: I would appreciate any advice, especially from someone who either has been
: through similar problem,
: or who works in the medical field.

I haven't been through a similar problem and am not in the medical field but have broken a collar bone in my early 30's after I stopped bike racing and started kayaking and have seen a few other people in various sports go through similar or worse injuries than yours. I didn't due much post recovery mobilty exercises and have a left shoulder that's kind of "clicky".

It kind of breaks down into what you have control over and what you don't have control over. The damage is what it is and the choices for correction are what they are. The most significant difference you can make is a disciplined therapy program post surgery to appropriate exercises to strengthen/warm up chronically weak link before paddling activities.

I damaged my left knee bursa when I was 23 but managed to start a lot of high effort cycling, I just have to make sure to warm up before putting out effort, that is true 30yrs later. On a kayak instructors workshop there was a fellow in his early 40's who had a shoulder that sounds like yours, every time before we started out he would pull out a rubber tube and do 5minutes of warm up exercises for his shoulder. He said if he didn't do these exercises he found he was at risk for injury.