Shoulder Replacement Blues

My SO Lee is a really active guy.  He's been a tournament volleyball player for many years, and until very recently he was earning a living flipping houses, painting, and acting as a general handyman.

However, he's not the most careful human being I've ever met.  He's fallen off roofs at least twice, and had a rotator cuff repair about 15 years ago due to the general wear and tear of his life.  About a year and a half ago, he fell in a volleyball tournament, cracked a couple of ribs, and re-injured one of the tendons in his right shoulder, which has since completely retracted.  A second tendon in the same shoulder recently gave way, and now he can't lift his dominant arm above mid-rib level.  With some reluctance, he finally decided to have a reverse shoulder replacement to cope with the pain and restore as much movement to that arm as possible.

Today we visited the hospital where the operation will be done for the usual pre-op blood tests and chest x-rays, and their joint specialists ran us through the procedures to follow before the operation and the activities he'll be allowed afterward.  This is going to be trickier than I'd hoped.

Lee will be in a sling for a month after the surgery.  After that he will be encouraged to do some simple gravity-only movement exercises for about another month, with no strength-building exercises until after that.  He is not supposed to drive for 6 weeks after the operation.  Fortunately he lives only a few blocks from a rec center with a walking track where he can work off some of his pent-up energy with his feet.

The movement restriction starts before that, though.  As of today, he's not supposed to do anything that might result in cuts or scratches on his limbs, particularly his right arm - if any are present the day the surgery is scheduled, they will cancel.

This means he won't be able to do any of the final home-improvement projects he had been hoping to complete before he goes under the knife.  I'm guessing the 3-month minimum moratorium on doing anything substantial with his hands is going to drive him (and his temporary caretaker, me) nuts.  He does like to watch financial news, car shows, and old movies on TV, and read history books - we will have to record and/or borrow as much "sitting down" entertainment as possible to see him through the duration.

I'm not sure that's enough to keep him from cabin fever, especially during the days I have to go to work.  Does Uber sell gift cards?

"There is a higher risk of shoulder dislocation following rTSA than a conventional TSA....  As such, tucking in a shirt or performing bathroom / persona hygiene with the operative arm is an especially dangerous activity particularly in the immediate peri-operative phase." ~http://bostonshoulderinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Shoulder-Reverse-TSA-protocol3.pdf