Frozen shoulder is a well known condition that greatly affects the lives of those who experience it. Its technical name, adhesive capsulitis, means a sticky inflammation of the joint capsule. It doesn’t actually say shoulder, could other joints “freeze?” In this post I will talk about a time when we helped someone with “frozen hip”.
A senior gentleman had come to our office talking about pain and stiffness in his hip that he’s had ever since he had a car accident 10 years ago where his leg and feet pushed hard to brace him during the crash. Ever since, he’s had a waddling, leg dragging walk. He also has a great amount of difficulty lifting his legs up to put on socks and shoes.
Examination found that the strength was fair, but the range of motion was very limited particularly towards external rotation and internal rotation. This is the same tendency and direction of mobility loss experienced in frozen shoulder. We have an excellent program for helping people with frozen shoulder, so I adapted it for his hips.
After his first hour of treatment targeting his “frozen hip”, his hips loosened up tremendously. The range of motion was still far from ideal but it was perhaps 25% better. More importantly, he said it moved so well that he felt like he was 35 again! That tells me that the “quality” or “ease” of movement has improved even if the total amount of motion is limited. But his leg can move with less friction and pain now.
We continued for some time with this program, and I taught him how to replicate a lot of it at home. His pain will still come back if he does not do his stretches and exercises. But he is very happy that as long as he does them, he will feel 35 for the rest of the day!
We don’t have the ability to change what’s happened in our past. But I admire his attitude to embrace what control he has and how he can positively change his life!