I found these kinds of threads helpful to read, so I thought I'd pitch in and share my own experience.

On Friday 7/13/12 I had surgery on my right (dominant) shoulder. SLAP type 2 repair, subacromial decompression, smoothed out a few bone spurs and removed a couple of loose bodies from the capsule, unfortunately some cartilage that had broken off the humeral head. Surgeon said the labral tear was the type she expected but was much larger than she anticipated. Iirc, two anchors and 4 stitches.

The surgeon did a scalene block so by the time I got home, no pain, no sensations at all, actually. Everything was numb. The block started to wear off just after midnight as I was asleep, and wow, the pain level was intense. Had taken an oxycodone before going to bed. Got up and took another one after 4 hours, then went back to bed and just tried to breathe through it. Really, really high pain levels.

By mid day Saturday, pain level had moderated a bit. Got out of the sling for the first time and did my home exercises as prescribed. Getting out of the sling was a little scary, but it went well. Did a pendulum sequence they showed me, and then curls. Then put the sling back on.

One note: I mentioned this somewhat obliquely on another topic, but they gave me one of those polar cooler things that pumps ice water through a sleeve. I had one when I had my left shoulder done 3 years ago (tore part of the subscap tendon off the bone) and thought it was completely worthless. Never felt any cooling effect back then, and didn't feel it with this one now. Don't know how it could cool at anything more than a very superficial level, if even that. You have this thing sitting on top of a thick layer of gauze bandages. And at least for me, they always seem to leak slightly. By Saturday night I'd had enough and removed it and instead strapped a family-sized back of frozen corn to my shoulder. That actually provided some cooling effect and my pain level immediately took a step down. Slept much better Saturday night than Friday night.

Today was definitely feeling better. Just took the celebrex, no narcotics at all until bed time. Pendulum exercises much easier, rolling over in bed nowhere near as painful. Went for 2 mile walks yesterday and today with arm in sling. Today, per surgeon's directions, removed bandaging, put waterproof bandages over the 3 incision points, showered, then replaced them with normal bandages. Am wearing the sling and have my arm propped up on the arm of my desk chair and am typing this with both hands, zero pain.

First PT appointment is Tuesday to do an evaluation.

One thing I've found interesting on these forums is that some doctors seem to want you in the sling all the time for weeks, and others want you weaning yourself out of them much sooner. I think my surgeon is in the latter camp. Other than showering, and the pendulum exercises, I've had the sling on all the time. Whatever she wants me to do, I'll do it. My goal is to get back on the tennis courts as quickly and safely as possible. After the surgery I asked her if 4-6 months seemed like a reasonable goal for getting back to tennis and she said yes, but stressed that different people heal and different rates so let's see how I track.

FYI, I'm a 51 year old male in very good health other than this thing.

Will try to update every few days.

Thanks for the update, I'm scheduled for this Friday. I'd prefer not to have the block, but if it helps the pain significantly....
Hope you're healing well.

If I could do it again, not sure I'd do the block. Well, I probably would. But I didn't like it. Two main advantages:

1: you're a LOT more comfortable for those first 12-14 hours than you would otherwise be.

2. They said they would use less general anesthetic if I had the block.

What I didn't like:

1: hand was completely useless after surgery.

2: part of my diaphragm was essentially paralyzed. They told me that might happen. But damn, experiencing it while coming out of anesthesia was scary. I could only take what felt like half a breath, which then created almost a panic feeling, which didn't help. Felt like someone was sitting on my chest. They assured me my pulse ox was at 97%, but I still hated the feeling. If they had put in the line to last for 36 hours, I would've had them take it out right there.

Now, given that the pain level was so high when the block wore off, I'm thinking I wouldn't have been a fan of having that level of pain for an additional 12-14 hours, so would probably still do the 1 time injection, but no way I'd let them put the line in.

Today, Monday, much better day. Felt really sleepy, crashed a good part of the day. No narcotics today, just a celebrex. Shoulder is just lightly achy, no big deal.

Good luck on Friday.

At the 5th surgery & block, I could hear the doc saying - this tissue is so tough - can't get the needle in. They did, though. Never had a problem with it.

rjmathes - I'm on the fence, especially in regards to your "didn't like" issue #2, that would give me a major anxiety problem. Thanks for the luck & feed back, glad to hear you're doing better.

riderk - that is cringe-worthy, but good to know you've had no problems with blocks.

I'm going to email the OS tonight, get his thoughts.

They do use less anesthesia with the block, so that is good. Since you are sedated at the time, you won't be fretting about it.