A pinched nerve in the shoulder is when neck nerves are compressed or irritated, either in the neck or shoulder area, leading to varying degrees of pain and disability. Having knowledge of what causes, symptoms of, and treatment of this problem is important in getting relief or avoiding future issues. This guide breaks down everything…
Honestly, I just love plain old ibuprofen. You have to be careful with NSAIDs. Obviously, they’re over the counter. If you’re gonna take it at a prescription strength level, which is 800mg three times a day, you need to make sure you don’t have any kidney issues or stomach issues. You need to run it…
It may surprise you to hear this, but I firmly believe in exercise. Vigorous exercise. You can vigorously exercise your body right after shoulder replacement. You just have to work your legs and your other arm. This releases powerful endorphins that heal faster and decrease stress. I have found that my patients who exercise vigorously…
The answer is yes, 100% of the time. If you have insurance and the proper indications, you’ve done the proper things preoperatively, and if those things are necessary for your shoulder surgery, the vast majority of the costs will be covered by insurance. Reviewing your policy details early on is a smart step in your…
There are a lot of ways. One is therapy, but a very nice combination is a combination of cortisone injections and therapy. Let’s say someone has a frozen shoulder. Many times, those are idiopathic, meaning they just happen, or they can be post-operative. Sometimes, people have a lot of scarring and tightening after surgery. We’ve…
Obviously, this is a relative question. I guess in terms of all shoulder surgeries that I do, it’s the least painful. It’s the one where patients have the least amount of pain immediately after surgery. When establishing a modern post-operative pain-management protocol, our focus is on rapid comfort and early, safe mobility. For patients recovering…
This is a variable question. I think that you’ll probably stay about the same weight. Some patients worry they’ll gain weight because they can’t exercise. I don’t think you’ll lose much. I encourage patients to work their other arms to keep that muscle and work their legs so they don’t lose much muscle mass. When…
It varies from patient to patient, but most time, I recommend working with a therapist for about four months after surgery. For the first couple of months, you’re just working on gentle motion stretching and things like that. After a couple of months, we start to do gentle strengthening. After three months, we remove all…
A huge red flag for me is you can’t sleep at night. If the shoulder stops you from being able to sleep at night or interrupts your sleep frequently because of the pain in your shoulder, that’s typically a pretty significant problem. You should have it checked out. If you have pain at rest, you’re…
It may surprise you that I don’t think formal therapy is necessary. However, I do believe that it helps patients get better faster and have less pain after surgery because of the guidance that the therapist gives them as they’re recovering. Every human being is unique in terms of how they recover from surgery. There’s…
