It took me about a year to make the decision after the first x-rays and consultation which determined that I was bone on bone and a candidate for shoulder replacement. I felt like I could live with a little pain, and I continued to treat my shoulder with cortisone shots, but they quit working after the 2nd one. My nagging arthritis pain was always there, had very limited range of motion for my right hand, couldn't get it up to my head to comb or shampoo, some days picking up a cup of coffee was a slow process. Then one day I had such severe shoulder pain, no idea why it came on, but icing and ibuprofen did not help. It took several days to subside, but I decided it was time to schedule the surgery, the wait time was about 3 months out. For me, the surgery and recovery time was much easier than I had expected. Probably why I have not babied the shoulder and may have stressed it too much in recent weeks causing my new problem. Please continue to post about your decisions and progress towards surgery, lots of people have questions on it, but it seems we only hear about the problem cases here, not the uneventful normal ones.