Week 5 after my replacement and the arm feels WEAKER than before the op. Is this normal, and when does it turn round?

I need a bit of honesty from people who have been through this because I am starting to quietly panic. Five weeks ago I had a total replacement on my right shoulder, my throwing arm and the one I throw pots with, which is my whole life really.

Here is the thing nobody warned me about. My arm feels weaker now than it did before the operation. Before, it hurt like anything but I could at least push a door or lift a mug. Now it feels feeble and useless and stiff, like it belongs to someone else, and I burst into tears trying to reach a plate down on Sunday. The pain is genuinely a lot better, which I keep telling myself is the point, but the weakness has really got to me and I did not expect to feel worse in that way.

Is this normal at five weeks? Did I do something wrong, or is my physio going too gently, or is this just how it goes? And roughly when does it start turning round, because right now I cannot picture ever centring clay again. Sorry for the wobble, it has been a rough few days.

Margaret breathe, this is so normal it's almost a rule. At five weeks I'd have written the exact same post. The pain leaving early while the strength is still nowhere is the cruellest bit of the whole thing because it feels backwards, like you've been robbed. You haven't done anything wrong. The muscles have been through an operation, some were moved out of the way, and they wake up slowly. Weak at five weeks tells you nothing about where you'll be at five months. Genuinely nothing.

Agree with all of that. The other thing that gets people at your stage is comparing week five to before the op and feeling cheated. Wrong yardstick. Compare week five to week two and you'll usually see you can do a bit more than you could a fortnight ago, even if it's tiny. That's the line that matters. Also the "feels like someone else's arm" thing is spot on and it does pass, mine felt properly mine again somewhere around the three month mark.

Margaret, you have described the single most common wobble on this whole board, so first thing, you are not behind and you have not wrecked anything. I had a reverse and at five weeks I honestly wondered what I had done to myself, the arm was stiff, weak and about as much use as a wet flannel, and the pain settling first only made the weakness stand out more.

Here is the shape of it so you can see where you sit. The sling protects the repair for roughly the first 2 to 6 weeks, and while it is on and just after, the arm is deliberately being kept quiet, so of course it feels feeble. Physio moves in stages on purpose: gentle passive and pendulum movements first, then active movement as the surgeon allows, then strengthening later, and the strength stage is the one you have not really started yet. That is not your physio being too soft, that is the order it has to go in so the repair is not loaded before it is ready. Pain almost always settles well before movement and strength catch up, which is exactly what you are feeling. Most people, me included, find the arm they actually wanted turns up somewhere between month six and the first year, not at week five. Our week by week recovery account walks through why the discouraging middle stretch is normal rather than a warning sign.

One caveat I always add because it matters: normal is stiff and weak and slowly improving. Not normal is spreading redness, a fever, a weeping wound, sudden new weakness or pain that climbs day on day. That is a same day call to your surgical team, not a forum post. Everything you have described is the ordinary discouraging middle. Give it the months it needs, keep at the physio, and let your own physiotherapist push the pace, they can feel what the joint is ready for in a way none of us can.

Coming back a month on because I know someone else will be sat where I was, in tears over a plate. It has started turning. Still nowhere near strong and I am not near a wheel yet, but I can dress myself properly, reach a low shelf and the arm feels like mine again rather than a borrowed one. Reading that the weakness at five weeks meant nothing about month five turned out to be exactly right. Thank you for talking me off the ledge, all of you.