I don't know how it's done these days but 4 years ago because of my insurance before I could get the surgery on my left shoulder I had to:
1) Take oral anti-inflammatory drugs for a few months and when that didn't help-
2) To endure painful physical therapy for many weeks and when that didn't help-
3) Get a cortisone shot in the shoulder joint that relieved the pain for about a week and when that fix anything-
4) Get an MRI which showed a partially detached tendon, many ruptured tendons and arthritis on the ends of my collar bone.
That said the surgery was a success and I'd do it again. I highly recommend the nerve block and I was very lucky I didn't need to use ice for pain/swelling. The nerve block wore off in about 12 hours (woke me up at 3:00am) and I took one hydrocodone tablet to go back to sleep. I never had to take any more pain medication after that. I never wore the sling except then I slept and when I first started driving. I had surgery on Friday and started driving my standard shift Dodge diesel pickup the following Monday. I did a lot of the "dangling" exercises at home like I was told to do. The therapy I started 6 weeks after the surgery was a breeze and all the therapists were hot young women. It took about a year to be pain free. Good luck!
