TheTropicsAww man let me tell you a thing about shoulders. If you've dislocated it fully you likely need surgery. If you have subluxed it, you may luck out with some physical therapy. (Subluxation is a partial dislocation in which your shoulder dislocates and then relocates on its own.) The shoulder is an inherently unstable body linkage due to the range of motion it allows. Unlike your hip , the ball of the humerus (upper/main arm bone) is not surrounded by very much bone. The ball sits in the relatively open glenoid cavity and is then held stable in place by surrounding fibrous cartilage. You most likely tore your labrum: the fibrocartilage that sits around the rim of this socket. Other damage is definitely possible too. Regardless, without a repair, you will almost certainly have more dislocations in the future. Check with friends, family, or search google and see who the best orthopedic shoulder specialists are in your area. Get it checked out (you'll probably have to get an MRI) and get it fixed so you can enjoy your life without fear of a debilitating injury that can put you in VERY sketchy situations or at best ruin your day.
Long story short. IT SUCKS and you should get surgery. I just had my second shoulder repair 2 weeks ago and I'm still in my sling. I'm a whitewater kayaker and the sport has not been kind to my shoulders.
Had surgery after popping mine out the first time... then I popped it out two more times. Surgery works for most but my specialist pretty much said the ligaments in there are just naturally too loose and a major rebuild to stop it from coming out again would be extremely expensive (about 8x as much as the recon I'd already had). That said though, get surgery if you can. For most it's very beneficial and will help in the long run and will help stop you from doing damage in subsequent dislocations (this is where I'm benefiting from it).
Dislocations can be ridiculously painful and you don't want to have one where you can't get help easily. On my second one I was in so much pain that I nearly passed out and could hardly breathe because having my back muscles across the top and near my shoulder flexing hurt so much... I can't imagine being stuck somewhere on the mountain in the cold without access to help. I'd have certainly been fucked if I was in the same state as my second dislocation.
