The Miracle of Letting Go: How My Frozen Shoulder Finally Released

In this deeply personal episode, I share the unexpected and awe‑filled turning point in my frozen shoulder and ulnar neuropathy journey.

After months of pain, loss of function, aggressive treatments, and preparing for possible surgery, I experienced a moment I can only describe as a miracle. While jogging for the first time in months, I fell—landing on the very arm she had been guarding, bracing, and fearing she might lose function in.

What followed wasn’t further injury… it was release.

In this episode, I walk you through the full journey—from early symptoms and emotional resistance, to surrender, nervous system shock, fascial release, and the slow return of movement and function. This is not medical advice, but a powerful story of body wisdom, faith, and what can happen when we stop forcing and start listening.

Key Reflections from This Episode:

• Sometimes the body locks down to protect us when we don’t feel safe
• Healing doesn’t always come from doing more—it can come from letting go
• Fear, control, and guarding can keep pain patterns stuck
• The body often knows before the mind is ready
• Asking for help and receiving support can be deeply healing

Closing Note

As we close out 2025, I reflect on a year that looked like setbacks—but revealed itself as deep transformation. With gratitude, humility, and hope, I celebrate the return of movement, function, and trust in my body.

A powerful reminder that miracles don’t always come the way we expect—but they often arrive right when we finally let go.

A Gentle Disclaimer

This episode is not medical advice. I do not recommend or suggest recreating this experience. Healing journeys are unique and personal. If you are experiencing frozen shoulder, nerve pain, or loss of function, please consult a qualified medical professional.

You can find me at:
https://www.instagram.com/cataton/
https://www.facebook.com/casey.taton/

You can find what sparks me at:
https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1AgeRtyojY/
https://www.instagram.com/lmbdcelebrations/

Music by: Jason and Ashley Scheufler
Artwork by: https://www.instagram.com/graphx_ink/

Transcript

0:04

Hey friends. Welcome to the Enter Spark podcast. I'm your host, Casey Caton. If you're looking to hear stories of transformation and personal growth, this podcast is for you. My guest and I will be sharing those sparking moments that has changed the mental living a more fulfilling authentic life. I'm so excited for you to hear each unique story. So sit back, relax, and let's get started. Hey, friend. Welcome to the Enter Spark podcast. I'm your host, Casey Taton. I am so excited to tell you this. I feel like I've been keeping a little bit of a secret from you guys. I have talked a lot about having frozen shoulder. I've done a few episodes on it back in April, on April 12th, I did an episode on When your Body Whispers, listen Before it screams. And on June 12th, I did a little bit of a follow-up episode on Frozen Shoulder to Nerve Pain. If you have been listening to my journey, it has been a journey that started back in March where I was experiencing frozen shoulder. I was unable to lift my arm and then I. It went down into my elbow. I was experiencing ulnar neuropathy and lost functions in my fingers. I would love for you to go back and listen to those episodes, but just a little quick recap. I spent. The summer, slowing down, resting, trying to listen through my body. When I first got diagnosed Clear back in March, I was very, very aggressive with my frozen shoulder. I was angry, I was mad. I finally was like, God, what? What did I do? Please just give me the answers and fix my shoulder. I wanna be able to lift my arm. And I continued to push through. I did a lot of aggressive treatment on it. Then in round June-ish, I don't know if I leaned on my elbow. I don't know if it was from the aggressive therapy. But I lost function in my fingers and I was then experiencing not only frozen shoulder. On my left side, but ulnar neuropathy and I only had, um, function in my thumb and my first finger, and I was, you know, basically forced to ask for help. And this has been such a growing year for me and such a big year of just realizing I can't push through the pain. I have been doing physical therapy ever since then, going multiple times a week. I did, cryotherapy, I've done all kinds of treatments. I see a natural doctor to get this going, and what I realized is that it was going to take time. I was really upset that, my family went to the lake over the summer and it taught me a lot. It taught me that this year wasn't my year to surf at the lake. This year was my year to learn to set back, receive, and ask for help. It's just been such a year of growing and. I'm just gonna dive in and tell you guys what happened. So every morning I've just been asking God, you know, like, what, what can I do to fix this? You know, what do I do? And the answer was, is you know, I ha was wearing an arm brace, a brace at night to sleep in. And I am going back to see the surgeon in January of 2026. I'm gonna go back and see the shoulder surgeon and go back and see the hand surgeon to see if I need to have my ulnar nerve flipped. That was, that was the plan. And they were about 90% sure that I was gonna have surgery on the ulnar nerve, to get the function back in my fingers. And at first I fought it and then I just kind of said, you know. This is so outta my control. We really don't have control over anything. Right? Um, but this is beyond my control. So the only thing I can do is just release it, release it to God, universe, source, whatever you wanna call it. I would ask God every day. I don't know what I did. I know you're teaching me lessons along the way about slowing down, asking for help. I'm still getting up every day and going to the gym and walking. And, you know, asking people to cut my food for me now and just asking people to carry things and lift things for me. Um, when I deliver hospital parties, I now have to use a car. I, you know, I was doing everything with one hand. I couldn't lift more than two pounds. Uh, I wasn't even supposed to be doing that with my left arm. So here's what happened. They said. My shoulder blade started winging after I had that procedure, I had a procedure. And then we got an MRI and so then we we're basically in the holding game until January and to fix my wing shoulder blade to try and get my posture better to try and correct everything that I probably pushed a little too far back. And then we were gonna focus on the hand getting the function back of my fingers in my hand. And so they finally said I could start jogging and moving my arm. I wasn't even able to jog at one point, only walking. And so this morning, I went into the gym and it was a Monday morning and I was running behind and. I don't normally look at the workout because I'm not able to do the CrossFit class. I just go in and work out with my class, and I had looked at it the night before and I didn't remember seeing any jogging because I thought, oh, yay, I get to start jogging with them if it's in a workout. And I don't remember seeing any, so I wasn't gonna go to the gym this Monday. I was just tired. I overslept, I was running late. All the things, all the excuses, right? Well, I got up and I went and I convinced my friend who was gonna ride the bike to jog with me. I'm like, listen, I'm gonna be jogging slow. I haven't been jogging for a while, just Jo with me. So I took off my arm brace and before I took off, I was like, oh, I didn't stretch enough. I should have stretched more. But anyways, I went out and the first lap around. Our gym building, I caught my toe and went right into the gravel, left arm out in front, landed on my right knee, and my left arm was sprawled out in front of me. Over my head. My elbow, thank goodness I taken, had taken off my brace. And I got both palms of my hand and I had gravel and both of my knees. And I remember rolling over and just laying in there, laying there. And my friend immediately stopped. Everybody stopped. They went and got the coach. And I was just like, I just, I just went away here. I don't, where does it hurt? And I was like, I don't, I don't know. And I remember thinking, I don't know where I hurt. Then I remember saying, I don't think I can stand up. I think my knee hurts. But at this point, I didn't really know it was hurt. I was just like, I don't even know how I fell, except for I knew that I got my toe caught and in some uneven gravel. So they carried me inside the gym and thank goodness, my, my good friend Jordan, she's so super calm and. Things like this. Um, in emergencies when things take place like this, she is one of the most calmest persons. She instantly went and got me rags and they were covering me up and I was just covered in gravel and I just thought I had gravel burn, road rash, gravel burn from falling. So I sat there and I remember just kind of sitting there in shock thinking, oh my goodness, what am I gonna do? Like, I can't believe this just happened. And I was, I remember thinking, I'm freezing and I'm sweating at the same time. And so we had a physical therapist there working out too. He came over Clayton. He was asking me what I was gonna do that day and you know, and my friend and Jordan were talking and they were looking at my knee and. I said, oh, I have physical therapy after this. It's fine. I'm gonna go to my friend's house. I'll just, you know, wipe off, wipe the butt off, wipe the gravel off, it'll be fine, put some bandaid on and go to physical therapy. And they were both just looking at me and they're like, no, I don't think you're going to. And I was like, yeah, I'll be fine. And they're like, no, I don't think you can walk. And so they took a picture of my knee and showed it to me and I was like, oh. It is on the, like right under my kneecap. So I couldn't really see it. I just knew that it hurt. And there, you know, there was gravel and blood and redness and so I couldn't really see it. So I called my mom and asked her, can you mom, it's a Monday morning and no, it's your busy day. Can you come pick me up? And she was getting to get in the shower. And so my gem friends, thank goodness, they're just a blessing. And they said to me, we will. Drive you home. And I was like, I can drive. It's fine. My mom's getting the shower. I can show myself fine. And they're like, no, if you were to have to stop, you can't drive with your right foot. And so I was like, okay. And they're like, and the next plan you're gonna, the next thing you're gonna do is you're gonna go to the immediate care when it opens. And so this all happens around like six 15 in the morning. Media care doesn't open until eight. So my amazing gym friends drove me home wrapped in, I was covered in the towels, and I get to my mom's house and she looks at it and she says, first I think she thought I was gonna be okay. Like we can just clean this out and put some May on and be fine. She looked at it my knee and said, okay, we're gonna go to the care. She loaded me back up in the car and we went to the immediate care and I remember walking in and thinking, oh my goodness, I'm gonna have to sit here with all these sick people. And I got in fast and I had this doctor come in and look at me. She's like, oh yeah, you really, you. You really banged up your knee, you really banged up there. You know, I got both knees, both palms, and then my whole left elbow. And so he said, we're gonna have to put you back in this room, get you cleaned up, get the gravel audio. And I said, okay. And he said, that might need some stitches. And I was like, oh. Oh, okay. So we're back there setting and another doctor comes back in and he looks at it. And so I think he's gonna fix it. And he walks out. And he doesn't come back. So we're sitting there waiting and then another doctor finally comes back in and he is like, so I heard you shredded your knee. And I am like, well, I mean, I guess at this point I'm just sitting there thinking like, I don't even really know what happened, except for that I fell running. I, you know, just clearly did not get my foot picked up and just took a dive on, on the gravel. And he made a joke about, you know, aren't runners supposed to be coordinated? Ha ha. We laughed. They cleaned it up. They cleaned up my hands. My elbow, we put wrap on all of it, cleaned out the gravel. My left knee had like a little rock stuck in it. They got it out and then they were trying to clean the right knee out and he said, well, this is gonna be fun. I'm not sure how we're gonna put this together. Anyways, fast forward, he ended up putting 12 stitches in my knee. I opened it up pretty good. He's the man that they reach out to when, there is hard sutures thickness to put back together and I had definitely shredded the skin pretty deep on my right knee. So I get all sutured up and I go home and then I start feeling the soreness obviously. And I was supposed to have physical therapy. I had to call and cancel that, and I was so embarrassed to tell them that I fell running. And then I had to tell them I landed on my arm. I can't wear my brace. I can't wear my knife brace because I have like road rash that, and rocks that they just cleaned out on my arm, my elbow, and my arm. And so that day I rested and. The knee actually has taken about five weeks. It is just finally healing up. We had to take the stitches out the first week after the first week. They got infected and we had to clean that mess up. But you guys, let me get to this whole point of the story. I fell. If you believe in miracles, let me just tell you this. I was really preparing myself to probably have surgery in January and I fell with my left arm over in front of my head. You can't make that up. I had no scratches on my face. I had no scratches on my body. I had some bruises up my left side, like little bruises all the way up my left side, and of course I was sore. But here's the real gift if you believe in miracles. This is one I started being able to lift my arm up over my head. I went into physical therapy and they were like, oh my goodness, what did you do? How bad is it? What are we gonna have to do now? And I said, watch this. And I lifted my arm up my left, arm up over my head and they were like, what? And I said, it gets even better than this. On my left hand, I wasn't able to clench my fingers and make a fist, and I was able to clench my fingers and make a fist. Can we just say a miracle? I wanna say this is a blessing. I wanna say that I was living in fear for a long time and that I was really afraid of having surgery. I didn't wanna have another surgery, and I think when I finally truly just let go. Of the outcome and totally released the outcome. I fell and God gave me a gift. It completely shocked my nervous system. I was in shock when I went into. And that is another reason why I didn't drive home. I was in complete shock and it shocked my nervous system. And I also must have loosened all of the fascia that they had been working so hard on to release in my frozen shoulder. You know, I had been like almost protecting and guarding it, and that day I decided to not guard it and I took off the brace and I went for a jog and then I fell. I stopped trying to control. I have, and I wanna say this is not medical advice for anyone. I am not a doctor. If anybody is dealing with frozen shoulder, I am sending you so much love because this has been such a painful experience. And then having ulnar nerve damage was painful and scary. At the same time, it's been such a freaking gift, you guys, I got to sit back and allow myself to receive help, and I had to use my voice and ask for help. And the best thing is. I don't think I'm gonna have to have surgery anymore. What a freaking miracle is this. It's just like when your body is holding onto something so, so tight, you can't move forward because it's like, it's physically paralyzing you Right. And so I was protecting my arm and my shoulder so, so tightly, and I finally released it and was able to, okay, I get to start jogging. Okay, well if I have to have surgery in January, then I'm gonna have surgery in January. And then the miracle happened. I'm slowly getting function back in my finger. My arm is now raising it's gonna be a slow, I'm not lifting weights or anything. I'm still only lifting two pounds. But what a gift. What a gift it is. It's just so incredible. That when you can just surrender and let go what God really has in store for you. I was afraid of losing full function in my hand, but my body knew. It's just saying, my body was like, I can finally release this, whatever this is. I surrendered and my body released it and I now can lift both arms over my head and I can clench both fists. I just feel like so often we just push through the pain and we don't stop and listen or think, what if my body is really trying to help me, not stop me? Isn't it a beautiful gift when we stop and just sit back and ask questions and what a gift it's been to just. Let go of the forcing. Being able to recognize that I needed to slow my body down, and it forced me and I was able to ask for help and receive help. It's just truly a miracle. And I just think by shocking my nervous system it, you know, and landing on my elbow in the perfect place. These are stories you can't even make up. You know, I could have, I could have scratched my face, I could have scratched my other arms, I could have scratched a hundred other parts of my body, and this is exactly what happened. It released, and the movement is coming back. And I really just truly believe, once I was able to let my body know that it's safe, what happened happened. And I am gonna tell you, if there's anybody out there saying like, oh my goodness, thank you for giving this. I am never, ever. Ever giving medical advice, I would never suggest go throwing yourself on the concrete. I would never suggest any of this, but it's truly just, it was like a full body nervous system reset for me, Moving, running, moving forward. And I fell and I landed on the very arm that was frozen. That I've been guarded and braced and preparing for surgery and instead of harm, it released it. It's just such so, so, so magical, and I just think the shock of the nervous system and just resetting my pathways and everything, my body was so stuck. It needed me to fall. It's just those deep surrendering moments that my body, it didn't betray me. It responded in a completely unexpected way. When I finally released all the protection and the guarding I was doing and trying to control everything. I just wanted to share this with you guys. This is, please, no, this is no medical advice at all. If you have frozen shoulder, please reach out to me, but this has just been a, a huge gift to me. The knee is, it did take about five weeks for me to heal 12 stitches, some antibiotics, some gravel stool, slowly coming out of it. But the true miracle of this all is that, the experience of my frozen shoulder and the ulnar pain, ulnar neuropathy, pain is, getting better day by day. And, the faces of everybody who sees it is just, it's just amazing'cause they can't believe that it happened. I just had to let you guys know this because there's so many connections in this story of, you could look at this in several ways about my body locking down when it felt over, you know, overloaded, unheard, or un unsafe. And then I. I've dealt with this all summer, but during this I've learned so many lessons and then I sudden fall how it shocked my nervous system out of the chronic guarding of my arm, and it released the fascia and it just interrupted the threat loop. My body was stuck in. It's almost similar to emotional breakthroughs. You know, those surrendering moments is just so, so powerful. And I had to tell you guys, because I've been holding onto it as my knee's been healing, and I go back and see the surgeons in January and I'm just so excited and I just wanted to say. This, whether you wanna call it a miracle, a gift, whatever you wanna call it, um, I have my arms back. It, it is one of the best things ever, one of the most exciting, freeing fillings. And I am so, so grateful as I build the strength up in both, just to call this a blessing and a true gift and a true miracle. Your body is really holding on to things we're not even thinking about. We're not even aware the thoughts in our head that are happening and the things that we're trying to protect ourselves from, When we let go and surrender. I'm not saying everybody needs to fall, I'm just saying sometimes when we let go and surrender. We allow other beautiful things to come in and the whole money wasn't so beautiful, but guess what? It is a beautiful fix. I just wanna tell you guys, thank you for following along on this journey. I wanna tell you to not push your body so hard. Be careful what you wish for because man, the words you say and think are so, so powerful and just letting go. So please just let go of the old stories of the old patterns. And I just wanna thank you guys so much from the bottom of my heart for following me on this journey. If you have frozen shoulder NAR neuropathy, I am sending you so, so much love. I have so many suggestions on ways that I was working to get better, to get help, to get stronger. And I just wanna celebrate with you guys. it's the best news as we close out 2025, is that the frozen shoulder experience is gone. And I also wanna just plug this in right here is, in one of the episodes I talked about, I did a healing sister with my pod sisters about, you know, really just trusting and releasing and just visioning my arms, being able to hold them both over my head again and filling my fingers and shout out to my pod sisters. I'm here to say that I get to do that. I can do that. So I love you guys so, so much. 2025 has been such a growing year for me. So many breakthroughs, so many just setbacks. What I thought were setbacks, but were really teaching me deep lessons throughout the whole journey. So I wanna say thank you guys so much from the bottom of my heart. And I wanna let you in on another little secret starting in January. There's been a lot weighing on my heart that I wanna talk about. That's been really uncomfortable and we're gonna kick it off in January on the Inner Spark. I hope you have a very, very happy New Year and thanks for listening with me through 2025. Thank you for tuning into another episode. I hope today's story inspired you to embrace your own journey of growth and change. Remember, transformation isn't always easy, but it's always worth it. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe. Share it with a friend, and leave a review. If you found something that sparked you in this episode and may spark a friend, I encourage you to go share with them. If you have your own story you would like to share, I would love to hear it. So please reach out to me. Until next time, friends, go have some fun and let those sparks lie.