Frozen Shoulder Update

It is now nearly a week since the onset of my frozen shoulder, and I am definitely feeling the benefit of the cortisone injection into the joint, and the stronger prescription pain killers/anti-inflammatories. The pain is considerably reduced, and I am gradually being able to increase the range of movement of my arm – still pretty limited, but definitely an improvement on how it was. As long as I don’t move my arm too much, or jerk it, I am not aware of the pain.

I left off the sling yesterday, and also my hubby’s ministrations! He had to help me wash and dress, and took over in the kitchen again, like last year when I was so ill dealing with my cancer and couldn’t cook. This felt like such a retrograde step and I was certainly not prepared to let that state of affairs last any longer than absolutely necessary!

He has been out and about over the past few days, being reassured by me that I was managing pretty well. I did the ironing yesterday afternoon, which I was very pleased about – I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it at all this week! In his absence, I have been forced to explore new ways of doing things that really needed to be done – there’s usually a way, however bizarre it may seem!!

In this hot weather it is essential that I get my hair up, off my neck, or it is unbearably hot. I always sleep with it tied up too, to prevent it getting in my face. With my arm so immobile I have been quite incapable of doing this for myself, and my hubby did his best to do it for me, with deplorably awful results lol! He never got it tight enough, and it looked as if I’d been dragged through the proverbial hedge backwards – more or less OK for overnight but certainly not good enough for during the day!! Yesterday I thought about it, and decided that the problem was that I could not reach up high enough to do it from above, as usual, and the only alternative was to do it from below. This meant turning myself upside down! By sitting on a chair and putting my head between my knees, and then brushing my hair towards the floor (using the good hand), I am now able to tie it in a pony tail with both arms in the “down” position! I feel a bit dizzy when I come up but that’s OK – my balance is always pretty rubbish with the ME anyway… So, nice neat hair again, and a cool neck!

Using my right hand, I can lift my left arm onto the table to do things, and to type etc. etc. Having my adjustable bed means that I can sleep in a semi-reclined, semi-lying down position and this is a lot more comfortable than lying down properly. If I am flat, I cannot sleep on my back, but this way, it is really comfortable.

Yesterday I started cooking again, and I am washing up, and really doing pretty much everything I was doing before, but with limited movement, and sometimes approaching tasks in a different way.

I am still waiting to hear from the physiotherapy department with an appointment, and in the meantime, have found some gentle exercises online for frozen shoulder once the acute, extremely painful phase is over, and I am trying to keep the arm moving. I haven’t tried the wheelchair yet, but hopefully I shall soon be able to use it again, and be able to get out and about again.

The new painkillers, Naproxen, don’t seem to affect me nearly so badly as the codeine. It may be that I have been sleeping better too, but I am feeling much less spaced out, and Kermit’s output has returned to normal, which is a relief. I changed his bag yesterday with no problem at all, and he behaved extremely well, and didn’t wake up and erupt everywhere, which really helped!

So, things are looking up.