Good evening @scootergirl, welcome to Connect where the mission is to improve the quality of life for every member. February 3 has the potential to be a game-changer for you. Yes, you may have to find new and different activities. I was very fortunate. I am a trekker.....for years a group of us who lived on a mountain would take off to another country or just another area and spend 7-10 days walking on an Inn to Inn adventure. After a fall down a mountain, I went through two surgeries, an attempted rotator cuff repair, an unsuccessful cadaver fusion and finally a reverse shoulder replacement.

The reverse shoulder replacement was quite successful. Just being free of pain and restriction in movement jumped my quality of life to a new and rewarding level. I never have any pain. I can do almost everything with my right arm. I wouldn't say that my range of motion was perfect. Sometimes I have to use my left arm to help support the right arm but that is seldom.

I am 79 and have been struggling with trauma related neuropathy (SFN) for several years. I still am having quality of life procedures like a knee replacement on my right side to match the left and soon....on Dec 9, a thumb joint replacement. I used to think I was too old to bother. However, technology, robotic and minimally invasive surgeries, and the introduction of MFR, myofascial release therapy, have made considerable progress in my quality of life efforts.

Yes, you have to go through recuperation and recovery at a time in life when we don't really want to be bothered with pain, PT, and temporary limitations.

You will make the right decisions. And I will be right here to support and help you in any way possible.

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

@scootergirl - I am 74, and just had a reverse TSR, it will be 5 weeks on Thanksgiving Day. I am very pleased with the surgery so far. I know exactly what you mean about the ponytail! I've had short hair for the last 10 years, but because of not having a haircut for over a year due to the original covid salon shutdowns, I decided to grow out my hair and now need to pull it back to keep it away from my face and neck. Before the surgery, I struggled in pain to keep my elbow up high enough to wrap the scrunchy around my hair, it came out messy and off center, even when propping my elbow against the wall to help. Last summer I decided it was time for surgery because I was getting such restricted range of movement --like washing my hair with only my left hand, and my shoulder had a constant nagging ache all the time, with a few bad fareups that were much worse. It was even hard to get to sleep with the low level ache. I decided I could not live the rest of my life with this nagging pain, so went for the surgery.

Though I live in a rural area, we have a regional medical facility and one of our local orthopedic surgeons has a very good reputation. I personally knew of three people that were happy with their surgical results, and my primary care physician also praised him. I had him do both of my TKR knees in the last two years, and I was pleased with them.

With knees, they have you up and in physical therapy immediately. With shoulders there is more support muscle healing needed, so although you are given passive arm flexing and pendulum swinging exercises that you start right after surgery, you don't do anything demanding until after 4-6 weeks. I've been going to PT for two weeks, but most of that has been them manipulating my arm and gentle arm raises, just started the sitting pulley last week. At home, I have a folded towel to push up a slick wall in different directions, but that is the only homework I was given. I think the tougher exercises will start after I have my six week clearance from my surgeon.

Since the surgery, I no longer have the constant arthritic ache, and I am sleeping through the night with only one or two wakes, have no trouble getting back to sleep. My surgical pain was almost non-existent. The only pain would be when I tried to move my arm awkwardly out of it's limited arc of comfort and hit that "ouch" wall.

I did twice the suggested number of pendulum reps and arm flexes per session, probably four times a day instead of twice. I don't know if that helped, but my flexion ROM was 130 and abduction ROM was 93 on my 2nd PT measurement, which is really good for 3rd week, and not too far from goal results of 140/90 at 8 weeks out. I probably do too much, and one of my PT guys scolded me for even trying to put my arm up to make a ponytail at this point. But I find that if I can do something without causing much strain or pain, I may do it without thinking about it. I am at the point now, where I can get my arm up and do a much neater job with the ponytail, but I still need the wall for a bit of support for my elbow, and I need to support my arm when I move it slowly back down. It's so cool when I can see progress with little things. I don't use my right arm yet to shower or wash my hair, but last time some excess shampoo glop was running down my forehead, and I automatically put up my right hand to catch it, and it didn't hurt! Could not have done that pre-surgery.

Everyone reacts to surgery, pain and healing in their own way so I don't think there can ever be a 100% guarantee that you will be fine and will heal quickly. But for me it was so worth it to be rid of the constant arthritic pain. It's still early for me in the healing process, but I would do it again in an instant.