Adult son shoulder surgery

Hugs! All I can say is that no one really knows what the future holds. My oldest daughter was in a serious Sea Doo accident years ago when she was about to turn 15, she nearly lost her leg. She showed amazing strength and growth, and went on to become a physical therapist. In all those years, we believe we saw God's hand leading her in ways we never even imagined. I hope your son recovers quickly and better than hoped, and that he goes on to lead a happy life.

A shoulder replacement for an injury> That doesn't sound right, are you sure he didn't have a reconstruction?

A reconstruction is usually done after an injury when there are torn or stretched ligaments of tears in muscles etc. They reconstruct the soft tissues of the shoulder, but don't replace any bones. Which fits in with someone who injured those structures while weight lifting.

Replacements are mostly done for severe osteoarthritis where the bone has become badly damaged, and the joint of the shoulder is completely removed and replaced with an artificial one, It's not common to have this type of surgery for an injury.

But yes, with either one, there's been damage that had to be surgically repaired and no matter how good the surgery was, it will never be as stable and functional as the joint was before it was injured. He's going to have to be careful with it for the rest of his life, that's his new normal. If he doesn't follow that advice and those restrictions and he damages his shoulder again, then future surgeries will gradually be less successful.

This. DH has had both shoulders replaced, is in his 70's, and has full function in both. He lifts what he wants which can be a lot in his work, he can reach behind his back and completely over his head. He just had his one year checkup on the 2nd shoulder but he was at this point well before that. The doctor was impressed with his progress. The doctor did say that if he had had a reverse shoulder replacement, he would have had more limited range of motion. He needed the replacements because of arthritis deteriorating the joints, not because of injury. He had the surgery at a major medical center where they do these all the time. I think that makes all the difference often is to get an orthopedic surgeon who only does whatever joint you need worked on.

I think I would get a second opinion. I'm sorry. I hope you get better results than you are being told to expect.

Oh, that is a lot to go through!  You do have the 2nd half of this process to go through, the physical therapy.  You may want to interview several therapists to find one with experience in your situation.  I'd look for someone with 15 years experience minimum and a lot of shoulder experience.  The hopeful news is that PT is such an important part of recovery that you might be able to make up some ground there.  I hope so.