I am 75 and still working. Nov 2023, I tripped and fell on concrete and blew my right shoulder completely out of the socket. The pain was unbearable for hours as they kept pouring the morphine to me with no relief and finally knocked me out completely with Propofol and physically put the shoulder back in place. An MRI revealed much damage to the shoulder muscles, ligaments, tendons, etc. with a full thickness tear of something. It was so bad the head orthopedic shoulder surgeon said he could not do a repair job with so much damage with any hope of success or improvement. I was given two options. One was to start physical therapy slowly and let it heal and see how it goes. Option two was a complete shoulder replacement then or later.

I opted to wait and see how it healed and decide later. I am now over one year out, and the pain and loss of movement seems to be getting worse. I am a full-time feral wild hog trapper in Florida and do allot of heavy lifting and heavy-duty work, so I am sure I haven't helped the situation any and now am considering the full shoulder replacement. I am wondering if the soft tissue damage is so extensive, how will replacing the shoulder joint itself help the situation? I would hate to go thru the surgery and rehab and end up no better than I am right now or worse. Thoughts, experiences?

Thanks, Dave