u/sfcoffeegal

I'm currently in my frozen stage and have been for a couple months now. Thankfully, I have low pain levels. It's mostly tension at the end of my ROM and minor aches if I engage too hard in my PT exercises.

However, i still cannot put my hands on my hips properly, do a lateral arm raise, or reach behind my back.

How long did it take you to regain lateral ROM? I cannot raise my arm laterally without hitching my shoulder. Front raises seem to be slowly improving but that lateral motion seems like it’s not really budging much. Were there any stretches or exercises that helped with lateral motion specifically?

Frozen shoulder has seemed to creep up on me somewhat suddenly. It's hard to pinpoint the dates. I probably started freezing around mid-march, where I noticed pain when I tried to put on a bra. I thought I sprained a muscle or something doing pushups during my workout.

Beginning of April ROM started decreasing dramatically and I couldn't sleep on my right side. By mid April, I could not lift things overhead and had constant dull pain or sharp pain when I accidentally moved or knocked my arm/shoulder in the wrong way.

The dull ache totally stopped around 2-3 weeks ago and I was pretty much completely pain free (oddly right after my first PT appointment) although my ROM has remained limited. I felt stiffness but no pain. My ROM also increased about 20+ degrees when lifting my arm in front me me after I implemented the exercises from PT and started gently working out again. My PT thinks that getting some blood flow back after not using my arm at all has helped.

I had my second PT appointment last Friday, and although my PT is conservative and doesn't push me through any pain, the dull ache came back two days after the PT session. Nothing unmanageable, it's about a 2 or 3 out of 10 on a pain scale and I don't need to take pain meds yet. However, I thought I was finally out of the freezing phase and into the frozen phase after the ache had originally stopped.

What are other peoples' experiences around moving through the different different phases? Is it a clean break between phases or is there some back-and-forth with the pain? Did PT (even gentle PT) reignite pain for you?

So far the pain hasn't been unmanageable, but it's been incredibly frustrating. Thank goodness for this forum to help me navigate this horrible affliction.