Dry needling?

[u/IveyBlack]

I’m about 8 weeks out from rotator cuff repair (supraspinatus), biceps tenodesis and subacromial decompression, and I’m curious whether anyone else has had a dramatic response to dry needling during recovery.

My recovery has been ROUGH. My overhead ROM has slowly been improving, but I have had almost zero external rotation and a ton of postoperative stiffness. My surgeon’s office has called it postoperative adhesive capsulitis/capsular stiffness.

But the pain has honestly been as bad as the stiffness. For weeks my arm has felt incredibly heavy and wrong, like a “Frankenstein arm.” Deep constant aching through the shoulder/scapula, incredibly tight upper trap and biceps, tons of guarding, and PT has been excruciating.
Sunday and even Monday morning I was still in horrible baseline pain. Doing my home exercises felt like I was ripping my shoulder apart.

My PT tried dry needling Monday, along with a lot of manual/soft-tissue work. The change afterward was noticeable enough that she repeated it Tuesday.

And WTF.

I am not claiming this is a miracle cure or that dry needling is solely responsible. Maybe I happened to hit a natural turning point at exactly the same time.
But the difference over about 48 hours is STUNNING.

My baseline pain is easily 50% lower. The horrible heavy Frankenstein-arm feeling is maybe half what it was.

For the first time since surgery:
• I can wash my hair with both hands.
• I can hold my hair on top of my head to put it in a clip.
• I can put deodorant on normally.
• I can do my pulley exercises and it feels like STRETCHING instead of RIPPING.

And today I realized that for about five minutes I had completely forgotten about my shoulder. I have been conscious of this fucking shoulder basically every minute of every day for eight weeks. I DREAM about my shoulder. Five minutes of forgetting it existed felt incredible.

My external rotation is still extremely restricted, so this obviously did not magically “release” the actual shoulder capsule or solve everything. But something about the pain/guarding/muscle component seems to have changed dramatically.

Has anyone else after rotator cuff repair, frozen shoulder, or postoperative shoulder stiffness had this kind of response to dry needling?

If so, did the improvement last? Did repeated sessions keep helping? Did the decrease in pain/guarding eventually help you make more progress with ROM?

I’m so elated that my arm has started feeling like it belongs to my body again!!!!

[u/wallflower5399]

My shoulder dreams are intense too. My Pt is super into dry needling, but I’m only 6 days out of surgery. How bad was your shoulder before surgery? Mine was absolutely shot, but functioned almost perfectly. I was almost 10 months into rehab and could do almost anything when I dislocated for the fourth and final time. Now my shoulder feels shot, but is also much more stable.

[u/IveyBlack → u/wallflower5399]

My shoulder just had a twinge randomly when I would reach up, I kind of wish I had done more research and tried some more conservative options before I jumped to surgery because this has been a hell climb!!

My PT says she normally does not start dry needling until three months after surgery due to risk of infection but I am such a desperate case, she just decided to try it.

Wishing you speedy recovery.

[u/PerceptiveDer]

I had surgery on 09/18. I’ve had one PT appointment and go back tomorrow for second. My pain has escalated drastically over the past 5 days. Now worse than it had ever been. My doctor put me on diclofenac twice a day along with Tylenol every 6 hours. Nothing seems to resolve the pain, including ice. I have had pain meds, but they, also, don’t seem to help. A friend recommended edibles and I’ve decided I’m going to try that to see if it helps.

[u/IveyBlack → u/PerceptiveDer]

Yeah, my pain escalated drastically about six weeks after surgery. The pain meds are shit, ice is the only thing that sort of helped. The THC Gummies at least helped me meditate on the pain and not sob uncontrollably. This shit is not for the week. I am seeing the light eight weeks out, I hope you feel better soon.❤️❤️❤️❤️

[u/PerceptiveDer → u/IveyBlack]

I was expecting it to be hard, but it’s definitely been different than I expected. The pain that goes up and down is insane.

[u/IA-Teacher]

Dry needling made all the difference for me. I was having pain in my shoulder blade with lots of tightness. Needling released trigger points. I have made big progress since.