What is The Most Painful Day After Surgery?

Typically, it’s the third or fourth day or maybe second to fourth.

I do shoulder surgery exclusively. Patients have a nerve block, so they don’t feel anything for the first 1 to 2 nights. When the nerve block wears off, you say, “Oh, now I feel I can feel what was done.”

So typically, that second to fourth night is the one that is not great for people. We give people plenty of pain medicine to make sure they can get those nights, but honestly, once you get past that third or fourth night, it’s not that bad.

In most of our patients, it’s sore. It’s surgery. It will be a little sore, but it’s not terrible. You can get through the day, and you’re taking minimal pain pills or no pain pills at all. It’s really that the third to fourth night is when people tend to have the most discomfort.