Shoulder replacement pain

Good evening @michelle633. Welcome to Connect. I am so sorry for your horrible pain. How can you possibly do PT when you are experiencing pain in the surgical area? Have you communicated with your surgeon? Please do so if you haven't and are still doing PT?

My experience includes 4 surgeries on my two shoulders with one being a reverse replacement. I found an ice machine really helped. Did you use one during recovery?

Although I didn't have long-lasting pain after the surgery, I did find that scar tissue was a serious post-surgery issue for a TKR. It was at that time that I was introduced to MFR.....myofascial release therapy. Have you heard of that treatment? Let me know and I will connect you to some folks who have been helped tremendously by MFR.

What medications are you taking if any? Is this your dominant arm? I am quite concerned about your level of pain and will wait for your response to my questions. Our goal is to relieve your pain and make sure your shoulder is healing.

May you be free of suffering and the causes of suffering. By the way....I live in Minnesota and it is quite cold. Where are you now?
Chris

This is my experience I had a reverse total shoulder Feb 2019 after a failed surgery 11 years earlier. I should have addressed it sooner. Had a great surgeon and fabulous young physical therapist. Also had them both for my May 2021 TKR . I was in therapy with shoulder for a year, long time but since I waited years before addressing the issue it’s been still a thorn in a different way. I still go back for dry needling because I tend to overdue it and muscles get achy pain.Anyhow my therapist made sure with his intense therapy I do not have scar tissue etc.
I do pulleys every day three ways, therabands over the door under the door and middle of door
With3-4 different exercises with those three places. I do free weights 5 lbs different ways and 8 lbs for other exercise at gym I do 3 different weight machines was at 40 lbs but couldn’t do them for a while after total knee so I’m working back up.
My therapist has said I need to do these forever and has explained to me over and over that with no rotator cuff the deltoid has to do all the work now. Also taping shoulder helps too. I also have bone left in my muscle that doesn’t belong there but my surgeon said if he fixed that I could not use my arm. Having said all that I am still better off now than before.
If surgeon has done their job and all is well on X-ray a good physical therapist I believe is the answer. Also make sure you are doing exercises properly that also makes a difference. Much luck

@michelle633 and @artscaping Good morning, I had an RSR about three years ago. My ROM is not good and I have pain. I call the office about it and I go in, they take an x-ray and I get told all is well. Nothing is out of place, but I still have pain and my muscles are shrinking down slowly. I usually get a shot which really helps remove the pain and my ROM is better until it wears off. It lasts a couple of months. I do get my other shoulder shot every three months. It needs to be replaced when I am ready. But at this point, I am not so sure. The pain in this shoulder is not as bad as the one that was replaced. Hope your pain is not that bad. Have you ever had the doc give you a shot in the shoulder? For me, they usually do not give shots but the joint was so bad and my bones are not the best. That is what bothers me to have another replacement. So we never really talk about plan B but inject my joint and see how I get along.
Ice packs really do help along with exercise. I hope my experiences help you a little and I would call your surgeon about the pain and see what he would recommend. If the pain is coming from your back, you may have a cervical nerve problem. I just had radio on c4-c6 and generally, this helps my back pains. Somes this lasts for two years.

I hope the new year of 2022 brings you, a good solution to be pain-free. We are all here to help with any advice from our experiences that might help you. Happy New Year and stay healthy and safe. KLH

Prior to my Reverse total shoulder I had one. the dry needling my therapist does works and he tapes it and has taught my husband how. I have added water aerobics to my routine as well. It’s not the same pain as before when it’s there it’s more of an ache. Dry needling doesn’t have medication in the needles but works for me. I was going every 6-8 weeks but am back to every three since I wasn’t able to do my weights after my total knee. I am blessed with an extraordinary therapist who is amazing pays attention to detail, has a lot of patience with me and is a great teacher.