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Shoulder Replacement: Still having pain
Joint Replacements | Last Active: Jun 10, 2023 | Replies (80)Comment receiving replies
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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Thanks for replying and moving my message to the right place.
I guess I over-stated things. I haven't had any serious pain since 5 or 6 weeks after surgery except for a couple of occasions where I know I over did it. I purposely avoided sleeping on my right side until recently and that's what my message refers to. I wouldn't call what I feel now as pain - more an uncomfortable aching that usually goes away after I'm up for a few hours but sometimes lingers for the day. I usually fall asleep again if I change position. Taking an NSAID before bed doesn't seem to make any difference.
At the risk of making things more complicated: I also can get the same issue if I rest my elbow and leaning on it like on my desk or a chair arm. This tends to push the humerus up into the shoulder and I think stresses the joint - and I'm going to guess that is what happens at night. I don't think this is going to be an ongoing problem but you never know.
My concern is I had a CMJ fusion and trapeziectomy several years ago and I still have problems with my hand and wrist and am just having to learn to live with it. The ache is random and doesn't affect what I can do but it is sometimes demoralizing. The surgery trigged CRPS that fortunately responded to pain treatment but it also triggered Dupuytren's Contracture that is gradually growing worse.
I haven't talked to the surgeon yet - I have a follow up on 7/20. I just wanted to see if my experience is typical.
Pardon me for rambling on. I had rotator cuff surgery on my other shoulder 10 years ago. I was able to find a wealth of info about what to expect and many people's experiences to prepare myself. I wasn't able to do this with the replacement surgery, I think because there just haven't been as many are there are rotator cuff repairs.
Thanks for listening.