When can I actually drive and get back to work after a shoulder replacement? I'm self-employed and the not knowing is doing my head in

Seven weeks now since my total on the right, the throwing arm, and I am starting to fret about the money side more than the medical side, which feels awful to admit but there it is. I am self employed, I throw and sell pots, and there is no sick pay coming in while this arm is out of action. So I need to plan and I cannot get a straight timeline out of anyone.

Three separate things are muddled up in my head and I would love them pulled apart. First, driving. I am just out of the sling but the arm is weak and I do not trust it on a gear stick or to swing the wheel in a hurry, and I have no idea if it is a legal thing or a strength thing or an insurance thing. Second, the light stuff, answering emails, packing orders, being in the studio doing admin, when is that reasonable? Third, and this is the big one, actually throwing again, which is proper physical work with the arm loaded and up, when on earth is that realistic?

How did the self employed among you handle the gap? I feel like I am either going to rush back and wreck it or sit here going broke, and I cannot tell which fear is the sensible one.

Driving first because it is the clearest. I got back behind the wheel at about six weeks, once I was out of the sling and could actually control the arm properly, do a real turn of the wheel and an emergency stop without babying it. The bit people forget is to check your motor insurer are happy you are fit to drive, because if you are not in proper control and something happens that is on you. It was not a date on a calendar for me, it was the day the arm could genuinely do the job.

The admin and emails side came back for me way before anything physical, I was pecking at a laptop and packing light bits within a few weeks, just being sensible about not reaching or lifting. But Margaret I would brace yourself on the throwing. That is not in the same bracket as driving or desk stuff at all. Centring clay is loaded, repetitive, arm up work, and that is the category that waits months, not weeks. Please do not measure your wheel time against your email time, they are completely different animals and expecting them together is how people get disheartened.

Let me separate the three, because they genuinely sit in different places and lumping them together is what makes the timeline feel impossible.

Driving usually comes back around 6 weeks, and the deciding factor is not a fixed date but whether you are out of the sling and can control the arm safely, steer, change gear, and perform an emergency manoeuvre without hesitation. It is sensible to confirm your motor insurer is content you are fit to drive before you do. Desk based and light work, the emails and admin, typically returns much sooner, somewhere between roughly 2 and 6 weeks, provided you are not reaching or loading the arm. Heavier work and anything overhead, which is the bracket your throwing falls into, generally waits 3 to 6 months, because that is loaded, repetitive, arm elevated work and the shoulder needs its strength stage well under way first. So the honest shape is weeks for the keyboard, around 6 weeks for the car, months for the wheel. Our week by week recovery account sets out what each stage tends to allow, and if the work question is the one keeping you up, going back to work after a replacement walks through the light versus heavy split.

One reassurance and one caution. Pain generally settles well before strength does, so feeling less sore is not your cue that the arm is ready to be loaded. And your studio work sits at the demanding end, so the exact point you can throw again is a judgement for the physiotherapist and surgeon following you, who can feel what the joint will take, rather than a number from a forum.

Update for the next self employed soul panicking about the mortgage. Drove at about six and a half weeks, the day it finally felt safe rather than the day I wanted it to. I am back doing all the studio admin, glazing prep, packing, the lot. Throwing is still off and I have made my peace with that being a few months yet, I have booked in some teaching and writing to bridge the gap instead. Planning around the three to six months honestly, rather than praying it is six weeks, is the thing that let me sleep again.