Timeline of changes in your body - from accident until 3 first months (before surgery)

You will notice changes in your body. Both before, and after the surgery. Of course, it all depends on what kind of injury you have - what nerves are affected and how. For similar injuries to mine (c5 c6 rupture), this is what I noticed for the first 3 months.

First, you will start to notice occasional cracking in the shoulder when there's some induced movement (i.e. when you are using your other arm to position the affected limb in a comfortable position). This is your deltoid getting atrophied and not holding your arm as it should. This will start a few weeks after the accident, and depending on your muscle mass it could be noticeable for 2 to 3 weeks. After that you might occasionally still notice it, but the arm is loose enough to be mostly out of its original position.

Eventually you will notice there's almost no deltoid left. For me it was after 2 months or so, but it depends on how muscular you were before the accident (I wasn't). If a muscle doesn't receive nerve stimulation, it will shrink. Don't worry too much about this, studies say that you can still make that muscle functional again if you restore nerve connectivity before 1 year ish after the accident. Beyond that time window, there are some things that can still be done, like muscle or tendon transfer.

So when that deltoid is gone, your shoulder will look dislocated. The remaining muscle tissue can't hold as before and you will have the humerus bone sticking out. That's ok, it is how it is, just be careful to not to fall or bump into something because you could get it out of place. The area will feel very bony at touch.

If your supraspinatus is affected as well, both the shoulder and the proportional back side will feel bony as well.

Your pectoral muscle will start to waste away, because you may not be using it as before. Depending on your previous muscle size, might give you a bit of a man boob.

Biceps and other affected nerve areas will become skinny as well. In my case it felt like just saggy skin hanging around.

Humid and stormy weather could give you a bad time, pain wise. I found nails were growing at a different speed, comparing good and affected hands.

Look out for bad back posture. I adopted an uneven shoulder line from tilting my body towards one side. It went away with time, but could cause you some other minor issues like back pain.