Shoulder arthroscopic surgery post surgery updates

Five weeks post your just beginning with new aches and pains. This is pretty common to have pains near your scapular your bicep to the top of the shoulder and areas that were not worked on they all work in concert. I am 9 weeks post and I had a full tare in the rotator cuff and partial tare in my bicep and a winged scapular. Plus my age does not help. You were probably in a sling for six weeks and not using the muscles or ligaments in and around the surgery site. I too had the exact pain. I also had four anchors and sutures. Keep icing the shoulder take some over the counter pain medication don't over do it with the medication which can hurt your kidneys or liver. If you have a tens unit continue with that. Remember your starting to use the shoulder that was in major surgery and places that were torn. Pain goes hand to hand with this type of surgery unfortunately. Listen to what your doctor tells you to do and include your Pt therapist. Do not try to rush it it takes time and of course some pain. I too experience different pains and thought to myself did I tare or re-injured my shoulder again. I to cant lift my arm above my waist or out ward away from my body. My Pt therapist told me first comes stretching of the area then comes strength its frustrating! Last and for most tell your doctor what your feeling at you visits. Good luck!

Hi,

Welcome to the club of those recovering from shoulder surgery. I'd say follow your doctor's and therapist's advice. If you don't know, ask them. Everyone's recovery seems unique. They do have shoulder rehab protocols but even those may be adjusted to fit your particular injury recovery - with varieties of exercise and a different timeline than for another shoulder patient.

In general though, I'd suggest ice for the pain. It helps calm down things and reduce inflammation. I used an ice machine for the first few weeks, even slept with it on. I also used a Tens machine which is a mini adaptation of the larger electrostim machine your therapist may use on you.

I would also do those ROM exercises religiously to help break up and prevent scar tissue from stiffening your shoulder too much. For me that was and still is the hardest part, getting through all that stiffness. The strengthening was easy, but achieving that ROM via breaking up all the scar tissue was tough. I'm going on 1 year on my right shoulder and I'm still working on the end range of ROM.

Hang in there, things get better, even though maybe not as quickly as you and all of us want.

An update. So I'm around 10 weeks post op. My ROM is pretty decent.

I still get pain on the front of my shoulder, where most the work was done.... I can carefully lay in bed in the shoulder I had the op on now.... Which is a nice feeling, since I been bound to my back and right side... Always preferred the left injured side to sleep!

I do hurt it moving it to quickly... I jumped down a few steps the other day and it really hurt....my recovering shoulder and surrounding area are super skinny... Lost alot of muscle. I'm feeling like some light weight excercises are possible now.

So all in all, some good progression... Those dark days are creeping away.

Just hang in there and it will feel better.