If you or a loved one has been feeling stiff in one shoulder or both and was diagnosed by a medical professional with frozen shoulder, it may seem hopeless for you. These conditions tend to get worse as you age, combining a terrible symptom with very little chance for total recovery. Yet, all hope is not lost and there are many treatments available for frozen shoulders, such as an injection of a steroid or other substance that can make the symptoms all but disappear
In general, these injections are one of the first treatments tried on someone with this condition. If you are receiving this kind of injection, chances are you have a lot of options ahead of you in case it doesn’t work. It’s important to not lose hope, but also important to know what the doctors will be doing to your shoulder. So, let’s go over the basics of this symptom-reducing treatment to see what it’s like.
What is it?
This is a great first question to answer and a good stepping point into the world of frozen shoulder treatment. Frozen shoulder is a condition by which the connective tissue surrounding your shoulder bones, ligaments, and muscles thickens and tightens. Why does this happen? Well, it’s not fully understood yet but there are many risk factors that may make a patient more likely to have this strange, seemingly random, condition.
Some of these risk factors are obvious, such as a surgery having you immobilize your arm for a while, but others are seemingly unrelated such as diabetes. Regardless of the cause, it can make movement very difficult, and the best early treatment option is a steroid shot.
Steroids Understood
We aren’t talking about anabolic steroids, but rather about strong anti-inflammatory medication. Cortisone is a common tool for this, commonly injected into sites of strong inflammation to give that area a chance to heal. This may seem strange since inflammation is one mechanism by which the body heals, but in general, if it gets too high it actually has a negative long-term, and short-term for sure, effect on health. Even if it didn’t, inflammation in the wrong areas can hurt a lot, which makes treating it sometimes a matter of just relieving suffering.
A doctor normally injects a certain amount of Cortisone into the affected area, relieving pain and giving the patient a bit of a reprieve. Read more about this therapy here: https://www.steroidinjectionslondon.co.uk/frozen-shoulder-adhesive-capsulitis, so you can be informed going into an appointment for any treatment for this debilitating condition.
Considering Cortisone
Cortisone has been well understood for a long time in medicine, but it is still true that this doesn’t guarantee safety. We know this substance can be dangerous in high doses and can cause diabetes, fluid retention, and mental instability, among other things. So, is it good for you to consider these side effects? Well, going straight to the source we can identify studies that seem to indicate the efficacy of this drug for this illness.
You can search these yourself, or click here for a comprehensive review of this type of treatment. Either way, doctors agree that this kind of injection is, for the most part, safe. Medicine always has asterisks, because the effects of a specific medicine can have huge effects on other unintended parts of the body. A drug for diabetes can affect your bladder because of the urination of sugar, for instance, but that doesn’t mean the drug isn’t worth taking, it just means you should do so under supervision.
If done correctly, injection therapy for frozen shoulder is a safe and effective dose of relief for patients suffering from this kind of disorder. If you’re the patient in this situation, this is good news, and even if the inflammation isn’t reduced adequately there are tons of potential roads ahead for solving the problem of stiffness and pain in your shoulder. Don’t give up hope! The future is a big thing, but you should never have to face it and cope with it with chronic or situational shoulder pain. Everyone deserves a bit of a rest, as well, so make sure you’re giving yourself that before, during, and after the procedure!
