Anybody had a shoulder replacement?

[Al Agnew]

Several members of Mary's family have basically what amounts to congenital defects in their shoulders...three of her brothers and her dad have had shoulder replacements, and now Mary has had one as well...last Thursday.  Things went well, apparently, and she has gradually cut out the opiods(she's deathly afraid of getting addicted).  She's trying to do the exercises, has a passive motion machine at the house, but so far has been unable to move her shoulder more than a few degrees.  Has anybody here had a replacement and used one of those things?  Or just used the pulley system to exercise the shoulder?  How quickly did range of motion begin to improve?  I've been playing nurse (and cook) for the last week, and I don't make a very good one; freaks me out to see her in pain.  Anyway, we'll see the doctor next week and find out some things.  

While she's been recuperating, I've used my spare time to remake a topwater rod and tie a bunch of hair jigs.

[fishinwrench]

I went through a wicked shoulder ordeal and they told me it would take reconstructive surgery to fix it, but I didn't believe them because occasionally I would have an hour or three when I could do everything without pain, and.it actually hurt worse when I was resting than it did when I was up doing things.   I weathered it out for about 4 months and miraculously it just healed itself.    I'll avoid surgery until I'm on the verge of croaking.

There were some rough nights though, real rough.  And at one point I had been 4 full days without sleep.    All good now,  still, and nobody got rich off of me.  People get impatient and want to feel better NOW, but I firmly believe that your body will heal itself if you can just give it time.    I'll admit that if I had been working for someone else besides myself I would have been fired for not showing up to work for so long. Most folks don't have the luxury of taking that much time off of work, or being able to only work in short spurts like I had to do.

 

[Mitch f]

My friend told me it was the most brutal recovery he ever faced. He was screaming with pain when the Physical “Terrorist” (as he called him) was trying to whip him back into shape. I feel for both you and Mary...hang in there

[oneshot]

Not real help I destroyed my nerves and they just operated on them to reroute them.

Very aggravating my arm not working. I have pullies and use a cane to exercise.Plus try walking my hand up the wall.

Not really funny but was eating a sandwich, had it in my bad hand. It came across hitting my plate , made a mess. Hopping to get use of it again.

The Surgeon wasn’t sure said he did what he could now but it will take time.  

oneshot

[moguy1973]

I haven't had replacement but I had to have reconstruction as pretty much all the front ligaments had been ripped out of the bone in a weight lifting accident when I was college.  Went several years before having it fixed but it gradually came to the point where it was popping out of socket on a rather frequent basis.  Recovery was about 3 to 3 1/2 months without any use of my shoulder for about a month of that where it was pretty much isolated in a brace.  Took the remaining 2 or so months to get full range of motion back.  Took maybe a month to get about half range of motion.  The physical therapist really helped push me to get it back to where it needed to be as quickly and comfortably as I could.  Was one of the most painful things I've had to go through though.  Was really scary the first time I had to take the sling brace off to take a shower because it felt like my arm was going to fall off.

[Al Agnew]

21 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

I went through a wicked shoulder ordeal and they told me it would take reconstructive surgery to fix it, but I didn't believe them because occasionally I would have an hour or three when I could do everything without pain, and.it actually hurt worse when I was resting than it did when I was up doing things.   I weathered it out for about 4 months and miraculously it just healed itself.    I'll avoid surgery until I'm on the verge of croaking.

There were some rough nights though, real rough.  And at one point I had been 4 full days without sleep.    All good now,  still, and nobody got rich off of me.  People get impatient and want to feel better NOW, but I firmly believe that your body will heal itself if you can just give it time.    I'll admit that if I had been working for someone else besides myself I would have been fired for not showing up to work for so long. Most folks don't have the luxury of taking that much time off of work, or being able to only work in short spurts like I had to do.

 

I know what you mean, but Mary has had really bad arthritis in that shoulder for 10 years.  It all started when she began to have a lot of pain when doing various activities.  Went to a specialist who examined her carefully, and thought he knew what it was, a problem with a tendon that could be fixed by clipping that tendon.  Arthroscopic surgery, no big deal.  But when he got the scope in there, the cartilage in her shoulder joint turned out to be shredded, with little bits and pieces of it floating around all over the place.  He told her then she'd have to have replacement surgery, and sooner rather than later.  But Mary, like you, didn't want to go right into it and wanted to try some other things, including an experimental treatment that basically involves injecting liquid into the joint, along with cortisone shots.  It worked...for about 4 years.  Had it done again, worked for about two years.  Tried it a third time, nothing.  Shots would give her a few months of relief.  So finally she just realized that if she wanted to be able to do things like paddle a kayak again, she was going to need a new shoulder.  As it turned out when her present specialist examined her prior to the surgery, there is was a bony spur on her shoulder joint that was what shredded the cartilage in the first place.

 

[fshndoug]

good luck on the recovery

[Quillback]

I've had a knee replacement, which wasn't too bad and I am glad I did it.  I've always heard that shoulder surgery/replacement is much worse from a therapy standpoint as it is just flat out painful.  

I took the opioids for about 6 days - they play heck with a persons digestive process, so I quit taking them as soon as I could.  Even after only six days I had some withdrawal symptoms, I got ittchy spots and it would move around - it would be my elbow, then move to my leg and so on.  It was annoying, lasted for a couple of days.  

I just don't see the "recreational" benefits of opioids, I didn't like anything about them.

Hope your wife does well!