Hi, so this is my personal experience, I'm not giving medical advice, etc.. Are they repairing the rotator cuff using anchors and working with your body's own tissues? My surgeon told me a replacement would be less painful, but not an option for me. I have 6 anchors to stabilize the 'ball' in the socket then he made a little cuff all the way around out of whatever tissue is there. I was on pain meds for 3 months. The goal was to taper down from Percocet to Vicodin to Ultram. We found out I hallucinate on Vicodin. So had to go back up then transition down to the Ultram. Can't remember if I said to you or someone else...Get the nerve block. You won't think it's helping but after 48 hrs when it wears off you'll be able to tell how much it helped. I realize I am very fortunate that for me it's like this little signal goes off in my brain and I can tell I'm done with the pain meds. Some withdrawal (itching) going from Percocet to Ultram. But no withdrawal going off the Ultram. We know by now what opiates can do but unless someone has had shoulder surgery I don't think they understand how painful the recovery is- there is much connected there and so many movements we make a 100xs/day that we take for granted. I still have pain every day and it's been over a year (from that surgery). I did the same step down after both abdominal surgeries last year and that has worked really well for me, no constipation/no colon. Some ortho surgeons will pair a pain med with something like Phenergan to help with nausea. I know we also tried things like Toradol and steroid packs to get me off the opiates sooner. Every time I would call my surgeon's MA they would tell me how typical it was to be in so much pain and with the type of surgery I had it was 'completely normal to still need the prescription pain meds. They have this thing you can fill with ice and it's constantly putting cold into a pack for you- some insurances cover it. A friend got me those homemade Ice/warm packs that are filled with the corn kernels that don't pop. I ordered on Amazon, more of the ice bags like they use on you in the hospital so when 2 melted I'd have 2 more ready to go (you tie 2 together so one goes down the back of your shoulder and one over the front. Oh buy the best recliner you can if you don't have one and are able to do that. I spent a month sleeping in a recliner and now hate that recliner '
You should be able to move your fingers on the surgery arm to help hold light things. Start working now on trying to do it with one hand. Grab a scarf or something to use as a sling. Then figure out what you can/can't do by yourself and know the gaps that need to be filled in with help. I think a 2 piece would be more difficult esp one handed. I tried and that was a no go.
Oh! Oh! Chick-fil-A ice is the best size to fit in the bags like they use in the hospital AND you can get it through the drive-thru. The ice machine in our freezer could not keep up with needing ice packs 24/7 pretty much the first 4-6 weeks. Sometimes I'd use a bag of frozen peas and write on them 'don't eat this'