Good afternoon @jprust. Well, you caught me. I think I fit your criteria. After a fall down a mountain, I went through three surgeries on my dominant shoulder. #1...Rotator cuff repair. The surgeon told me it was the Grand Canyon of holes. #2...Attempt at a cadaver rotator cuff repair. #3....Reverse shoulder replacement.

Briefly, here is how the attempts compared. And I can see why that didn't make a lot of sense to you when the more major surgery had the best recovery according to your surgeon.

The rotator cuff repair was the most painful recovery. After my fall, I was in the hospital for a couple of days and was treated with pain pills and given a sling. to wear. Eventually, I was able to get dressed and go to work by myself but the pain never receded as you might expect. My surgeon was not happy with the outcome and wanted to give it another chance to become functional. So....he suggested #2 but the donated rotator cuff just did not match up with my body. So, I went back home post surgery again.

At the time, the Reverse Shoulder Replacement was new in the US. It was developed in France and the Univ. of Washington handled the initial patients. My surgeon spent the time to become competent......and even brought back a video to share with me. Then came the big challenge. My insurance turned me down for the RSR because I was too young at 68. Evidently, they preferred the patients to be older for various reasons,

Once again, my surgeon won the battle and the surgery was scheduled. When they wheeled me into the operatng room it sounded like a party. The engineer who designed the replacement was there along with other professionals. I slept through the party......woke up with my surgeon sitting in my room. He wanted to make sure I was well taken care of and he wanted to personally experience any issues that arose. Even the anesthetist dropped by to see how the drugs had worked.

Within 3 days I was going out to dinner with friends. The pain was very moderate. I even argued with my surgeon about bedtime sleep aids but followed his directions.

So now you can have the replacement mechanism designed for you which might help with the ROM and other agillity issues. For the couple of years that I couldn't rely on my shoulder, I was forced to learn to use my non-dominant arm even for writing. So of course I now use both arms for just living.

Good luck to you. And I will be here for you next week and thereafter.

Chris