Treatment of frozen shoulders in Fibromyalgia

People who are seeking medical care have one biggest concern and that is getting pain relief. There are some pains that are easily diagnosed and treated or they can even have a cure. While there are some pains of which we have little knowledge.

One of these examples includes Fibromyalgia in which an individual suffers from chronic pain all over the body and this pain could be so severe that it can stop the individual from doing routine activities even. More research has been made in diagnosing and curing fibromyalgia, and the treatments that are available usually give temporary relief to the individual. When frozen shoulders are mixed with it, it becomes even more confusing.

What is Fibromyalgia?

Fibromyalgia is a syndrome that involves chronic pain throughout the body. It has a wide range of symptoms that include stiffness in joints, anxiety, stress, depression, numbness and tingling, sleeping problems, fatigue, memory loss, and so on. Some of the patients of fibromyalgia also suffer from other medical conditions along with it, and it gets difficult for the doctor to determine either one disease is causing the other or they both are separate diseases. The same goes for frozen shoulders.

Frozen shoulders

It is an old saying that it is better to stop the pain than cure it, but no one gets any comfort from this statement when they are suffering from severe pain. The frozen shoulder involves inflammation in the joint capsule and peripheral shoulder cartilage that leads to consistent pain even when the individual is relaxing.

Frozen shoulders and fibromyalgia are similar in a way that they both produce consistent pain that can last for months to even years. Due to this pain, an individual can be unable to perform routine activities. Frozen shoulders are just limited to the shoulder area. You will need to understand the development phase of frozen shoulders in order to know how severe this pain can be and what is the treatment and care for this pain.

Frozen shoulder’s development

The process of frozen shoulders is very slow and it is divided into three stages and every stage is slow in its own terms. A painful stage is the first one in which you feel pain while moving your shoulder. This pain will forbid you to move your shoulder.

The next stage is the frozen stage. In this stage, the pain will not more intense but it can make your shoulder noticeably stiff and you wouldn’t be able to move your shoulder much at all. The final stage is the thawing stage and at this stage, the pain and stiffness both will start to improve. Your shoulder may be totally fine in a few months.

During the night, the pain and stiffness experienced in the frozen shoulder always feel worse. It is still confusing for the doctors that why people with fibromyalgia suffer from frozen shoulders, though it should happen to those patients who had some sort of injury or surgery in the affected area. Older women are more inclined towards having frozen shoulders than any age or gender group.

Mobility and immobility

People with frozen shoulders have rarely complete immobility and they are more likely to have limited mobility. Broken arm, surgery recovery, stroke, or rotator cuff injury are some examples that result in frozen shoulders. All these things result in a higher risk of a frozen shoulder by immobilizing or limiting the mobility of your shoulder.

Frozen shoulders can also be a result of some diseases. These include Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, but are not limited to it.

Above all, the doctor will want to check the mobility levels of your shoulder when you are being examined. The doctor will ask you put your arms straight in the air to reach across your body and upwards to your back. It is easier for the doctor by these methods to determine what you can or not do with your shoulder.

The doctor will relax your muscles and move your arm and shoulder in determining the severity of pain, after this whole procedure. The doctor will also take some imaging tests like an X-ray or MRI to check for issues in tissues, bones, and ligaments. The doctor’s goal for taking these tests is to search out where your shoulder is standing and to keep the mobility secure as much as possible. Moreover, the goal is to work on the improvement of limited mobility that already is there.

Treatment

Medications are one kind of treatment. Among other medicines, aspirin and Advil can reduce the level of pain. The doctor may also prescribe you some pain relief and anti-inflammation drugs.

Physical therapy is another option that focuses on stretching the shoulder to increase blood circulation and restore mobility. Hopefully, the pain can be limited and mobility can be increased by these kinds of treatments in almost 1 to 2 years.

You can also try other things if the symptoms increase such as steroid injections, as these injections will help you in reducing pain and restoring mobility. You can also work with shoulder manipulation in which an anesthetic will be given to you and you will feel no pain, as the doctor works to loosen the tissue in your shoulder by moving your shoulder. This method is also used to treat bone fractures as well. The last method is surgery which will remove the bad tissues in your joint of the shoulder.

The doctor will do the surgery for the frozen shoulder with a small tube instrument that is inserted into an opening in the joint. Surgery can be the only option you have when everything else fails.