Good to hear from you, romans8!
Yes, I was told to do pretty much nothing for the first couple weeks. I mean, I wasn't restricted from using the arm for normal daily activities, like eating, but overall I was told to just lay around and do nothing, and take my meds on schedule. I wasn't tempted to try to stretch the interval between drug doses, either; sometimes I watched the clock like a hawk. I did see him before I left and he still didn't give a lot of post-op instructions, just to do nothing for a couple of weeks, start PT after two weeks but expect to still be doing nothing other than PT for at least another week, call him and let him know how things are going after starting PT and when I started thinking about going back to work but when I did go back I would have the restrictions of no pushing/pulling and no lifting more than 5 lbs, and to call if I had any questions or problems at all.

The first week is the worst. I stayed so doped up that I don't remember a lot about it, but my sister told me that at one point she could tell I was terrified at the thought that this might be what I was stuck with after surgery. She also said that she tried to tease me once about how close I was keeping the narcotics bottle (addiction runs strong in our family and she knows I'm leery of narcotics for fear of becoming an addict) and I told her I didn't give a crap if I did get addicted, that bottle was staying with me. I didn't start weaning off the narcotics until toward the end of week two, and it took me another week to get to "I'll only take one if I really, really need it." And I'm still on the Lyrica and the cyclobenzaprine.

I had the worst pain at the medial scapular border, too, and I questioned Dr. P about it pretty heavily as soon as I saw him post-op. He did say that it was going to hurt for awhile due to the surgery, because of the way the nerves are affected. That was the last place to quit hurting, post-op, but it was noticeably better about 10 days post-op. I laid on ice packs until then, and, once I started feeling well enough to spend more time sitting upright, I tied the ice packs to me, b/c it really does help. Although some people respond better to heat, so you could try that, too.

Everyone in the office is really nice and helpful, so don't hesitate to call them. And do call Dr. P's cell if you feel like you need to; he never acted like it was an inconvenience when I called him.

I'm sorry you are hurting so much right now. It will slack off bit by bit each day and you will feel much better in your second/third week. And, in the long run, if yours goes like mine did, it will have been well worth it. Hang in there!