I had shoulder surgery last Tuesday. Removal of scar tissue, repair of labrum tear & repair of rotator cuff tear.

Before anyone jumps the gun, YES this is making my puzzy hurt!

Now. Have any of you had a shoulder surgery before and if so, how long before the constant throbbing pain goes away?

If I take the oxycodone it numbs it for about a 2 hours but I'm giving up the pain for the almost unbearable itching!

There is just no position that I can be in that relieves this constant throbbing pain.

For those of you that have experienced shoulder surgery, is this to be expected or maybe something went wrong during the surgery and I need to have them reevaluate it?

Once again, it's ok to call me a puzzy or anything else that justifies your manhood, but some serious feedback would also be welcome.

This should be interesting 🤦‍♂️

Ok...you're a puzzy.

Best wishes. Hope you feel better soon and don't get addicted to the oxycodone.

I had shoulder surgery about 7 years ago. It is worse now than before the surgery and it was the last time I went to the doctor. I don't remember the throbbing you are describing. Painkillers scare me so I stayed noodled for 3 days using them and booze and then just stopped both. After 3 days I should have been over the worst of it. I do remember that ice was my friend. Lots and lots of ice. I hope you feel better soon.

Not a problem.Yes it hurts. Did you have a pain pump for a nerve block? Usually you have one of those for 48 hours at least after surgery.

Mine went a little further with a full reverse replacement.I have the same problem with opiods.

Tramadol isn't as strong, but it might help. I have had several doctors advise taking 1000 mg of Tylenol and three hours later take 600 mg of Advil. Then in another three hours the 1000 mg of Tylenol.Then another 600 mg of Advil three hours later. So you are taking Tylenol every 6 hours and Advil every six hours. Some times this works better than opiods

Hope you are taking stool softeners along with the oxycodone.

With the scare out there of drug over use,I have found doctors giving less amounts of any opiods and not as much strength.Anything stronger though and the itching will become worse.

i had both my rotator cuffs repaired one in 2005 the other in 2010 never had much pain except alittle after therapy sessions usually took two advils and all was good. don't skip the therapy for your best resaults dave in wyo

I had similar surgery a few years ago...surgeon provided 'ports' into the wound area and two spring loaded 'reservoirs' pinned to my shirt that metered a strong opiate directly into the affected area. When I questioned the necessity of such a radical step, he said, you will be begging me for this about the time your wife drives you home. He warned me prior to surgery, short of burns, this will be the most pain you will ever experience.
He knew his schidt, Olympic Team doctor for 14 years.

February is your friend. When it finally gets here, you will have most of the problems of discomfort behind you, with a few more months ahead of serious therapy…

Everyone is different. Every surgery is different. But if it doesn't get better after a few days I'd be back at the doctor's office.

I will try the Advil, they prescribed oxycodone 10mg every 6 hours and 1000mg Tylenol every 6 hours.

No ports. The numbed my whole right side for surgery and around midnight it wore off. Just oxycodone and Tylenol.

I'm not a drinking man anymore but I like the way you think! I just might get me some Captain👍

not sure if this pertains to just shoulder surgery.
but shoulder replacement is known to take a lot longer recovery time than either knee or hip replacement..

When they prescribed me the oxycodone they also prescribed me Narcan for potential overdose.
This was last Tuesday and last night I finally blew the toilet up. It was a relief. Woke up yesterday morning and started drinking nothing but vegetable juice. After 64oz it was time to visit John. I normally do the vegetable juice cleansing once a month anyway!

Yes, opiates will constipate.

I had about the same surgery. How many screws did you get?

Regards

Pat, I have had 5 major shoulder surgeries. They flat out suck. Recovery and pain subsidence has a lot of variables, so one persons experience won't necessarily be like yours. For me the window for the white hot burning pain ranged from 1-3 days. Discomfort will stay with you for weeks. A recliner provides for the very best position of comfort. I slept in mine following each of my surgeries for anywhere from a week to 3 weeks.

I think he said 4 anchors for the rotator cuff repair and 5 stitches for the labram.

This is good advice.

I received a couple more.

I would caution against mixing the opiates with alcohol. One thing you DONT want to do is vomit with that sling on etc.

Ymmv

After surgery on my rotator cuff I was having a throbbing pain running down my arm that wouldn’t stop. Pain pills only worked for a few hours and then left me hurting for hours waiting to take the next dose. I was desperate and open to help from anything so I let my mom take me to her chiropractor. The chiropractor adjusted my lower neck and it was as if she had lifted a hot iron off my arm. The flood of relief from the pain was almost instant and then the pain kept fading. Chiropractor said it was common for post operation patients to get a nerve pinched in surgery because sometimes they need to position your body in awkward ways so the surgeon can get a good angle to work at and when you are completely limp under anesthesia it’s easy for the spine to move and pinch a nerve.

Several years ago I bought an adjustable bed due to chronic back pain. I have tried every position available to no avail. I think the older I'm getting the bigger my puzzy is!

Broke my neck in 2002 so chiropractor's won't touch my neck!

I took the pain meds for three days and they made me woozy. Third day I walked into a door jamb with that shoulder. Dropped me. No more meds for me. I think about a week for the pain.
Still slept upright in a recliner for another month plus. No option there.
Good luck.

Osky

Find a chiropractor that has a bad azz cold laser. Had a frozen shoulder 2 yrs ago that pt wouldn't fix. One treatment and I was fixed. I'm a firm believer in it. Make sure it's at least 20k machine so it goes deep in the muscle.

I've had rotator cuff repair of both shoulders, first one was a medium to large tear and the second was a complete tear off. For the complete tear off the doctor ordered a cold water pump that I wore for a couple weeks. PT on the complete tear off was passive for the first 8 weeks, I went in and laid down while the therapist stretched my shoulder muscles. Never had throbbing pain described by the OP, if I did I'd be returning to see the surgeon for evaluation. With either shoulder I did not finish the prescribed Oxycodone I was sent home form the hospital with. When I went off Oxy I used Tylenol. Good luck with you recovery.

I had the labrum repair and a humerus fracture repair years back and don't remember that kind of pain after that many days. But as many have said everyone is different. I know id have no issue bothering the doctors office if the pain becomes intolerable even after heavily medicating. Im not a fan of pain pills for any length of time but a man also needs to get plenty of rest. Good luck either way

The arm rests on a recliner are key to comfort.

This has been my experience as well. I've had rotator cuff surgery on both shoulders, and slept in a recliner after the first one. For the second one (just over a year ago) we rented an adjustable hospital bed. Being able to lay down at the correct angle, and having pillows to support the arm on the surgery side will make a world of difference in your comfort at night. It should also help the pain ease up during the day too.

I had both shoulders done a few years ago. The right side I had 10 tears in labrum, rotator cuff, bicep cut and reattached, etc. The right side was first and hurt for a few days before getting better but the left side was far different. I had 11 or 12 rips in the various parts and I didn’t get a second of sleep for the first 72 hours because the pain was unbearable. I sucked down a handful of oxycodone and accompanied my daughter to a father/daughter dance with a smile but inside I wanted to die. I finally had had enough and had my wife drive me into the surgeon’s office. I told him that he was going to prescribe something for the pain or I’ll be following him around daily until he does. I was NOT polite or gentle that visit but he got the message and prescribed morphine. Once I was able to get the pain under control and rest I began to heal and feel better.

Take 25-50mg of Benadryl 20 minutes prior to taking your pain meds and that should help with the itching. If it doesn’t help you need to tell your doctor because getting the pain under control is of paramount importance.

Good luck Sir, I don’t envy you.

Take the pain meds. You need to rest to heal. The recliner, ice, and pillows to find a good position. If no relief by morning, go see surgeon. Something is not right that must be examined. You have to take the pain meds to get ahead of the pain. If you do not have an addictive personality, you will wean yourself off the pain meds in a few days.

I had the same surgery.

I was hurting pretty bad for several days and didn't start rehab until week 2.

Rehab was tons of fun.....you will love it

I was back to work in 5 weeks but not 100% for close to a year.

First surgery 10 years ago--no pain after healing.
Opposite shoulder surgery about a year ago is still painful.

It's going to depend on what they had to do in trying to repair it.

BTW.....

Request the chair that works your shoulder for your home.

It's a gamechanger

Tore my ac joint a few years ago.
It hurt. A few days with rest and some meds, which I don’t like, helped a bit. 😝

AC joint hurt like a mofo. Are you sure you didn’t break your clavicle?

I encourage you to look into percutaneous, ultra-sound guided tenotomy with PRP. Near miraculous results for some people.

August 2019 had a total shoulder replacement.
I was getting to the stage I couldn't feed myself! 😖


Now, I don't know about anybody else, but until I had shoulder surgery, I couldn't sleep all night. I would move my arm during the night and the pain of bone-on-bone would bring me to startling awareness!
Man, that thing hurt something awful.

Even bandaged and in a cast and sling, I slept like a baby for the first time in a decade.
They kept me overnight.
The next day, I'm chomping at the bit to go home.
The hospital filled the hydrocodone 'script. The floor nurse brought my pillsxand told me I needed to take one...but I wasn't in pain!
The floor nurse was insistent that I take at least one before the trip (115 miles) home.

That is the ONLY pain pill I took, even during PT!

Ibuprofen, a comfy recliner and a bidet on the toilet got me through rotator cuff surgery. It took about 6 months to heal about 75%

My surgeon got very upset with not taking the pain meds because, as stated before, you will heal better if you body isn't in massive pain.

Ymmv

I had a total shoulder replacement in 2019, did 10 days in rehab and didn't need the pain meds at all. Working hard in rehab is the key, or at least it was in my case.

Yes I use extra pillows to support my shoulder and arm.

Yeah I'm not to concerned about getting hooked on the pain meds. I went through that with Vicodin in 2002 with my broken neck. They prescribed them like candy and I ate them like candy. Took me 2 years to admit to myself that I was hooked. Once that happened I stopped them and within 4 months I stopped craving them.

Ever since then, I am careful and paranoid of pain meds but I do take them and know when to stop. Thanks for the advice though.
Yes the pillows supporting the surgery shoulder is very crucial. Ice too!

I will do that Sir, thanks

MRI didn't show any damage to the clavicle.
The MRI of the right shoulder showed tearing of the rotator cuff, notable damage
to the ligaments of the shoulder joint itself, tear in the labram, and some swelling in the joint.

I had similar surgery in 2004. Tears repaired, rotator cuff cleaned up, bone spurs removed and the biceps tendon repaired.The pain was fairly constant for about three weeks. My doc told me to move the shoulder as much as I could tolerate and not to let it stay immobilized. She said it had to do with the tendon repair. I used the pain pills to make the moving tolerable. She first gave me Percocet, which I liked too much and asked her to take me off it. She then gave me Vicodin. Made you puke. You do NOT want to puke with your shoulder the way it is. She then gave me darvocet which was a good balance. She started me on PT very quickly. After three weeks, it was a dull ache. After two months I had most of my range of motion and very little pain except when it was cold and rainy. Now, I can raise my arm over my head by rotating it, but if I try to raise my arm with it out to the side and my palm up. It stops at horizontal. Bad news is 18 years later, it hurts again, mostly due to arthritis. Not sure if it’s worth it or even possible to get it redone.

Old70

48 years since my rotator cuff repair. Still hurts - mostly at night. For many the loss of range of motion is also permanent (depending on how hard you work to get it back).

Still, surgery beats the hell out of having the shoulder continually dislocate.

When young you think you get hurt, you get fixed and then you live happily ever after. Truth is that you cannot do major damage to bone or muscle and get away with it in the long run... these things have a way of revisiting you over time. Given the chance I would ski, climb and do all the fun stuff all over again but, maybe, a bit more carefully.

On my shoulder surgeries,I tried to NOT take the oxy - kinda ticked the doc off, but I hate drugs.
I hurt pretty bad for a week or more, but slept on our couch with recliners on both ends - right side for left shoulder, and vice-versa. Stacked blankets and towels to a suitable depth.
Only way I could sleep.
After ~ a week or so, the pain gradually improved.
I got a nerve block with the first one (the left) - never again! Nerve blocks make me mean, darned wonder "The Warden" didn't put me out of her misery that time! And, I lost 2 days completely, and parts of a few more - gone to in-and-out.
Without the block, I came to 4 1/2 hours after entering surgery, completely awake and lucid.
Worst part of the whole thing, for me, was trying to sleep - with limited success. IIRC, I slept on the couch for around 2 months, each time.

My son had labrum tear repaired due to a high school football injury. I had a similar meniscus tear repair done on my knee 11 years ago. What I learned is that some people simply recover faster than others but there are some predictors.

The younger you are, and the better shape you're in at the time of the surgery means you recover faster.

The skill of the surgeon matters.

The skill of the therapist and how hard you work in rehab will make a difference.

Other than that luck and your genetics are going to determine how long it takes.

Well good luck with that! Lol
I was is the same boat but my ac and labrum
was/is hurt. I was lucky, I think, to get away without
breaking my clavicle or arm.
You’re due for rehab. Sound fun? 😝
Seriously, it’s a sucky injury and one you will
probably notice for a few years.
Get use to it my friend.

Best of luck with it.

Lots of good info so far. Maybe ask your doc if you can take 1.5x the dose prescribed as the script one doesn't seem to be helping. I wouldn't double up on the tylenol though, that stuff will screw with your liver.

Both mine have been done, both with involvement of the biceps tendon and significant arthritic lesions. They weren't fun. Good sports medicine surgeons for big school programs helped I'm sure.

If they're still available, as I know they've cut back on prescribing, take the meds 20 minutes or so before your first PT sessions. (just wait, those are SO much fun)

Recliner for sure, might even be better than that bed if you have one available.

again, good luck

Tylenol WILL seriously mess with your liver enzymes BTDT using Tylenol Arthritis Strength 650mg. only when pain was bad. DO NOT increase Tylenol dosage !

True, but a person needs to read the directions on the container. Two 500 mg capsules every 6 hours, not over 400 mg in a 24 hour period. BTDT

Were you prescribed an ice water machine, that circulates ice water through a flexible rubber pad that forms around your shoulder? Mine worked excellent to dull that strong pain. Works better than ice packs, which can freeze your skin.
They are available at medical supply stores and online.