Please help me out

[Sara143]

My mom is 70 years old. She has arthritis for very long time . She started to have pain in her shoulder and it’s swollen. The doctor wants her to do shoulder replacement. This is her MRI. She is in Pakistan and I am in US. The doctor said the only thing that make her comfortable is surgery. Pls see the MRI. She has Osteoporosis as well and had surgery for that in her spine. Please need help

 

[djklaugh]

@Sara143 Welcome to BoneSmart. The staff here are not doctors and most of us are not nurses. So we can not make diagnoses and we can not suggest what treatment option might be best for a patient. Diagnoses do not rely solely on x-rays or MRIs but also include the surgeon's understanding of the patient's medical history and current symptoms and problems. The best person to advise your mother and you would be the surgeon who is providing treatment for her. Ask the surgeon about his (or her) education, experience, how many shoulder replacement surgeries he/she does per year. That will give you information and reassurance of the surgeon's expertise.

If you have some specific concerns about how she will do after the surgery, we can provide you with information about what a likely process that will be and provide you with accurate information about what you mother can expect during her recuperation.

 

[Sara143]

Thank you so much for your reply. I just wanted to know if someone is going through same issue . Or someone had same issue.

 

[CricketHip]

Oh my, your poor Mother. Her shoulder sounds like it's pretty sore. Several of our members have had a shoulder replacement, if you do a search, you can read some of their recovery threads.
The search option is at the top of the page, to the right.

I just did a search but putting in TSR (total shoulder replacement) and I'll leave a link for you here .

 

[Sara143]

Thank you so much

 

[Jamie]

@Sara143 .... welcome to BoneSmart. I'm so sorry your mother is having these shoulder problems and it must be especially difficult for you being in another country. My heart goes out to you both.

I took a look at the report you provided and a couple of things stood out to me. She has some tears in her tendons and muscle issues that may require attention in addition to any damage to her shoulder joint. Many times when this type of damage to soft tissue occurs, a Reverse Shoulder Replacement is done rather than a Standard Shoulder Replacement. Either of these procedures can be very successful, providing the surgeon is experienced and has done a lot of them. I also noted the report indicated she has rheumatoid arthritis and this could have caused the loss of cartilage in her shoulder joint, which would give her a lot of pain. If the cartilage is gone, the doctors are right that a joint replacement is the best treatment option.

I had a Standard Shoulder Replacement 5 years ago and my shoulder functions very well. As I said, these surgeries can be key to giving a person their life back. If it would be possible for you to be on a Zoom call with her surgeon, that would probably help both of you be more comfortable with whatever she may be facing. I'd check into that, if you can. That way you could ask questions as the surgeon discussed her case.