cookie;What you describe sounds like frozen shoulder to me.

A few years back I had frozen shoulder in both shoulders at the same time. Putting a belt into my trousers became the most painful and difficult task I had to face each day. I tried all manner of treatments and was seen by a number of specialists. I opted not to have surgery and declined cortisone injections and proposals that I have forced rotation of my shoulders.

I did take pain killers and played tennis and that seemed to help my right shoulder. I also had a procedure that involved fluid being pumped into my left shoulder with questionable results.

It was very painful at the time but the good news is that it did eventually self resolve and I now have no issues at all. You say you are already 14 months into the problem which suggests to me that your are closer to the other side than the start. My advice is do what you can with the condition but avoid radical procedures and just let it play out. It will simply pass with time.

Hi Seph,

I do not think you are being cruel. You are being real and honest. I thank you for that. I do know my situation could be so much worse. I am grateful for the nerve pain medication the neurologist put me on.To some degree it does help the tibia nerve pain. The rapid pins and needle sensation often brings me to tears. Although not life threatening it has been life altering. Some days it just gets the best of me and today was one of those days. Thank you for sharing about your friend That must be awful.

Hi Cookie-

I too have knee pain that started right around the same time I was diagnosed with DD. After MRIs which revealed nothing of significance according to the neurosurgeon, he determined with some additional physical testing and manipulation that I had synovial plica syndrome in both knees. Simply put, synovial plica syndrome is when a fold of connective tissue or plica exists in some people's knees (most plicas are absorbed at the embryonic stage-guess I missed that boat by a bit!) and it starts to get caught between the patella and tibia on the medial side during flexion and extension. It often presents like a torn meniscus because of where the pain is located. The plica then becomes irritated which further increases the likelihood that the plica will get pinched between the patella and tibia.

Both of my knees are affected and I have a sometimes painful popping or snapping that happens when my knees are at 35-45 degrees of flexion and are then extended. It feels like my knee is rolling over a pencil which in my case would be the plica. This has made going up stairs or brisk walking extremely uncomfortable for me. That combined with my DD has almost eliminated my ability to workout (much more because of the knees than the hands).

There is quite a bit of literature on the internet on the topic. Some individuals have success with PT and in some cases surgery is done to remove the plica. The problem with the surgery is that it is often unsuccessful in relieving the pain as the plica is replaced by scar tissue which creates the same interference with the knee cap that the plica did. I have no way of knowing if there is any connection between the synovial plica syndrome and DD but I certainly didn't like hearing I had another connective tissue issue. As our symptoms seemed similar I thought this may be of some use to you.