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Lol. This was my third shoulder surgery. The surgeon and the folks at rehab remembered me by name.

My shoulder problems have all been caused by bone spurs, and that seems to be a result of doing a lot of heavy lifting around the farm and in the gym.

One of my sons has had surgeries on 1 shoulder and both knees, all from soccer injuries. His shoulder had stretched ligaments and the humerus would pop out of joint as he ran. He'd have to stop and twist it to pop it back in. Besides being quite painful, it's was a PIA. He finally had it fixed

You’ll probably have a cold water pump. My wife had meniscus and rotator cuff surgery a few years ago and I found using ice cubes, etc in the ice container was a pain in the butt.
I found some of the little Zip Lock plastic containers for leftovers, etc. with screw on lids about 4” in diameter would make 2” thick ice cylinders small enough to fit in the ice/water container and they lasted MUCH longer than crushed ice or ice cubes. Fill ‘em about 3/4 full and after they’re frozen you might have to run a little water on the bottom to pop the ice out. Three or four will stack in the ice container. With six or eight you can be freezing half while the other half are either frozen or getting there.

This surgery in July, I had a cryo-cuff that pumped ice water through a shoulder shaped bag. It worked good, but if I wanted to get out of my chair, it took a bit to unhook me from the tubing. Finally I decided to use the frozen slurry type packs from CVS that fit in a Velcro outfitted cloth shoulder attachment. I preferred that to the pumper. But I had to get a couple more of the frozen slurry packs. However the OP decides to ice it will work fine, but ice it he must.

The shoulder is pretty much Ok by now, and I’m finished with the PT therapy, though the shoulder muscles aren’t as strong as I’d like (yet). It’s a long slow, and sometimes painful, process. I hope to never do it again.

RC, good luck with it. I've had major repairs done on both sides.

Have you lined up friends and relatives to help out? Maybe just to hang with you for a couple of hours so your wife can get away?

post surgery, I'll agree with the others. Take the pain meds BEFORE they become necessary, at least for the first week or two. And 20 minutes or so before a PT session, it'll make that go a lot easier. And then follow the PT routines religiously, and maybe a few times more a day if the PT folks/surgeon says OK to do it. Sure helped me, and they considered me a prized patient.

Shoulders and knees are a different game, but I did buy a nice quality exercise bike for my TNR and it payed back well.
If they have a PT machine/tool I would get it. Like everyone says PT gets you healed quicker.
I had ice bags, and for me they were better than the drugs.

Our daughter gave my wife a stair stepper a while back. It won't help the shoulder any but I can watch tv while I'm using it to keep from getting all stove up from lack of exercise. I set it up so the handles don't move back and forth with the pedals. That wouldn't work with the shoulder.

I had my knee replaced Wednesday. Some things have been rough. I'll still pizzed at all the doctors for making me jump through all the hoops.

I think most of the doctors would love to skip the hoops and just get on with it but they don't call the shots. It's decided by hospital boards and lawyers.

Hope things go well for you.

I hope it all goes well on Wed. I have a date for handball on Thurs.

Just for a followup...I always like to hear the rest of the story.

My surgery went just fine. It was a lot less invasive than the shoulder surgeries that many of you have had. It was a simple torn subscapular tendon. That one is on the outside so no other tendons or muscles have to be moved to get at it. Easy to get at or not, it'll still take 6 weeks in a sling to heal, then the PT. He had to shorten the tendon a bit so that will need time to stretch.
I'd read and heard horror stories about how much pain comes from the nerve block medication wearing off. I had none of that at all. Zilch. Maybe they have a new anesthesia that doesn't do that. I don't know. I haven't had any pain that high strength Ibuprofen can't handle so no opioids. They said it could take up to 48 hrs for the nerve block to wear off. It took 30. The doc also said that once it started wearing off, it would take about an hour to fully wake up. Nope. It took 8 hours. I woke up barely able to move my fingers a half inch and it was mid-afternoon before it was all gone.
The worst pain has been in my left knee, believe it or not. I woke up in my recliner yesterday morning with my right leg at 90 degrees over my left knee, kind of a strange position. The weight must have twisted a bone out of position or something. I could hardly walk for half the day, then was hobbling around with a cane. It hurt like crazy. Then suddenly, it was gone. I didn't feel anything but the bone must have slipped back into it's proper place. I don't miss that a bit.
So, now it's just a waiting game. I'll keep trying to sleep in bed but will probably be using the recliner for a few weeks. Lying down makes for a dull ache that keeps a guy awake when it's dark and quiet.

Great to hear Rock!!

Glad it went well. Just do what the doctor tells you…

Good to hear it went well for you.

Glad your surgery went well. Having had a shoulder done the one thing in addition to loose shirts which has been mentioned --- get some slip on shoes.

good to hear. they must not have had to use any screws into the bone. thats what i think caused all my pain. when he showed me the screws and anchors they sunk into my shoulder bones it about made me sick. looked like drywall anchors.

but 3 years later and i am good to go. you will be too i'm sure.

Hope you get your stuff done, and hope you're 100% in a very short time again.

Things just got complicated. My 95 year old MIL passed away this afternoon and my wife's on her way to WA for a few days. That leaves me as a 1 armed invalid fending for myself. Luckily, I'm not all trussed up like a Christmas goose. I have a good range of movement in my arm and hand as long as I don't lift more than 2 lb. I got a friend to come over and feed my llamas tonight since hay bales are way over my limit. We gave them a 4 day supply of hay.
These things happen.

I've been watching a lot of TV the last few days. An observation: How many times have you seen a cowboy shot in the shoulder? He wraps a rag around it, hangs it in his neckerchief for a few days and he's healed. Yeah, right. There are darn few places that a bullet can go though without your shoulder requiring major reconstruction.