I had a reverse shoulder replacement in January. All "reverse" means is that they remove the ball from the humerus bone and a steel socket is then screwed on with a shaft extending down the bone for some distance. A steel ball is then screwed to the scapula. I am still doing therapy exercises to build the new muscle needed to maintain full motion as much as possible. I still have some pain but have achieved the range of motion I like. It's hard to compare with my left arm because that shoulder needs replacing too and it hurts. I'm 68 years old so I probably heal more slowly than you do.

Yup I did. I was in a weight lifting class for old ladies and the perky person on the video says "just clasp you hands behind you and gently lift your arm right out of the socket" Well, maybe not exactly that, but that's what happened to my right shoulder. And about two nights later it popped back into the socket except the bone was still turned backwards. Hurt like a muther. It was like that for 10 months. Of course when I went to the doctor, because I couldn't lift my elbow above my shoulder he said "frozen shoulder, therapy" without even actually touching my arm or shoulder. So I did 6 weeks of therapy and the therapist said I was actually worse. After surgery of course I had to go back to therapy. During therapy they had me doing a motion I really shouldn't have been doing yet and my arm popped back around backwards just a bit. It still hurts. I have gotten it to move a lot farther now though. I can reach my right side back pocket and I can reach my other arm behind me to take off a jacket. Oh and bonus, now that shoulder has a bone spur and arthritis.

I used to crochet. That's about the only thing I really stopped doing.

Well ... I tore a rotator cuff trying to keep a skid of heavy stuff from falling on me, and I tore it further, shortly after, in a shower fall. It gradually got worse until my shoulder started to freeze up.

I started rotating my shoulder, ignoring the pain, on a regular, daily basis, and it eventually recovered 99%. I only feel it very slightly now, in bed at night (I'm a stomach sleeper, and like to put one arm over my head -- if it's the left one, I feel a slight discomfort, so tend to sleep on the right side of my head with my right arm up). But no problem at all for everyday purposes.

I've got messed up shoulders from mountainbike crashes. One has an a c separation (one end of the clavicle virtually unattached); the other suffered a torn rotator cuff. While I don't have full range of motion in either shoulder, I'm not restricted so much that it's a big problem. And there is no chronic pain in either. I did get some physical therapy, and that seemed to help.

To avoid breaking my neck, I extended my right arm to break a fall in 2006. Instead I broke my right wrist and index finger, and got a painful SLAP tear in my right shoulder: front and back, side-to-side.

Good thing I'm left-handed. While my right hand and arm were in a cast, I developed an overuse injury on my left hand!

After the bones healed, I continued weightlifting, hiking and shoveling snow, with constant pain in my right shoulder for three years.

The first shoulder surgeon I consulted mocked me, saying I didn't have a SLAP tear. I heard him and the nurse laughing outside my exam room. My 16 year-old daughter, Claire, went to that surgeon's office and yelled at him for mocking her mother.

Then I met an anesthesiologist through online dating. He recommended Dr. Larry Stayner of Missoula, Montana, who had been the Seattle Seahawks' shoulder surgeon. He is the best in the West.

Drove to Montana for the first exam. Dr. Stayner confirmed my SLAP tear, and planned four major fixes to my right shoulder.

"Your shoulder is dislocating out the back just like my wife's; only yours is worse," Dr. Stayner said, demonstrating.

"Stop playing with my shoulder; it hurts," I replied.

"While you're in there, could you look at where my deltoid muscle connects to the shoulder?" I asked. "It hurts like crazy when I lift weights."

For the surgery, I flew to Missoula, Montana and stayed with a friend. Dr. Stayner did arthroscopic shoulder surgery through five ports (one for a tiny video camera). He gave me a DVD of the video. No, thanks.

Dr. Stayner fixed the SLAP tear and shaved off bone spurs where the deltoid muscle connects. To stop my shoulder from dislocating, he sewed with gold thread: tight enough to stop my shoulder from dislocating, but loose enough so I can reach across my chest.

After surgery, it took 18 months for the pain to subside. It's my own fault. As soon as I got out of the brace, I raced into the weight room and gleefully lifted 40 lbs. "I'm back!" Then curled up like a shrimp in pain.

Allergic to codeine, ice was my friend. Iced before and after exercise. Three times/day.

The physical therapist yelled at me, calling me a "non-compliant patient." She said I was pushing too hard.

But I was relentless, stretching my atrophied, frozen arm and shoulder, breaking up scar tissue. I iced before and after exercise to reduce swelling and pain.

Resumed weightlifting at 1/2-lb. Humiliating. Increased weights in 1/2 lb. increments.

Through weight lifting and stretching, I regained muscle, strength and flexibility. Best of all, I am PAIN FREE.

"You are one in a million patients," Dr. Stayner and the physical therapist said later. Most people give up and accept their limitations. Not me.

Photo: 18 months after right shoulder surgery. 2011.

I fell last Sept. No breaks, but it still isn't back to a 100 % . It's a long hard haul, unfortunately.
You may want to check out physical therapy.. I waited a long time, but when I started, I think it helped.