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

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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/

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Hey friends.
Welcome to the Enter Sparkpodcast.
I'm your host, Casey Caton.
If you're looking to hearstories of transformation and
personal growth, this podcast isfor you.
My guest and I will be sharingthose sparking moments that has
changed the mental living a morefulfilling authentic life.
I'm so excited for you to heareach unique story.

(00:24):
So sit back, relax, and let'sget started.
Hey, friend.
Welcome to the Enter Sparkpodcast.
I'm your host, Casey Taton.
I am so excited to tell youthis.
I feel like I've been keeping alittle bit of a secret from you
guys.

(00:46):
I have talked a lot about havingfrozen shoulder.
I've done a few episodes on itback in April, on April 12th, I
did an episode on When your BodyWhispers, listen Before it
screams.
And on June 12th, I did a littlebit of a follow-up episode on
Frozen Shoulder to Nerve Pain.

(01:09):
If you have been listening to myjourney, it has been a journey
that started back in March whereI was experiencing frozen
shoulder.
I was unable to lift my arm andthen I.
It went down into my elbow.
I was experiencing ulnarneuropathy and lost functions in

(01:33):
my fingers.
I would love for you to go backand 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 Clearback in March, I was very, very
aggressive with my frozenshoulder.

(01:53):
I was angry, I was mad.
I finally was like, God, what?
What did I do?
Please just give me the answersand fix my shoulder.
I wanna be able to lift my arm.
And I continued to push through.
I did a lot of aggressivetreatment on it.
Then in round June-ish, I don'tknow if I leaned on my elbow.

(02:16):
I don't know if it was from theaggressive therapy.
But I lost function in myfingers and I was then
experiencing not only frozenshoulder.
On my left side, but ulnarneuropathy and I only had, um,
function in my thumb and myfirst finger, and I was, you
know, basically forced to askfor help.

(02:38):
And this has been such a growingyear for me and such a big year
of just realizing I can't pushthrough the pain.
I have been doing physicaltherapy ever since then, going
multiple times a week.
I did, cryotherapy, I've doneall kinds of treatments.

(03:02):
I see a natural doctor to getthis going, and what I realized
is that it was going to taketime.
I was really upset that, myfamily went to the lake over the
summer and it taught me a lot.
It taught me that this yearwasn't my year to surf at the
lake.
This year was my year to learnto set back, receive, and ask

(03:28):
for help.
It's just been such a year ofgrowing and.
I'm just gonna dive in and tellyou guys what happened.
So every morning I've just beenasking God, you know, like,
what, what can I do to fix this?

(03:49):
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 thesurgeon in January of 2026.
I'm gonna go back and see theshoulder surgeon and go back and
see the hand surgeon to see if Ineed to have my ulnar nerve

(04:11):
flipped.
That was, that was the plan.
And they were about 90% surethat I was gonna have surgery on
the ulnar nerve, to get thefunction back in my fingers.
And at first I fought it andthen I just kind of said, you
know.
This is so outta my control.
We really don't have controlover anything.
Right?

(04:32):
Um, but this is beyond mycontrol.
So the only thing I can do isjust release it, release it to
God, universe, source, whateveryou wanna call it.
I would ask God every day.
I don't know what I did.
I know you're teaching melessons along the way about
slowing down, asking for help.
I'm still getting up every dayand going to the gym and

(04:53):
walking.
And, you know, asking people tocut my food for me now and just
asking people to carry thingsand lift things for me.
Um, when I deliver hospitalparties, I now have to use a
car.
I, you know, I was doingeverything with one hand.
I couldn't lift more than twopounds.
Uh, I wasn't even supposed to bedoing that with my left arm.

(05:15):
So here's what happened.
They said.
My shoulder blade startedwinging after I had that
procedure, I had a procedure.
And then we got an MRI and sothen we we're basically in the
holding game until January andto fix my wing shoulder blade to

(05:38):
try and get my posture better totry and correct everything that
I probably pushed a little toofar back.
And then we were gonna focus onthe hand getting the function
back of my fingers in my hand.
And so they finally said I couldstart jogging and moving my arm.

(05:59):
I wasn't even able to jog at onepoint, only walking.
And so this morning, I went intothe gym and it was a Monday
morning and I was running behindand.
I don't normally look at theworkout because I'm not able to
do the CrossFit class.
I just go in and work out withmy class, and I had looked at it
the night before and I didn'tremember seeing any jogging

(06:20):
because I thought, oh, yay, Iget 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 Iconvinced my friend who was
gonna ride the bike to jog withme.
I'm like, listen, I'm gonna bejogging slow.
I haven't been jogging for awhile, just Jo with me.

(06:43):
So I took off my arm brace andbefore I took off, I was like,
oh, I didn't stretch enough.
I should have stretched more.
But anyways, I went out and thefirst lap around.
Our gym building, I caught mytoe and went right into the
gravel, left arm out in front,landed on my right knee, and my

(07:11):
left arm was sprawled out infront of me.
Over my head.
My elbow, thank goodness Itaken, had taken off my brace.
And I got both palms of my handand I had gravel and both of my
knees.
And I remember rolling over andjust laying in there, laying

(07:32):
there.
And my friend immediatelystopped.
Everybody stopped.
They went and got the coach.
And I was just like, I just, Ijust went away here.
I don't, where does it hurt?
And I was like, I don't, I don'tknow.
And I remember thinking, I don'tknow where I hurt.
Then I remember saying, I don'tthink I can stand up.
I think my knee hurts.

(07:53):
But at this point, I didn'treally know it was hurt.
I was just like, I don't evenknow how I fell, except for I
knew that I got my toe caughtand in some uneven gravel.
So they carried me inside thegym and thank goodness, my, my
good friend Jordan, she's sosuper calm and.

(08:14):
Things like this.
Um, in emergencies when thingstake place like this, she is one
of the most calmest persons.
She instantly went and got merags and they were covering me
up and I was just covered ingravel and I just thought I had
gravel burn, road rash, gravelburn from falling.
So I sat there and I rememberjust kind of sitting there in
shock thinking, oh my goodness,what am I gonna do?

(08:37):
Like, I can't believe this justhappened.
And I was, I remember thinking,I'm freezing and I'm sweating at
the same time.
And so we had a physicaltherapist there working out too.
He came over Clayton.
He was asking me what I wasgonna do that day and you know,
and my friend and Jordan weretalking and they were looking at
my knee and.
I said, oh, I have physicaltherapy after this.

(08:59):
It's fine.
I'm gonna go to my friend'shouse.
I'll just, you know, wipe off,wipe the butt off, wipe the
gravel off, it'll be fine, putsome bandaid on and go to
physical therapy.
And they were both just lookingat me and they're like, no, I
don't think you're going to.
And I was like, yeah, I'll befine.
And they're like, no, I don'tthink you can walk.
And so they took a picture of myknee and showed it to me and I

(09:22):
was like, oh.
It is on the, like right undermy kneecap.
So I couldn't really see it.
I just knew that it hurt.
And there, you know, there wasgravel and blood and redness and
so I couldn't really see it.
So I called my mom and askedher, can you mom, it's a Monday
morning and no, it's your busyday.

(09:42):
Can you come pick me up?
And she was getting to get inthe shower.
And so my gem friends, thankgoodness, 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 youwere to have to stop, you can't
drive with your right foot.
And so I was like, okay.

(10:03):
And they're like, and the nextplan you're gonna, the next
thing you're gonna do is you'regonna go to the immediate care
when it opens.
And so this all happens aroundlike six 15 in the morning.
Media care doesn't open untileight.
So my amazing gym friends droveme home wrapped in, I was
covered in the towels, and I getto my mom's house and she looks

(10:24):
at it and she says, first Ithink she thought I was gonna be
okay.
Like we can just clean this outand put some May on and be fine.
She looked at it my knee andsaid, okay, we're gonna go to
the care.
She loaded me back up in the carand we went to the immediate
care and I remember walking inand thinking, oh my goodness,
I'm gonna have to sit here withall these sick people.

(10:47):
And I got in fast and I had thisdoctor 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, bothpalms, and then my whole left
elbow.
And so he said, we're gonna haveto put you back in this room,

(11:10):
get you cleaned up, get thegravel audio.
And I said, okay.
And he said, that might needsome stitches.
And I was like, oh.
Oh, okay.
So we're back there setting andanother doctor comes back in and
he looks at it.
And so I think he's gonna fixit.
And he walks out.
And he doesn't come back.
So we're sitting there waitingand then another doctor finally
comes back in and he is like, soI heard you shredded your knee.

(11:33):
And I am like, well, I mean, Iguess at this point I'm just
sitting there thinking like, Idon't even really know what
happened, except for that I fellrunning.
I, you know, just clearly didnot get my foot picked up and
just took a dive on, on thegravel.
And he made a joke about, youknow, aren't runners supposed to
be coordinated?
Ha ha.

(11:54):
We laughed.
They cleaned it up.
They cleaned up my hands.
My elbow, we put wrap on all ofit, cleaned out the gravel.
My left knee had like a littlerock stuck in it.
They got it out and then theywere trying to clean the right
knee out and he said, well, thisis gonna be fun.
I'm not sure how we're gonna putthis together.
Anyways, fast forward, he endedup putting 12 stitches in my

(12:16):
knee.
I opened it up pretty good.
He's the man that they reach outto when, there is hard sutures
thickness to put back togetherand I had definitely shredded
the skin pretty deep on my rightknee.
So I get all sutured up and I gohome and then I start feeling

(12:39):
the soreness obviously.
And I was supposed to havephysical 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 Ilanded on my arm.
I can't wear my brace.
I can't wear my knife bracebecause I have like road rash
that, and rocks that they justcleaned out on my arm, my elbow,

(13:01):
and my arm.
And so that day I rested and.
The knee actually has takenabout five weeks.
It is just finally healing up.
We had to take the stitches outthe first week after the first
week.
They got infected and we had toclean that mess up.
But you guys, let me get to thiswhole point of the story.

(13:29):
I fell.
If you believe in miracles, letme just tell you this.
I was really preparing myself toprobably have surgery in January
and I fell with my left arm overin front of my head.

(13:56):
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 leftside, like little bruises all
the way up my left side, and ofcourse I was sore.
But here's the real gift if youbelieve in miracles.
This is one I started being ableto lift my arm up over my head.

(14:28):
I went into physical therapy andthey were like, oh my goodness,
what did you do?
How bad is it?
What are we gonna have to donow?
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 betterthan this.

(14:53):
On my left hand, I wasn't ableto clench my fingers and make a
fist, and I was able to clenchmy fingers and make a fist.
Can we just say a miracle?
I wanna say this is a blessing.

(15:16):
I wanna say that I was living infear for a long time and that I
was really afraid of havingsurgery.
I didn't wanna have anothersurgery, and I think when I
finally truly just let go.
Of the outcome and totallyreleased the outcome.

(15:43):
I fell and God gave me a gift.
It completely shocked my nervoussystem.
I was in shock when I went into.
And that is another reason why Ididn't drive home.
I was in complete shock and itshocked my nervous system.
And I also must have loosenedall of the fascia that they had

(16:04):
been working so hard on torelease in my frozen shoulder.
You know, I had been like almostprotecting and guarding it, and
that day I decided to not guardit and I took off the brace and
I went for a jog and then Ifell.
I stopped trying to control.

(16:29):
I have, and I wanna say this isnot medical advice for anyone.
I am not a doctor.
If anybody is dealing withfrozen shoulder, I am sending
you so much love because thishas been such a painful
experience.
And then having ulnar nervedamage was painful and scary.
At the same time, it's been sucha freaking gift, you guys, I got

(16:55):
to sit back and allow myself toreceive 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 tohave surgery anymore.

(17:16):
What a freaking miracle is this.
It's just like when your body isholding onto something so, so
tight, you can't move forwardbecause it's like, it's
physically paralyzing you Right.
And so I was protecting my armand my shoulder so, so tightly,

(17:40):
and I finally released it andwas able to, okay, I get to
start jogging.
Okay, well if I have to havesurgery in January, then I'm
gonna have surgery in January.
And then the miracle happened.
I'm slowly getting function backin my finger.

(18:01):
My arm is now raising it's gonnabe a slow, I'm not lifting
weights or anything.
I'm still only lifting twopounds.
But what a gift.
What a gift it is.
It's just so incredible.
That when you can just surrenderand let go what God really has

(18:27):
in store for you.
I was afraid of losing fullfunction in my hand, but my body
knew.
It's just saying, my body waslike, I can finally release
this, whatever this is.
I surrendered and my bodyreleased it and I now can lift

(18:53):
both arms over my head and I canclench both fists.
I just feel like so often wejust push through the pain and
we don't stop and listen orthink, what if my body is really

(19:14):
trying to help me, not stop me?
Isn't it a beautiful gift whenwe stop and just sit back and
ask questions and what a giftit's been to just.
Let go of the forcing.
Being able to recognize that Ineeded to slow my body down, and

(19:40):
it forced me and I was able toask for help and receive help.
It's just truly a miracle.
And I just think by shocking mynervous system it, you know, and
landing on my elbow in theperfect place.
These are stories you can't evenmake up.

(20:01):
You know, I could have, I couldhave scratched my face, I could
have scratched my other arms, Icould have scratched a hundred
other parts of my body, and thisis exactly what happened.
It released, and the movement iscoming back.
And I really just truly believe,once I was able to let my body

(20:27):
know that it's safe, whathappened happened.
And I am gonna tell you, ifthere's anybody out there saying
like, oh my goodness, thank youfor giving this.
I am never, ever.
Ever giving medical advice, Iwould never suggest go throwing
yourself on the concrete.

(20:48):
I would never suggest any ofthis, but it's truly just, it
was like a full body nervoussystem reset for me, Moving,
running, moving forward.
And I fell and I landed on thevery arm that was frozen.
That I've been guarded andbraced and preparing for surgery

(21:11):
and instead of harm, it releasedit.
It's just such so, so, somagical, and I just think the
shock of the nervous system andjust resetting my pathways and
everything, my body was sostuck.
It needed me to fall.

(21:34):
It's just those deepsurrendering moments that my
body, it didn't betray me.
It responded in a completelyunexpected way.
When I finally released all theprotection and the guarding I

(21:55):
was doing and trying to controleverything.
I just wanted to share this withyou guys.
This is, please, no, this is nomedical advice at all.
If you have frozen shoulder,please reach out to me, but this
has just been a, a huge gift tome.
The knee is, it did take aboutfive weeks for me to heal 12

(22:18):
stitches, some antibiotics, somegravel stool, slowly coming out
of it.
But the true miracle of this allis that, the experience of my
frozen shoulder and the ulnarpain, ulnar neuropathy, pain is,
getting better day by day.
And, the faces of everybody whosees it is just, it's just

(22:42):
amazing'cause they can't believethat it happened.
I just had to let you guys knowthis because there's so many
connections in this story of,you could look at this in
several ways about my bodylocking down when it felt over,
you know, overloaded, unheard,or un unsafe.

(23:06):
And then I.
I've dealt with this all summer,but during this I've learned so
many lessons and then I suddenfall how it shocked my nervous
system out of the chronicguarding of my arm, and it
released the fascia and it justinterrupted the threat loop.

(23:31):
My body was stuck in.
It's almost similar to emotionalbreakthroughs.
You know, those surrenderingmoments 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

(23:52):
surgeons in January and I'm justso excited and I just wanted to
say.
This, whether you wanna call ita miracle, a gift, whatever you
wanna call it, um, I have myarms back.
It, it is one of the best thingsever, one of the most exciting,
freeing fillings.
And I am so, so grateful as Ibuild the strength up in both,

(24:17):
just to call this a blessing anda true gift and a true miracle.
Your body is really holding onto things we're not even
thinking about.
We're not even aware thethoughts in our head that are
happening and the things thatwe're trying to protect
ourselves from, When we let goand surrender.

(24:40):
I'm not saying everybody needsto fall, I'm just saying
sometimes when we let go andsurrender.
We allow other beautiful thingsto come in and the whole money
wasn't so beautiful, but guesswhat?
It is a beautiful fix.

(25:02):
I just wanna tell you guys,thank you for following along on
this journey.
I wanna tell you to not pushyour body so hard.
Be careful what you wish forbecause man, the words you say

(25:22):
and think are so, so powerfuland just letting go.
So please just let go of the oldstories of the old patterns.
And I just wanna thank you guysso much from the bottom of my
heart for following me on thisjourney.
If you have frozen shoulder NARneuropathy, I am sending you so,

(25:45):
so much love.
I have so many suggestions onways that I was working to get
better, to get help, to getstronger.
And I just wanna celebrate withyou guys.
it's the best news as we closeout 2025, is that the frozen

(26:09):
shoulder experience is gone.
And I also wanna just plug thisin right here is, in one of the
episodes I talked about, I did ahealing sister with my pod
sisters about, you know, reallyjust trusting and releasing and
just visioning my arms, beingable to hold them both over my
head again and filling myfingers and shout out to my pod

(26:33):
sisters.
I'm here to say that I get to dothat.
I can do that.
So I love you guys so, so much.
2025 has been such a growingyear for me.
So many breakthroughs, so manyjust setbacks.

(26:53):
What I thought were setbacks,but were really teaching me deep
lessons throughout the wholejourney.
So I wanna say thank you guys somuch from the bottom of my
heart.
And I wanna let you in onanother little secret starting
in January.
There's been a lot weighing onmy heart that I wanna talk
about.
That's been really uncomfortableand we're gonna kick it off in

(27:17):
January on the Inner Spark.
I hope you have a very, veryhappy New Year and thanks for
listening with me through 2025.

(27:38):
Thank you for tuning intoanother episode.
I hope today's story inspiredyou to embrace your own journey
of growth and change.
Remember, transformation isn'talways easy, but it's always
worth it.
If you enjoyed this episode, besure to subscribe.
Share it with a friend, andleave a review.
If you found something thatsparked you in this episode and
may spark a friend, I encourageyou to go share with them.

(28:00):
If you have your own story youwould like to share, I would
love to hear it.
So please reach out to me.
Until next time, friends, gohave some fun and let those
sparks lie.