What is Frozen Shoulder?

Frozen Shoulder is a chronic condition causing pain and loss of movement. For some reason the connective tissue in the joint becomes inflamed, and scar tissue forms. It can take 18 months or more to overcome.

There are four phases - initial, freezing, frozen, and thawing. In the first, the shoulder becomes painful with some movements. In the second, the lining of the joint progressively thickens, and there is considerable pain. Third, the pain eases, but shoulder movement is greatly restricted. Finally, the shoulder slowly unfreezes, and movement returns.



 Not only is it painful and depressing, this can take a long time to run its course!
Initial  up to 3 months

Freezing  up to 9 months

Frozen 9 to 15 months

Thawing  up to two years.

There are many good references on the net, and of course you'll look them up. I will recount a lot of this on this blog.

Right now, (29 August 2009), I am probably in the latter part of stage two, freezing. Feng, my accupuncture therapist thinks it's only a couple of weeks away. I live in hope!