Big Canoe, Ga., resident Mike Curk, a joint replacement patient at Piedmont Mountainside Hospital, had his first hip replacement at another facility in July 2004.

Eight years later, the pain returned, this time in his opposite hip. He struggled to walk and play on the golf course in his neighborhood. He decided to take action quickly. “Once you’ve had one hip done and you’ve had hip pain, you don’t wait – you get rid of the pain,” Curk says.

Arthritis and hip replacement surgery

In April 2013, he saw Russell Flint, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Piedmont Mountainside. Dr. Flint confirmed that Curk had arthritis in his other hip and scheduled him for joint replacement surgery.

“One of the first differences I saw in the procedure at Piedmont is we were doing the pre-op with Dr. Flint and he said, ‘I need you to make an appointment for two weeks after surgery,’” Curk explains. “I said, ‘Wait a minute – I’m not going to have those staples in there for two weeks. They’ll start growing in me. He, with his sly grin, said, ‘Who said anything about staples?’”

After his first hip replacement nine years ago, Curk remembered the surgeon used numerous staples to close his incision. Dr. Flint explained that thanks to the advances in joint replacement surgery, staples are no longer used.

A quick recovery after joint replacement

“We went into the operating room at 7:30, and I was back in my room around 10 or 10:30, which was quick, particularly when compared to nine years prior,” he says. The next day, Curk’s physical therapist had him up and walking. By the third day, Dr. Flint told Curk he could be discharged from the hospital.

“I was operated on Monday morning, and by Wednesday at noon, I’m getting ready for discharge, and I’m taking a shower,” he says. “The difference in procedures and the time to recovery – I mean, that alone almost took two weeks out of the cycle. It’s just amazing to be able to do that.”

Just four months later, Curk says he never even thinks about the surgery. “There no thought in my mind that, ‘You’ve had your hip done, and you shouldn’t do this,’” he says. “I can do more than I was doing. It’s not even a thought."

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