#shoulder replacement

Get pump bottles for all your toiletries! Instead of bar soap, or a squeeze shampoo bottle... get some pump bottles from a dollar store (or save some used ones from other products) for all your toiletries. All of them. I transferred my shampoo into a pump bottle, my conditioner into another, made sure to have liquid hand soap, even my hair gel and lotions. I got some heavy ceramic ones at the dollar tree. This made it much easier to function in the bathroom by myself. I was able to use one hand to pump product into that same hand. So easy.

Tank tops! Seems a little obvious, but can slip your mind when you’re preparing for everything else. I specifically found that spaghetti-strap tank tops a size or two too big were the most helpful. Something where the straps can easily slip over the thick-ass bandage that’ll be strapped to your shoulder and give easy access for ice packs to reach. I even cut the straps on my tank tops and re-tied them with bows so I could just untie myself out of a shirt. I surprisingly found myself taking advantage of that very rarely though. The bagginess of the straps themselves helped enough.

Ice pack with velco strap. Specifically, I got this one on Amazon. Ice pack pouches with long velcro straps are such a huge help. During my first shoulder recovery, I relied on balancing regular ice packs on a series of oddly stacked pillows.

Reacher grabber thing-a-ma-jig You know what I’m talking about. One of these things! Bending over is painful during recovery. Just think about how gravity pulls on your arm and rotates it around. That stinks when you’re recovering! Get yourself a grabber and save yourself the trouble of picking things up off the ground. Plus it reaches into cupboards and such. Pretty great.

Sit-up pillow Like one of these! You can’t lay down while recovering. At least not for the first two weeks, minimum. You have to sit up pretty much all the time. That gets uncomfortable. These pillows help it become comfortable. If you have one, a Lay-Z Boy chair is perfect for sleeping in. But we aren’t all that lucky. I ended up carrying around this pillow with me around the house to use wherever I ended up. Made life much more comfortable.

Straw. Lifting a cup to your mouth is exhausting when you’re already using one arm for everything else. I used a big ol’ Baja Fresh cup with straw that I washed and re-used throughout recovery. I have metal straws now, and a ThermoFlask with a straw in it. I don’t care what you use, just try to have a straw handy so you don’t have to keep tipping cups up at your mouth.

Pants with elastic bands instead of zippers/buttons. Zippers & buttons are very tough to do one-handed if you’re not already accustomed. You’ll want pants that you can just tug up. Or no pants at all, just become a dress and nightgown enthusiast if you want! Make sure your undies fit too. You want to be able to tug those up one-handed!