The Shoulder Replacement Recovery Manual: A Practical Week-by-Week Guide for the First 12 Months (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798191731353)

Surgery is one day. Recovery is a year. This is the map for both.

Shoulder replacement asks more of you than most operations: weeks in a sling, months of sleeping upright, a season of one-armed living, and a recovery whose rules change depending on which operation you had. This manual walks you through all of it, in plain language, one week at a time - from the first conversation with a surgeon to the day you stop thinking about your shoulder altogether.

Inside:

• Anatomic and reverse replacement, explained - what each operation involves, who typically gets which, and how the recovery rules genuinely differ between them
• The six weeks before surgery - home setup for one-armed living, the equipment worth buying (and skipping), and the sleep station that makes the first months bearable
• Day-by-day guidance for the hardest stretch - the nerve block wearing off, sling life, showering, dressing, and the two-week wall
• A three-tier red-flag system - what needs the emergency room, what needs the on-call line tonight (with the exact phone script), and what can wait for your next appointment
• The full recovery arc - physical therapy phases, sling weaning, driving, returning to work, and the honest timeline for getting back to golf, swimming, gardening, and everything else
• A dedicated caregiver chapter - written directly to the spouse or family member doing the two-handed tasks
• 22 appendices of working tools - surgeon question sheets, equipment checklists, pain and medication trackers, a sling-weaning log, month-by-month milestone checklists, and a Red Flag Quick-Reference Card designed to be photographed onto your phone

The chapters explain; the appendices give you tools. No medical jargon without a translation, no toxic positivity, and no assumption that recovery goes perfectly - including a full chapter on what to do when it doesn't.

Written for patients and their families, in the calm, practical voice of the Joint Recovery Series - alongside The Knee Replacement Recovery Manual, The Hip Replacement Recovery Manual, and The Knee Replacement Preparation Manual.

Whether your surgery is scheduled, being considered, or three weeks behind you: start where you are. The book is built for exactly that.

Author: J. M. Struijk
ISBN-13: 9798191731353
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 08/09/2026
Pages: 386
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.13lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.80d