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Shoulder Replacement: Still having pain

Joint Replacements | Last Active: Jun 10, 2023 | Replies (80)
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@mdgarnett

I had shoulder replacement surgery on March 12, 2020. After a few days of initial pain, I had tolerable pain for a few weeks that NSAIDS handled. I was able to get through rehab quickly and am now working on getting back to as close to normal ROM and strength. My remaining concern is with sleeping on the affected side. It still isn't a comfortable position and if I do roll over to that side, I'll wake up after a few hours with unpleasant achiness in the joint both at rest and through my range of motion. I wonder if anyone else has experienced this, did it eventually go away and did you do anything to help? (FYI - I'm 71).

Thanks.

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Replies to "I had shoulder replacement surgery on March 12, 2020. After a few days of initial pain,..."
Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Jul 7, 2020

Hi @mdgarnett, welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. You'll notice that I moved your message to this existing discussion about shoulder replacement, pain and sleep. I did this so that you can connect with @ellerbracke @anncgrl @rascal1 and others.

In this article, John Sperling, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Mayo Clinic in Rochester states:
"Many patients six weeks after surgery are able to drive again, sleep on the side that bothered them before and resume a wide variety of activities, such as golf and gardening, he says." from Mayo Clinic News Network - Mayo Study Finds Shoulder Replacement Eases Pain, Improves Motion in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/shoulder-replacement-eases-pain-improves-motion-in-rheumatoid-arthritis-patients-mayo-study-finds/

This is obviously not been your experience. Are you able to fall back asleep or does the pain keep you awake? Have you talked to a physiotherapist about this persistent pain interrupting your sleep?

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Chris Trout, Volunteer Mentor | @artscaping | Jul 7, 2020

Good afternoon @mdgarnett, You know what, you're right. It does seem like there are fewer standard shoulder replacement surgeries at least from my position here. I do notice posts about reverse shoulder replacements and have had one of those myself.

Here is a link from @itsally, who describes her repair as a Tapezius Tendon Transfer. She wants to play tennis again and it appears that this surgical procedure may work for her.

I had two attempts at rotator cuff repair including cadaver transplant which failed rather miserably. Therefore, none of the four rotator cuffs were functional by the time it was recommended that I "volunteer" for a reverse shoulder transplant. I say volunteer because the reverse was new at the time and insurance companies were resistant about approving something that might require a revision or other procedure.

Evidently, I was also fighting an age restriction set by the insurance company. My surgeon got on the phone and after about 30 minutes, the decision was reversed.

The manufacturer of the prothesis sent an engineer out for the actual surgery. And I was welcomed into the surgical room as if there was a celebration going on. The recovery was really well thought out by my "team" and other than the inconvenience of the immobilizer, everything went well.

I wish you well with your recovery. You may want to talk to some former recipients of a shoulder replacement. Just promise to share with us so we will be able to help others.

May you be free of suffering and the causes of suffering.
Chris

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