Physical therapy is the most important thing that you can do after surgery. If you don't continue to keep the arm moving with exercises that push the movement of the arm, the scar tissue will build up & you will loose all movement in the shoulder.

I had knee reconstruction surgery years ago, before they did it arthroscipically. Had a cast on the leg for 1 month & couldn't even bend my knee when the cast came off. I had PT 3 days a week for 6 months & I did the same PT at home the other 4 days of the week, which enabled me to be able to go back downhill skiing (with a brace on my knee) & then I continued the PT for the rest of the year.

The thing was that between the scar tissue from the surgery & the atrophy from not being able to use the leg (with the cast initially) & I was on cructhes for 3 months not being able to use the leg at all to walk on, the only safe exercise I could do was the PT. It taught me just how important PT really is as I saw others who just blew the PT off & never did recover.

Shoulder surgeries are the same for getting the range & motion back....knees & shoulders require the most PT & then if you are really determined, doing your own PT exercises between will guarantee your recovery......but it takes determination & drive to force that. I found that with all the PT & exercise, I ended up loosing weight rather than gaining.......Then I started to feel so good exercising that I couldn't give it up. It also got me back to being able to play racquetball which was how I injured the knee's ACL in the first place.

My mother had an injury & she blew off the PT saying how she was walking around & doing things to move, but it's not the same as the PT that focuses exactly on the area & muscles surrounding the injury that will really make the difference.

Keep working on it & you will be surprised when you are back to normal & will be every so thankful you did all that work.

I also had neck fusion & went through the PT for that. One could never tell that I had neck fusion as my neck has no stiffness in it at all.

PT, wonderful PT.....something I will always swear by after seeing the difference it really makes.