Shoulder surgery:
getting through the first nights

Six weeks with an arm you cannot use

You are going to spend four to six weeks with your arm in a sling. Your whole recovery is built around that.

A knee or a hip is rehabilitated by walking. A shoulder asks first to be protected. The repaired tendon, the transferred bone or the new implant need time to hold, and that time is spent with the arm immobilised. This is the first thing to understand: the slowness of the early weeks is not a problem, it is the protocol.

What only a shoulder will put you through

The weight of the arm, first. Standing or sitting, gravity pulls on the operated area continuously. That is why the sling stays on almost all the time at first, and why a cushion under the elbow changes the whole day.

The swelling that travels down, next. Swelling from the shoulder migrates towards the elbow, the forearm, sometimes the hand, always with gravity. A slightly swollen hand in the first days is expected. A pale, bluish or cold hand is not, and is worth a call to your surgeon.

The nights, finally. This is the number one complaint after shoulder surgery. Lying flat, the shoulder pulls. We come to it right away, because this is where your morale is decided.

What changes a night

Lying flat on your back pulls on the shoulder. Most patients sleep semi-upright for the first weeks, propped up with pillows, sometimes in a reclining chair if the bed does not work.

Slide a cushion under the operated elbow so the arm is not left hanging.

Take the painkillers you have been prescribed on schedule, including ahead of the night, rather than once the pain has already set in.

Run a cold and compression session with your Game Ready® just before going to bed: the pain-relieving effect carries you into sleep.

Week by week: the reference points

These timeframes are averages, every protocol has its own.

Cold and compression: what the trial shows

Cryocompression combines controlled cold (between 1 and 10°C, more stable and better tolerated than an ice pack) with dynamic compression that inflates and deflates, like a light massage. It acts on swelling and on pain at the same time.

A 2024 multicentre randomised trial followed 200 patients who had shoulder surgery across 5 Canadian hospitals, half with dynamic cryocompression, half with standard cryotherapy¹. Main result: patients in the cryocompression group used about half as many opioids¹. Their physical function at two weeks was better¹. No difference in adverse events¹.

The pain score itself did not differ between the groups¹. What you gain is getting through the hardest stretch on half the medication that causes nausea, constipation and drowsiness. For nights that are already uncomfortable, that is a real gain.

In practice, sessions of 20 to 30 minutes, several times a day in the first week, then before or after physiotherapy sessions in the weeks that follow. Keep the evening session going to the end, even once the days have become easy. The nights are the last thing to give way.