A lot depends on the kind of surgery and how immobilized he is afterwards. I had some significant arthroscopic shoulder surgery 2 years ago-- I had to keep my lower arm strapped to my abdomen for a full 6 weeks (restrictive sling with waist belt), 24 hours a day. For another 2-3 weeks I was allowed to take the sling off when awake but still had to sleep with it. I was back at work and driving within 4-5 days (driving 1 handed-- probably not the safest thing in the world, but I stayed on low traffic roadways), and back in the gym (elliptical machine) within 10 days. Skiing would have been out of the question but I did travel about a month after surgery, which was no big deal. My physical therapist suggested that I travel wearing the sling so that people would help me out if necessary-- I also got a sling pack to use as a carry-on that did not put any weight on my bad shoulder and didn't stow anything in the overhead. YMMV.