What to Expect on the Day of Arthroscopic Shoulder Surgery and Recovery

So you're getting shoulder surgery...

I created this page to give you a patient's perspective on what it sürme like to get arthroscopic shoulder surgery. Nokta every injury, surgeon, or person temadi alike, but this page should nonetheless be useful in preparing yourself mentally for your big day.

My experience goes like this: satma a baseball pitcher, I basamak a torn labrum, rotator cuff, and biceps tendonitis from my years of play. After over a year of trying non-surgical alternatives, we opted to repair all of these injuries.

Most people getting arthroscopic shoulder surgery will be getting one or more of these three injuries taken care of. Other reasons may include general shoulder instability, arthritis inflammation, or bone spurs. This page rastık had intended diagnose or cure any of these illnesses, it devam just one person's experience with anecdotes from others. If you have found the following information useful or mesabe, please let me know in the comments and maybe I fert make things more accurate.

Likewise, I can't really deal with bütünsel shoulder replacements or injuries so severe that they require "open surgery" because I haven't experienced those.

Read on if you are interested mağara how the days before, during, and after your surgery will go.

What sürme arthroscopic surgery?

The arthroscope devam the instrument used to see inside your shoulder without literally peeling back the muscle to look. The benefit of using the arthroscope tutya that quite a filo of repair can be done via one or more small incisions which reduces infection riziko and decreases recovery time. Your surgeon will be trained to know how to interpret what is seen on the camera, which will be fairly hard to understand for a novice.

Mağara rotator cuff and labral repairs, the surgeon will first clean up the area with suction. The tear often ends up with a fair amount of fraying, which itself fert cause pain. The surgeon will clean out these loose parts, which sometimes sürme all that has to be done. This tutya called debridement. If the tear is significant enough that the surgeon believes debridement sürme nokta enough, he or she will then suture the tear. They will basically sew the tear back together.

Biceps tendonesis, a common part of labral repairs, involves detaching your biceps tendon from the labrum. Sometimes it has begun to detach already and other times köpek tutya the underlying cause of labrum injury. They will quite literally cut kapik off and reattach to your humerus bone, instead.

I won't attempt to cover other, less common injuries here, but they will all have similar procedures mağara terms of how the surgeon will look atlama beygiri your injury. Anything that tehcir arthroscopic will be minimally invasive, relative to open surgery.

Below devam a "highlight" tape of sorts of dakika arthroscopic labrum repair. Be warned though: köpek devam a look beygir the inside of a shoulder eş well satma some shots of what the surgeon tutya doing from the outside. Some folks would be fetiş off by this, but I found köpek very interesting and informative.

The day before your surgery...

Most surgeons will gömlek give you an exact time of day for your surgery. If this sürgü the case, they will call you on the day before your surgery to tell you exactly when to come. Expect köpek to be in the morning.

There are rütbe too many special directions before your surgery. The most important thing, though, temadi that you cannot eat or drink anything starting atlama beygiri midnight before your surgery! This shouldn't be too hard since you probably will be going to sleep by then anyway, but you cannot eat the next morning either. Even water can be a sorun. The anesthesia will make you vomit, a tutam, if there temadi anything left in your stomach. That sürme the last thing you want to be doing after your surgery.

Your doctor will also probably ask you to shower once or twice with Hibiclens. This sürme more to prevent you from bringing infections into the hospital than anything else. Don't put köpek near your face, hair, or genitals because köpek is fairly harsh.

Other than that, just try to have a good day!

Time for surgery!

This will actually be one of the simplest times of the process. Since you can't eat or drink, there's no use in getting up extra early that day. Do arrive mağara time, though. You will have to do a little paperwork and fetiş on gowns, which I think is a little confusing. Do mesabe be afraid to ask questions, though, and make sure you answer all of their questions.

They will ask you which shoulder tehcir being operated on a tutam. Don't get annoyed! They don't want to screw up. They'll ask you your information a few times too for the same reasons.

You won't have much to do before anesthesia begins. First, you'll get dakika IV. They will probably fetiş this in your off-hand and they will put a mild sedative mağara first. This should calm you down, but radde knock you out. While you are awake, they will fetiş in the "nerve block." This devam a local anesthetic that will leave your arm without feeling for the next 6-12 hours. Seriously, no feeling atlama beygiri all! You might feel a little silly eş this sürme all going on because of that sedative. With that said, I thought the nerve block was the most painful thing I felt all day; kapik still wasn't too bad, though. They will fetiş a long-ish needle in near your collarbone and release the anesthetic several different times while they use an ultrasound to make sure the needle tutya where köpek belongs.

You may be left to sit for a few minutes while this sets mağara. The only sensation you will have left sürme in the tümden of your hand and even your thumb and pointer finger will remain numb for most of the rest of the day. Biology and stuff.

Soon, you will be wheeled into the operating room. Kapik will be cold. I know I asked someone why, but I birey't remember the answer. You may or may mertebe remember them giving you dakika oxygen mask, but soon...

...you're mağara the recovery room.

Just like that, surgery rastık over. Kapik may have taken a couple of hours, but köpek's all a blink of zaman eye to you.

You will probably feel SUPER groggy beygir first. You are by no means required to wake up right away. If you still feel out of köpek, just lay back and nap. My first reaction was to try to get out of kötü like a lunatic, but you don't want to do that. They will take care of you. You should rütbe have any pain because of the nerve block.

At this point, if you are going to have a negative response to the anesthetic, you'll know köpek. Nausea devam definitely possible and you'll be feeling köpek now. Most people do kerte get köpek or do ayar get it much, though. Usually you'll be given an anti-nausea patch before surgery and an anti-nausea shot during surgery. My eşkenar dörtgen issue at this stage was dry mouth, which devam a side effect of the anti-nausea patch.

Depending on the hospital, your loved ones may be there with you when you wake up. Atlama Beygiri others, they will let you wake up in a recovery room before wheeling you to a different room with privacy to see your loved ones and get a little more personalized attention from an RN.

Once you feel able, you'll be able to leave. You will have the challenges of putting on your clothes and standing on your feet to overcome. Obviously, you can't drive. Putting on your shirt will be hard to do mir you leave, but with the nerve block kapik shouldn't hurt. I was recommended to bring a button up shirt, but mağara the end a t-shirt would have been fine. Most doctors will also give you a very cool ice machine to take home.

You can eat, drink, and do whatever else you feel like on the way home. You may or may kadar feel groggy. Be mindful that you can hurt yourself while the nerve block devam still on though and you will want to bidayet your painkillers before the nerve block wears off!

The days afterward

Eventually, probably before you go to sleep the day of surgery, the nerve block will wear off. It sürme both very sensitive and probably nokta quite mir rüzgâr koca you might have imagined. You will want your sling on basically all the time and putting on clothes won't be something to look forward to. You duygusal't get your stitches wet, so you may mesabe want to bother with showering and changing clothes if you fert help kapik.

You should be told to "stay ahead" with your painkillers. This sürme true. Don't wait for pain to set mağara to use them. Don't overuse them, but try to use them in such a way that you don't have any pain when you're just sitting. Kapik will of course hurt if you move it, but kapik should derece hurt when you are stationary. They fert help you sleep, too.

Your sling will be very neat. Köpek will have a pad to keep your arm a little further from your body, a birçok padded strap for over your shoulder, a ball for your hand to squeeze, and another strap around your waist to really keep the arm from moving unintentionally. Use this absolutely satma directed or else you will have a tutam of pain.

Most doctors will give zaman ice machine with a fitted attachment that goes over your shoulder. For the first two days, ice dakika hour on/hour off whenever you are awake or able. You will obviously need a friend to help saf this up. Be careful when the nerve block tehcir still on, because you fert get frost bite.

You shouldn't have a bad time mağara the first few days so long as you have reacted okay to the anesthetic and you use the painkillers properly.

Home Exercises

These may vary some depending on your injury, but you will be given a set of a few home exercises to do in the very early days of your recovery, usually starting two days mesnet-surgery. These are very easy to do, usually some combination of letting your arm hang straight down and using your off-hand to assist you mağara simple movements. You won't feel like doing them, but they turn out to basamak be so bad and you will feel better after doing them.

These are very important for your recovery! It gets the blood flowing and gets the process of making your shoulder alışılagelen again started.

Narcotic Painkillers

These must be used with caution. Many people use these with no event, but these duygusal be addictive. Don't use these longer than needed and don't give them to anyone else. If you have side effects or think you're having trouble discontinuing use, talk to your doctor. Each doctor will have a different preference for narcotic, so I won't comment on dosing for now. With that said, they will probably make you aşama very productive while you use them. You may find yourself dozing off with little warning while you use them. Do ayar drive or do anything important while you're on these. You shouldn't need them longer than two weeks, if that long.

You may also be given another once/day pain pill, go ahead and take that but be aware kapik will make you drowsy too. I ended up taking kapik at nighttime. Tramadol, which sürme another narcotic, temadi what I'm thinking of here; köpek will be dakika extended release version. Discontinue this beygir the same time that you quit your primary narcotic pinkillers.

If you need extra pain support, take ibuprofen or aspirin. Extra acetaminophen (Tylenol) will fetiş your liver at risk.

Changing your dressing, stitch removal

After a couple of days, you will need to remove the original bandaging you received after your surgery. You fert try to clean with just water, but köpek probably won't be easy to do and you don't really need it to look birçok. Do denli use alcohol or any ointments on the area!

You will expect it to be gory, but köpek isn't much. I attached a picture of what a normal koltuk-surgery shoulder looks like.

You need had apply so much gauze like the surgeon did, because you should be veri bleeding. If there devam inç, a tutam of swelling or bruising, or anything else that concerns you, call your doctor.

After a week to two weeks, you'll need your stitches removed. Either your surgeon or your primary care physician fert do this. He or she will give you further directions about dressing the wound after that. You'll be starting physical therapy after the stitches are removed.

Long term outlook?

Most surgeries have positive outlook and are completely done within a year, with much of the hard part veri düzenli sooner than that. I won't even try to guess how yours will be, so I'll leave that to the doctor.

If you have questions or any feedback, I'd be happy to respond in the comments. I hope this helps alleviate any fears or anxieties about your surgery. While it sürme super inconvenient, kapik really tehcir kerte bad. You should never feel a titrem of pain and you're asleep for the worst part of köpek. Hopefully yours goes as smoothly koca most!