Shoulder replacement stories?

[Margo]

Oh, Margo!! I forgot about about the Physical Terrorists! Dawn

Kinda like childbirth, huh! You just revel in the end product when it's all over!! :lol:

[suehenyon]

I had a nerve block instead which helped for about 3 days!

[kathyst2]

Sue and Scoopie have a good point about pain meds. I'm a pharmacist in my real life, and a veteran of shoulder surgery too. The pain meds make it possible to do the rigorous physical therapy required to get back to normal. I had to go back 9 weeks after my surgery because my shoulder was frozen, to have it "unfrozen" under anesthesia. This was mostly because I couldn't take pain meds before PT since I had to drive myself there and back home. The ball thingy after surgery is a little reservoir with a local anesthetic in it which slowly drains into the surgery site, making the first few days much easier.
I'm 99% better now, just have a hard time reaching behind my back a little.
Thank goodness for physical therapists!
Kathy

[judy1785]

My brother broke his shoulder several years ago. Since he is a pianist and was teaching at the University level, he had to get back his full motion. I stayed with him for a couple of weeks because he couldn't drive--he, too, slept in his recliner for a very long time while recuperating. He religiously went to PT even though he told me it was the worse pain he had ever experienced and continued even after the insurance quit paying. I witnessed the pain he endured getting well, but, in the end, his doctor told him that he was only one of two patients he had ever had that recovered to the extent that my brother did. This was due to the PT and my brother's determination to regain as much full motion as possible by exercising at home as well. He was in his late 50's, I believe, when this occurred, and he is doing fine today. Since he lived in California, he wore sandals because he couldn't even put on a pair of socks.

[suehenyon]

That recliner needs a lever to operate, not the "push" kind, because you can't push!

[pam7040]

Mike, Good luck with your surgery and I hope that it is a great success.