling into the pain as far as I could handle then holding for a slow count of ten. Repeat 10 times in each of the 4 positions. 2) Hold a broom handle out front in hands, elbow of sore shoulder close to side, at 90 degree angle. The good arm pushes sore one so it pivots around to the side Keeping the elbow close to side - again 10 count, 10x. 3) Last I was to hold the broom handle over my head, straight arms, and walk through a door till the handle caught, move forward (pushes arms back over head) into pain and hold the same count/times as the others. Sounds delightful doesn't it? Arrrrrgh. I couldn't believe how much it hurt. But after 2 weeks of doing this daily the pain was 80% gone. A couple more weeks and it was pain free. There's hope!
I have had frozen shoulder on both sides in the last 4 years. Yes, it is extremely painful and most difficult to sleep. Months and months of PT and exercises with no improvement and actually worsening. If you decide to do injections i would definately seek out a shoulder specialist, and ask about getting the injection under flouroscopy xray to make sure that the needle is placed in the proper space. Yes blood sugars will be an issue with injections, I managed mine with temp basals, sometimes up to 140- 150%, knowing that there will be a spike. Eventually, I had surgery on both shoulders, the first being mostly successful eventho i still have some range of motion limitations. The second surgery, not so much, but i think my second shoulder was in a different phase of the process and that changed the outcome. Remember, a surgeons motto is "to cut is to cure". He will probably have little interest in the inflammatory process or the autoimmune aspect of frozen shoulder. My best advice to you would be, keep moving your arm, even though it hurts like hell.
I've got this. I had surgery about 12 years ago on the left and they removed the bursa sac. Really took care of it but I am loathe to get any more surgery so I've tried to fix the right with much stretching and a weight program designed to strengthen the shoulder. Also, many foods have anti-inflammatory properties (tumeric is one) and I think they are helpful too.
Yes I have had frozen shoulder. I had one right shoulder "Manipulation" and Chromioplasty (sp?). Which basically means that they knock you out, crank your shoulder around.. and then you wake up in the most unbelievable pain. then they want you house it.. TRUST ME.. Go to PT until you can use it again to flu range of motion! Chuck
PT is going to be painful. I haven't had frozen shoulder but I have had a painful rotator cuff tear and a complete rotator cuff tear. PT was horrible for the complete tear. Basically I start pt the weekend after the complete tear was repaired and pt was only allowed to move my shoulder and I left in tears even with pain meds in me before pt. I would highly recommend taking a pain pill before going into pt. I had to be a downer on it but it is the truth on it. One other thing they can do is a patch with steroid cream on it. In theory it shouldn't affect your blood sugars as it doesn't cross the blood/brain barrier but when they used it with me I did see a small increase with my blood sugars but it did help with the inflammation. It is a trade off if you want to deal with the increase in your blood sugars or a decrease in your inflammation. To me the trade off wasn't worth the increase in blood sugars. For me increase was like 5 points but I liked the control I had at the time so I asked them not to use it anymore and they respected my decision. I could have very easily controlled it with an increase on my insulin pump I just decided not to. Tens unit helped a lot as well and I had my own tens unit at home so I used that a lot as well. Hope this information helps.
What is a tens unit?