How to Treat a Frozen Shoulder
Have you ever felt like you can’t move the whole of your shoulder? This is a condition that makes your shoulder stiff, and thus, mobility becomes impossible. It occurs when the area around your shoulder joint becomes inflamed.
The inflammation causes the tissues around the shoulder joint to thicken and makes motion impossible. It starts as feeling some pain around the joint area that reduces mobility. Reduced mobility makes the area stiff, and over time you may lose complete mobility.
It mostly affects women as well as people with diabetes and is common in adults over the age of 40. According to Upper Extremity Specialists, you can have the condition treated by visiting a professional. Depending on the severity of your conditions you can receive several options for treatment. Remedies include physical therapy, surgery, medication and home care.
Table of Contents
Medication
The stiff shoulder may cause you to experience intense pain due to the inflammation and possible infection. You can take pain relievers to help ease the pain and inflammatory drugs that reduce the swelling. You can also receive a steroid injection to help with the pain.
Ensure that you consult a doctor to help with prescribing the right medication. Taking over the counter drugs may prove unsuccessful, and may also expose you to drugs that may harm your health, especially if you have specific allergies. Some medicines have the same substance that you may have an allergy to, and taking such drugs exposes you to a reaction that you may have to treat.
Surgery
When the stiff shoulder does not subside with less invasive treatments, surgery becomes an option. The operation involves the treatment of the shoulder joint to recover its full range of motion by manipulating it to move. It can also entail making an incision and using a camera to observe the scar tissue that formed from the injury. The scar tissue is responsible for the immobility of the shoulder joint. When the wound heals, the scar tissue thickens, causing the mass tissue to bulge on the shoulder joint, making routine motion harder. The camera tracks where the scar tissue formed, and the surgeon removes it for you to regain mobility.
Frozen Shoulder Remedies
You can try to solve the frozen shoulder problem at home by using ice bags as a form of pain killer.
- Apply an ice bag on the shoulder at intervals of 15 minutes.
- You can then engage in mobility exercises to train the joint to move.
- You can consult a pain specialist to recommend types of training and direct you on when to increase the activities to regain more motion in the shoulder.
Most of the shoulder stiffness complications can receive treatment from the comfort of your home. However, you can visit a doctor if the shoulders immobility does not subside.
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy entails a range of exercises that help you regain the motion of your shoulder joint. You can visit a specialist to help with the daily exercises. After a few weeks, you may opt to stay at home and do the exercises independently. However, if the training requires specialized equipment, you may have to visit the specialist when needed. Depending on the extent of the shoulder stiffness, it may take a few weeks or months to recover.
