If you want to try everything before surgery. I suggest you check this out. www.frozenshoulder.com. It's a Dr in England that is clinically proven to work. It's using the trigger points in the body.

Here's a brief summary of how it works:
Changing the way the brain and body communicate.

The brain responds to shoulder injuries by ‘switching off’ normal muscular co-ordination. In a frozen shoulder we call this the ‘capsular pattern’; this is where the arm is held in a sling-like position with the shoulder raised. All shoulder problems manifest this ‘switching off’ in one way or another, but in the frozen shoulder it is most apparent. The brain is at the centre of this – and it is the brain where The Niel-Asher technique works. By stimulating a sequence of reflexes hidden in the muscles, the technique sends new messages to the brain. It responds quickly by using the correct muscles and re-setting those forgotten movement patterns. It is a bit like putting in a new piece of software and re-booting the system!

Although I have no direct experience with this technique, it sounds very interesting for Frozen Shoulder. My caution is to give hope to those that have a true Labral tear. The site and testimonials claim help for FS, Rotator Cuff Problems, Tendoinopathy and Bursitis. There are also only a few practitioners scattered around the US at this point. Having said this, for those who have a true Frozen shoulder with concurrent tear, it is absolutely essential to relieve the FS before attempting surgery. Most good OS will not even suggest surgery with an ongoing FS problem, if they do run for the hills. You would be looking at a 2 year recovery at best.

Hi sskylor

I was interested in your response on the length of time for recovery. Tomorrow will be 4 weeks for me post surgery for a SLAP tear repair, my doctor said it was a large tear almost 180 degrees which he needed to put 4 anchors in to fix it. Now what he also told me after the surgery is that I also had frozen shoulder. Prior to the surgery he did not really talk about frozen shoulder. When I had originally started to see him his original thought was bad bursitis, he did the shoots twice over 2 months but after the 2nd shoot the pain did not really go away he had an MRI done which is when the tear was found.

At 4 weeks I have some good range of motion in the shoulder, can raise it a bit above shoulder height (to the front and side) with not that much pain. I am still using a sling and I start PT next week to work on additional range of motion. When I saw him this past Wednesday he was happy that my range of motion was as good as it is but said that he did not want to start on the strength training until after 6 weeks.

So do you think there are questions that I need to ask my doctor about the frozen shoulder that I just don't know to ask?

There are three very definite movement limitation that signals FS. This testing is done before surgery. Since I am not an OS, I don't know what he saw when he went in for surgery to have him say this. Perhaps he tried to move the shoulder around during surgery and noted a limitation. Ask him what he meant and what direction(s)were a problem. You see you generally do not want to attempt surgery when an FS is present because as you can guess getting range back following surgery contractures is very difficult as it is without the FS. The good news is that your range sounds on par for 4 weeks of immobilization. Hopefully you will just keep improving and his initial findings will not come to fruition. It would be too difficult at this stage to know if tightness is from FS or immobilization. I hope this helps. The time line for FS is usually 1-2 years, but again everybody is different and I am not convinced you have FS. Strength training at 6 weeks is perfect, you will be working on range and begining strength training with your PT at this time.

Yes, he said while he was doing the surgery he tried moving the shoulder and found it limited. But he did say that he moved it past its limits (forced), thankfully I was not await for that.

I did injure the shoulder 1 1/2 years prior to the surgery. Before seeing a doctor this year, if I did something that would make the shoulder hurt I would limit its use. But when I started a weight training program this year the pain would not go away.

So maybe my own reduction of use over the long period of time caused the should to have a mild level of frozen shoulder? Or maybe he just used that term for me since it was easier to explain.

I would agree with your analysis, it was probably only limited in one direction and he forcefully broke the adhesion, which was great. Some people have to actually go again under anesthesia a second time because the contractures must be released by the OS, so you are way ahead and will do fine.