Showering with the wound and the sling on. When could yours get wet and what did you rig up?

Three weeks out from my partial and I have been having what I can only describe as a strip wash at the sink, which was fine for a few days and is now getting old.

The discharge instructions covered the dressing and when to look out for problems, and they told me to keep it dry, but not for how long or what counts as dry. Nobody said whether the sling comes off in the shower either, which sounds like a small thing and absolutely is not when you are stood there working out what to do with an arm you are not supposed to move.

So what did people actually do? At what point did yours get properly wet, and did anyone find something that worked better than clingfilm and hope? And the sling question, off or on, because I have had two different answers from two different people at the hospital and neither seemed very sure.

The two different answers thing is maddening and I got it as well. What I settled on was ringing the ward and asking the actual question rather than trying to work it out from the leaflet, and they were happy to answer it in about ninety seconds. Not the answer you were hoping for but honestly it beats guessing.

Mine, and I stress mine, was a waterproof dressing so I was told I could shower fairly early, and the sling came off to wash with the arm just hanging down at my side and not doing anything. You do not have to hold an arm up to wash under it, you let it hang and use the other hand, which was the bit I could not picture beforehand and is completely undramatic once you have done it once.

Big thing though: what you are allowed depends on the dressing they used and what they did to you, and those vary. Do not copy my timings.

No use to you on timings, I am still at the waiting for a scan stage myself, but I am working my way through this section before my own consultation and this is exactly the sort of thing nobody puts in a leaflet. Taking notes.

I cannot tell you when your particular wound can get wet, and I want to be plain about why: it depends on the dressing used, whether the wound has fully sealed, and your surgeon's own protocol, which is why you have been given the general instruction rather than a date. Ringing the ward, as suggested above, is genuinely the right move and not a nuisance call.

What I can give you is the general shape. Surgical wounds are usually kept dry until they have sealed, and many units now use a waterproof dressing that allows showering sooner, so the answers people get legitimately differ. Soaking, meaning baths, swimming and hot tubs, waits considerably longer than showering in every protocol I know. On the sling, the common instruction is that it may come off for washing and dressing while the arm hangs passively at your side, with no active lifting or reaching, and it goes straight back on afterwards. The sling is protecting the repair from active use, not from the air. Again, confirm that against your own instructions, because an anatomic total protecting a healing rotator cuff is often handled more strictly than a reverse.

The part that is universal and worth more than any showering tip: know what you are watching for. Spreading redness, increasing swelling, a wound that is weeping or opening, a fever, or pain that climbs day on day are all reasons to contact your surgical team the same day rather than waiting for your next appointment. Infection affects roughly 1 in 100 primary shoulder replacements, so it is uncommon, but it is the reason wound instructions are as fussy as they are. Our page on infection after a shoulder replacement sets out the signs and the timescales, and the practical side of the early weeks is in the week by week recovery account.

Rang the ward. Two minutes, cheerful, and I now have an actual answer for my dressing and my operation rather than a general one. Also got told the sling could come off to wash with the arm hanging, which matches what has been said here.

Small win but the first proper shower in three weeks was genuinely one of the better moments of this whole business. A cheap stool made it far easier than standing, if anyone else is at this stage.

Coming to this a bit late but adding one thing for anyone finding it later. I found the wound itself was not the hard part of washing, it was hair. Long enough hair, one usable arm, and a shoulder you cannot lift is a combination nobody warns you about. I had mine cut short a week before the operation and it is the single most practical decision I made.